Programs Blog

Departing Lunenburg

October 18, 2023
starfish

Author: Noah Y., B-Watch

Ship’s Log

Monday, 16 October 2023Noon Position: 44°04.3’N 064° 09.0’WShip Heading: 195°Ship Speed: 6 knotsLog: 679.8nmWeather: Cold and cloudy with some NNW windsDescription of location: 20nm S of Lunenburg

Early this morning we departed Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, after an amazing 4days there. B-Watch was on watch that morning so we were responsible forleaving dock. The students were on fender control, which controls the bumperbuoys so the ship doesn’t hit the dock. We had rotated watch officers thispast weekend, so today was our first real watch with them. Our watchesstayed the same but we switched mates, scientists, and deckhands. We firsthad the 2nd mate Jeremy, 2nd scientist Nick, and our deckhand Maggie. Now,we rotated to the chief mate Johnny, 3rd scientist Ali, and Hillary as ourdeckhand.

It was tricky getting out of the dock in Lunenburg. Teo was onhelm (steering the ship) while the rest of us were either sail handling orstowing various items. After we got underway this morning, I was in lab withTeo and Tess. We did a few deployments, including the secci disk (recordslight penetration in the water column), a shipek grab (collects seafloorsediment), and a neuston net tow. We caught a starfish in our shipek grabwhich was crazy very cool. In the neuston tow, we caught a juvenile codwhich was also interesting. Ian was the winner for our secci disk bets with9m (which is the 18% light penetration depth). While all of this washappening we noticed two land birds from Lunenburg on the boat, we namedthem Rick and Morty.

After we turned the watch over to C-Watch we all atelunch and I took a nice nap. Then we had class at 1430 which included ournormal science, navigation, and weather reports. But then it started rainingso we had to move inside to the main salon. Today’s class was aboutdifferent ocean zones at different depths and wildlife’s adaptation to thosedifferent environments. After that I took another nice nap until dinner.Overall today was a pretty good day with a lot going on.