There has been a photo of the Corwith Cramer in my room for the past 11 years. It has had a place in my childhood home, college dorm room, and even my current house. The form has changed overtime – at one point the 8x10 framed photograph was replaced by a 2ft x 3ft poster print, but the image has remained the same.

We have entered Junior Watch Officer (JWO) phase, meaning that we get a chance to essentially take on the role of a mate for a watch.  It has been really exciting to see how much we now know about the boat, as well as all the stuff we still have to learn.

Happy Passover! Tonight is the first night of Passover.  In my family that would mean that either my parents, sister, and I would be getting ready to go to my aunt and uncle’s for seder, or my mother would be cooking all day and we would be getting ready to have everyone at our house for seder.

“Take it to the pin and sweat it!” is a phrase heard often setting sails on the Corwith Cramer (and one you may dread if your hands are on the fish halyard).  On a tall ship, sweating usually has a different meaning than it does on land. Sweating is what you do to get a sail the last little bit of the way up. On the Cramer (especially for me), both connotations of sweating apply.

We are going into our second week here on the Seamans since we left Lyttelton. But it feels like we have been here for months! I have learned so much and been tested in various ways already.

Well today was field day, and for all of you who instantly thought of elementary school races and water balloon fights, think again!  Field day is a day of cleaning the whole ship (which we do every day) but more!

Yesterday we left the Chatham Islands and our last sight of land for a while. We got to enjoy the calm seas in the port for a little while and we all got to sit up on deck and enjoy the sun! Some people even climbed up the foremast as we were leaving and got some great views of the islands.

We have now been at sea for four days! Everyone is starting to get in the swing of our watch schedules of 6 hours on and 12 hours off. Slowly but surely we are beginning to stop crashing into walls every second, hitting our heads everywhere we go, and learning how to not have everything spill off the rolling tables at meals.

It’s our third day at sea! After the initial shock of getting used to the constant rolling waves, and the many subsequent donations made to Neptune in hopes of a safe voyage, it seems as though people are starting to get their sea legs.