Today dawned bright and sunny; a perfect ending to the week. We started the day with a time-honored SEA tradition - FIELD DAY. In this case, Field Day means a Deep Clean of all the cottages, sweeping, swiffering, and scrubbing our homes from top to bottom. At the same time, students had their final meetings with program faculty. Once the houses were looking spiffy clean, we broke for lunch. Post-lunch, we had the graduation ceremony, where every student received their SEA pin.

We had an early wake up today at 6:30, followed by a hearty bowl of cereal of our choice. We then had one large watch meeting before oceanography class with Maia. This morning, we had a guest speaker, Susan Humphris, who used to work at S.E.A. for thirteen years, but now works at WHOI. She talked about hydrothermal vents, and their impact on ecosystems and nearby life. She also introduced us to Alvin and other interesting sea-submersible technologies.

As SEASCape comes to a close, we stayed on campus today. We woke up at 7:30 and had a watch meeting to discuss what to do on Thursday.

We began with a class with Maia, focusing on Geological Oceanography. We learned about ocean basin mapping, mid-ocean ridges, and sediments. Then we had class with Dan the man, focusing on the Age of Exploration, the discovery of gyres, seasonal winds, and currents.

We were woken up at the extremely early hour of 6:30 in the morning. We then quickly ate and did our chores and then headed onto the bus. We traveled for about an hour until we reached Plymouth MA: the home of Plymouth rock. However, we were not just there to see the rock in the ground, we were also there to be on a whale watch. We waited in line for what felt like forever and then aggressively boarded the boat to secure the “best” seats.

As this is our last Sunday at SEASCape, we had many options for activities to participate in during the day.  We began with a wonderful breakfast at 9:00 am of eggs, bacon, coffee, and English Muffins.  Some of us had the opportunity to tie dye if we had previously disliked our first tie dye shirts, and a few others decided to join in by tie dying their own shirts.

Today, all 25 of us woke up bright and early at 7:30 A.M. and started our day! During our daily watch meetings, we learned a new bend, which is when you tie two pieces of ropes together, called the Sheet Bend. Then, we started our academic day with Dan the man’s Oceans and Societies class, where we learned about the relationship between slavery in the Caribbean and the ocean, along with the history behind slavery itself.

We awoke this awoke this morning at approximately 7:30 to a lovely pancake breakfast made by our wonderful chef, Sabrina. We completed our daily chores and then headed off to the picnic tables for our watch meetings. We worked on our leadership prompts and went over announcements. We marched up the hill to the Madden Center, where we were greeted by the admission counselors for SEA Semester. We were given a presentation on the various courses that SEA Semester offers.

Today we woke up at 6:30 and after the usual chores, we had our watch meetings and learned how to tie a bowline knot. While some of us were able to complete the knot right away, some struggled to tie it. The RA’s challenged some of us to tie the knots in weird and creative ways such as, tying it behind the back, with our feet, and by closing our eyes.

The day began with our wake up call at 07:30, followed by cereal at 07:45. First off in the classroom, we reflected with Dan the Man on last night’s movie, Whale Rider, and its connection to whaling and Maori culture. We also gained a brief background on the International Whaling Commission, which will come in handy tomorrow when we represent different nations in a debate on the renewal of the IWC’s whaling moratorium.

The morning began with a 7:30 wakeup and eggs. On the short bus ride to New Bedford, we listened to music and discussed our excitement for the day. Once arriving in New Bedford, we were immediately struck by the historic appearance of the town. After going over the day’s plans with Dan, we entered the Seaman’s Bethel. Inside the Bethel, we studied the cenotaphs, which are memorials for someone whose body was lost after their passing.