Programs Blog

01 September 2025

Location (Lat and Long): 42° 45.571’N, 140° 58.980’ W

Ship Heading: 355 degrees true

Ship Speed: 5.5 knots

Log (nm): 1906 nm

Weather/Wind/Sail Plan: Winds ESE Force 4, Seas SE 6 feet, Overcast, sailing on a STBD Tack under the four lowers and the Jib Tops’l

When looking back at one’s life, you can often attribute major life events, choices, and the direction that you have gone in based on singular events that might have seemed like nothing at the time. You all might have heard of this as the butterfly effect, the thought that something as a butterfly flapping it’s wings past you could change the entire outcome of your life as you know it. I, for myself, have boiled down the past six years of my life to one singular event, the desire for a chicken sandwich my freshman year at Colgate University. You might be asking yourself, how could something as simple as a craving for a chicken sandwich change one’s life so profoundly, and completely alter the direction that I was going to take my life in. And don’t worry my fellow readers, for all will be explained within this blog post.

It started out as a normal day on the hill at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY. The wind was blistering, snow was falling sideways, as I trekked my way across campus to make it to my 11:10 Biology 101 class. On my walk I developed a craving for a grilled chicken sandwich, which important to the story, was served in only one of our Campus’s dining halls, the COOP. Upon entering, I stumbled across a small study abroad program’s booth, with a tall ship stretched across its banner, that program being SEA. I had originally gone to college wanting to go pre-med, eventually becoming the first doctor in my family. But from that moment I found my life irrevocably changed, not knowing that in six short years I would find myself as 3^rd mate aboard that very same vessel that was stretched across SEA’s table as I went to crave my hunger for a simple chicken sandwich.

After learning about SEA’s mission, I decided that this was the study abroad program for me, and after over two years of applying to programs which were subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I finally found myself onboard the SSV Robert C. Seamans after spending six weeks on shore in SEA’s Woods Hole campus, on my way to a tiny uninhabited island called Palmyra Atoll. 3227 nautical miles later, finding myself back at that little college on the hill, I knew that I wanted to come back one day, and sail the seven seas again.

However, before I could return I had learned of another small program called the St. Augustine Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP for short) from one of SEA’s marine scientists (shout-out Amy Green). Combing my love for shipwrecks, as well as my newfound love for scuba diving, I realized I could combine both into a future job in the field of underwater archaeology. After spending a summer attending LAMP’s field school, I returned the next year to be one of their divers for the upcoming field season, teaching new students how to map and explore shipwrecks, and further my experience as a scientific diver.

After completing the 2023 field season, I found myself back home on the job search, when I received an email from SEA’s alumni network, notifying me of a volunteer opportunity aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer to help get her ready for the upcoming sailing season. Seeing as I had nothing else to do, I signed up for three weekends of volunteering, and by my last weekend I was offered a job as a deckhand aboard Cramer for all of the 2024 summer sailing season. Now a year and a half later, after having sailed all around New England, from Fiji to New Zealand, around the Hawaiian islands, and now all the way from Hawaii to Seattle, I find myself as mate aboard the vessel that first showed me the world’s oceans and my love for them only three and a half short years before.

I suppose all I am trying to say in writing this is to follow your gut and to explore the opportunities that life brings your way because your never know what might happen if you do. For all you know, the craving for something as simple as a chicken sandwich could change your life in a way that you never would’ve thought possible.

Oh and mom, if you’re reading this thank you for supporting me all these years, and I can’t wait to see you soon,

-Skyler Beau Bertrand, 3^rd Mate, C Watch