(The following blog post first appeared in October, 2018, and is being reposted due to public interest. See also two student blog posts from Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 about the SSV Robert C. Seaman’s visit to this new island.)

Greetings from the Robert C. Seamans in the middle of the South Pacific.

Over a number of days in the past week the students, faculty, and staff of SPICE 2018, Class S-282, have been extremely privileged to spend time on Hunga Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai (HTHH). The students have done an excellent job of summing up our time there so far, but what we have been doing here is as close to the original explorers of old as you get in the modern day, so here is everything we’ve done all in one place.

We did it. S-282 is in Auckland! The only thing crossing my mind is how did it end so quickly?! Last week on the boat our Professor, Jeff, said in just a week we will be on land again and everything will be different and just like that, it was.

Greetings loved ones. Let’s take a journey. I… know a place… where the grass is really greener. Oh oh!

Just kidding. That’s the start of a Katy Perry song. And this is the S-282 blog post! Haha.

This morning started with the sun shining its beautiful rays on the South Pacific Ocean. It was a glorious sight. B-Watch was just finishing up dawn watch and for the second half I had the opportunity to be Junior Watch Officer.

Happy Halloween! Like most things, I’ve learned Halloween is better at sea than on land. My Halloween started off early as I was on evening watch from 1900-0100, so along with my fellow C-watchers I brought in Halloween on deck.

First thing’s first, I would like to wish Happy Birthday to my dad! Another S.E.A. alum and the only reason I ever thought to do SEA Semester. As I am now back as a deck intern, it has clearly influenced me for the better. Thank you Dad, I love you, Happy Birthday.

As we move in to the last full week of the sailing component of the SPICE program I’ve been thinking a lot about a leadership training term that has stuck with me for quite some time. The idea of stepping up and stepping back. Generally it means knowing when to give others the space to share ideas or experience with a group and when you may need to take the lead even if it’s uncomfortable.

Last night Christian and I were playing music, struggling through ‘Pallet on your floor’ on the leeward side. All we had were our spotty memories of lyrics and his fine ear for chords to guide us through. We puzzled out the verse and chorus eventually, but for the life of us could not remember all the words. We half-heartedly attempted to make up our own, but it was getting past 21:00 (sailors’ midnight) and we turned in for the night.

My day started at 0100 with dawn watch. At first I thought dawn watch was the worst watch because who wants to be woken up in the middle of the night to work in the lab and on deck, right? Actually, it turned out to be one of my favorite times for watch because although we’re sleepy during the first hour or two, we get to see the sunrise and eat a delicious breakfast at the end.

Hello family and friends of C-282 crew!

Today we had a beautiful day with calm winds and sea. My watch had the pleasure to see a stunning sunrise this morning during dawn watch (0100-0700) after a pretty busy watch. We did some science processing alkalinity, pH, Chlorophyll-a, and microplastics for a water sample from a surface station.