News

Saturday, 20 July 2026
Noon Position: 41 deg 10.9’N x 070 deg 49.3’W
Ship Heading (degrees):  331.64
Ship Speed: 3.7 kts
Log: 118 nm
Weather / Wind / Sail Plan:  Calm/14 knots, SW/ Mainsail, Jib, Forestays’l, Mainstays’l
Continental shelf

Hii! It’s Adriana, Beckett, and Conor! We are on B watch in the lab on our first full dawn watch. On Saturday we had to wake up an hour early to eat breakfast and start our morning watch from 07:00-13:00. That morning, Claire, Emma, and Grayer were doing 6-minute observations and also deployed the Neuston Net, Phytoplankton Net, and the CTD, while Adriana, Beckett, Petra, and Conor were on deck staying on top of hourlies. Everyone in the lab also deployed the Secchi disk and placed their bets on how far down it’s reflection could be seen. Keya won with 10 meters. While Adriana was on lookout, she spotted 2 large pods of dolphins swimming by the Cramer, and announced it so everyone else could see them. We also saw 3 Mola Mola’s, at least 1 Basking shark, and 1 Seagull that was taunting Beckett while he was on lookout.

After our very tasty lunch, we all went to class where Sophia, Casey, and Stella did a deck report talking about which sails had been up or handled and also where we had gone. Andrés, Sal, and Asher did a lab report talking about salinity and temperature. After the reports Jeff gave a lesson on stratification which is when water does not mix because of differences in density caused by salinity and temperature. To explain that, he poured two glasses of colored water into one container separated by a wall (one side blue, the other red). Once he took away the wall, instead of the water mixing, it stratified because of the differences in salinity and temperature. He also talked about gear we would be deploying and what they do, such as the Secchi disk which measures visibility, the CTD, which measures conductivity/salinity, temperature, and depth.

After we got off morning watch, Adriana, Beckett, Petra, Claire, Sophia, Stella, Andres, and Sal all mustered in the Salon to play a Clue escape room and eat dinner (we’ll tell you whodunit at the end). As soon as dinner ended, everyone in B watch rushed to bed to prepare for the dreaded double dawn-evening watch. As soon as our watch began, Conor fed the critters some delicious freshly collected plankton sludge in the aquarium before we started working. We used a sample the evening watch gathered of zooplankton, which was abundant. First we picked out the bigger creatures we could find in the sample, and we found 4 fish which were all juvenile/larval and one beautiful isopod we accordingly named Rainbow Sparkle Unicorn. Then we filled a graduated cylinder with 150mL of filtered saltwater to measure the bio volume which was 200mL. On the last trip, in the same area, we collected a quarter of what we collected tonight.

According to Beckett, Rainbow Sparkle Unicorn could only be described as “dark gray, 3 pairs of legs + 1 pair of forearms” but he was so much more than that. Rainbow Sparkle Unicorn was dedicated, determined, and brave despite the fact he was trapped in ahalf-filled petri dish. Unfortunately, to love is to let go so, we decided to free him. Conor solemnly returned him to the ocean as Beckett gave a heartwarming speech. His memory will always be with us.

After the heartbreaking ceremony, Beckett, Conor, and Adriana worked on reports about wind turbines, locations, salinity, and temperature patterns. Overall, we had a good day, and morale has never been higher! 

P.S. Peacock did it with the rope in the conservatory (you just can’t trust Linguini Fettuccini or Hellen Ellen)!

Flying off in our Hellencopters, Adriana, Beckett, Conor, B Watch