We arrived at Orona yesterday afternoon after an unforgettable time on Kanton.  Today started around 6am with a beautiful sunrise and tasty chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes.  After some quick chores, our watch group packed up the small boat and made our way over to the beach.

SEA Semester in the NEWS
Evidence and patterns of tuna spawning inside a large no-take Marine Protected Area, Scientific Report
Tuna are Spawning in Marine Protected Areas, MIT News

Can protected marine sanctuaries like the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) benefit highly migratory species, like tuna? That’s the topic of a report recently published in Scientific Reports.

As I walk up onto the quarter deck of the ship, the first thing I notice is the raucous clamoring of seabirds. I step into bright sunlight and see Orona off the starboard bow. The azure water crashes in foaming waves over the outer reef a short 50 meters from our anchorage.

We left Kanton yesterday, an absolutely amazing place I’ll never forget. A watch (my watch) was then completely wrecked with dawn watch (0100-0700). Fully exhausted from adventures in Kanton and working to get underway again; it was rough.

Hi Mom! Today is the day we set sail for Orona. My early morning was spent recovering from a long night of performances, dancing, storytelling and a feast I won’t soon forget.  After few hours standing watch my fellow watch mates and I hopped into our Defender (small boat) and headed to a new coral sight recently named “coral plains”, and for good reason.

Kanton was the paradise you always read about as a kid, and leaving this beautiful atoll is like a snap back into reality, one that is going to be relatively hard to make. The plethora of wildlife alone was absolutely breathtaking.

One of the things I have learned so far in this trip is that things can change in an instant. Skies go from clear to cloudy, wind fills in from almost nothing to practically gale-force, and a sunny day can turn into thunderstorms, all in a matter of minutes. So for us students on the SSV Robert C. Seamans, one of the most valuable lessons has been adapting to these changes.

And if you told me that I would’ve survived the first leg of this trip, I wouldn’t have believed you for even one second.

It has been a long two weeks on the Robert C. Seamans, laced with dark nights and happy memories with plenty of time for moments of reflection and silence in between.

It is 1930 (7:30 am) on a Friday night, and I am hanging out on the bow of the Robert C. Seamans. I have come to know this specific location on the boat as the “bow watch spot”. One member of the crew has stood here, tethered to the stay, all the way forward where the sides of the boat come to a point, for every hour that we’ve been underway.

We have had quite a few very exciting days here on SSV Robert C. Seamans, and there seems to be no slowing down. July 14th we crossed the equator and celebrated my 20th birthday. July 15th we turned right around, and we spent our day learning how to go aloft and completing our lab practical. T