Today marked 1000 miles sailed and we have made it far enough North that it has started to get warm. People are hanging out in t-shirts and shorts and the boat is alive in a way it hasn’t really been yet. The fore deck gym is in full swing, with people attempting to do as many push-ups as miles we’ve sailed.

Today is my busy day. I had watch from 0100 until 0700 and I have watch again from 1900 until 0100. Which means not a lot of sleep, but I get to watch the sunrise and the sunset! This morning during watch I was on lab duty, so I processed a Neuston tow with Rose and then completed a DNA extraction for my group project on Sargassum shrimp parasites.

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.

Today we decided to approach another big mat of Sargassum and take some samples from it using our small boat. Mats of Sargassum are very rare to see.  For example, our Captain Jason has sailed this cruise track north six times while it’s the first time to really encounter such large mats of Sargassum with such consistency.

We’ve completed our first whole week at sea! And it was an 8 day week, since we also passed the International Date Line a couple days ago. We even had two Saturdays last weekend!

Saturday: FIELD DAY

“Field Day” aboard the Cramer is not the giant extended recess you remember from your elementary school days. There is no swing set, or giant game of capture the flag. Instead it is an entire afternoon dedicated to cleaning.

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.

It’s the first April 6th here on the Robert C. Seamans! We will cross the international dateline and move back a day at one am our time tonight. I am a part of A watch here on ship, and today A watch had morning watch from 7 am to 1 pm and will have watch dawn watch at the time change, from 1 am tonight to 7 am tomorrow morning—the second April 6th!

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.

Sneakers in a sea of Chacos.

Everywhere I go, I am surrounded by Chacos. It seems to be the shoe of choice for adventurers, sailors, biologists, and study abroad students.