Programs Blog

Thursday, 24 July 2025

Noon Position: 41°06.6N 70°44.5W

Ship Heading (degrees): 330°M

Ship Speed (knots): 4.5 kt

Log (nm): 582.9nm

Description of location: Rhode Island Sound and then anchored Menemsha Bight              

B-watch began our day bright and early at 0100 for dawn watch. We got to enjoy our midnight snack of delicious chocolate chip cookies (courtesy of our assistant steward Darren), watch the incredible sunrise and continue our delirious 3am ramblings. As the sky brightened, we were able to see the wind farms that we were passing by, which we learned about in class later today. Class also consisted of lessons on tacking the Cramer. This is much harder than gybing due to surplus of lines and crew involved in the process. Despite the challenge, all 6 of our tacks were successful! B-watch also presented on the weather patterns of the past 24 hours and the science report for the day.

As the afternoon progressed, we headed to Menemsha Bight, where we will be anchoring for the night. Instead of motoring into our anchorage, we sailed, which required taking down all the sails at exactly the right time and heading directly into the wind to cut our speed.

B-watch also began to work on our OC project today. Out of the four project topics we could’ve picked, we decided on weather and marine animal sightings. This was mostly because of the many creatures we encountered on our voyage. Of course, we saw many sea birds and algae clumps, but the best creatures we saw were those swimming in the ocean.

A bit early into our voyage we had already seen some dolphins and water spouts from whales from afar. But later on, we got to see many marine animals much closer up. During one of our watches, our lab group (which I was in) was deploying some equipment, when suddenly, we saw a shark! It swam right past our equipment and made itself fully clear to us for only a few seconds before disappearing back into the ocean. My friend theorizes that it was an oceanic white tipped shark. The day before, when I was on lookout on evening watch, I saw a dolphin swim right in front of the ship. Right below where I was sitting! Then, another time, some people go to see the dorsal fins on a whale swimming by our ship. I was sadly asleep at the time.

The likelihood of seeing more marine animals has decreased significantly now that we’re closer to the shore, but I believe that doing our OC project on such encounters will immortalize them forever. Presentations for our projects are tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully I can include all of them in time!

Lucy and Eszter (B-watch)

Eszter- Hi mom, dad and Zsuzsi!!! This whole trip is so fun, I’m so sad it’s coming to an end 🙁 I have so much to tell you all! (so keep your ears open)