Programs Blog

July 15, 2025

Time: 1130

Location: Past the Big Island!

Weather: Clear and sunny!

Hi!

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since my other blog post! Now, we have all given our two final presentations and all we have left are our final science reports and our MPA stories (both due at the end of today). During our policy presentations, we were interrupted three times – twice by dolphins, and once by orcas! Our science presentations were much quieter, although because we were anchored off of Hawai’i (the “big island”) we did have some boaters come up to the ship to say hi earlier in the day! Being anchored also meant that we could do two swim calls yesterday, jumping off the boat into the crystal clear water. At night, during my 0230-0400 anchor watch, I watched schools small fish hang out around the light we shone on that same water.

I, and everyone else on board, can’t believe our journey is almost done. On one hand, it feels like I haven’t been on the ship for any time at all. On the other, it feels like I’ve been on the ship forever, Mo’orea a distant memory. When Rocky posted the Land-Ho wager for when we would spot Hawai’i (Wika won), I bet that we would never see land because land is fake. Even after the island was clear in the distance, we kept joking that it was all an illusion. I used to wonder what all the ropes on the boat were, and how we could possibly learn them all. Now, I know which lines to go to for all our sails, how to call a gybe, how to call sails up and down (we call putting a sail up “setting” it and taking it down “striking” it)! Wearing the green JWO (junior watch officer) tutu with pride, we can all run a watch with minimal interference from the watch officer.

At the same time, even though all of our lab work has ended now to give us more time to work on our final reports, we confidently ran processing lab sessions by ourselves. Where I once used to stop and ask Jordan (#1 assistant science on board and in our hearts) what a zooplankton was, now I can confidently name it (or at least know where in the zooplankton guide to look for it). We fly through pH and chlorophyll-a filtration. I know Audrey explained the deployments in her blog, so I won’t bore you with the details there, but I’ve gone from barely knowing where to find the meter net to being smoothly able to prep and deploy it. The growth of our skills is almost the only way I’m able to sense the passage of time here. We are in Hawaii, almost all our assignments have been turned in, and yet I still can’t believe our voyage is almost done. After long days (and nights), through squalls and deployment mishaps, I think we are all ready for a break, but I for one am not ready to leave this community we’ve built quite yet. From telling tales of a 10 foot tall myctophid (see Brian’s blog post) haunting past and present SEA voyages to joint study sessions where we all sit silently around our computers, trying not to be the first to break concentration, there’s so much we have gone through and done together. We’ve done three egg dances (one for every 1000 nautical miles we travel), become shellbacks (see Tessa’s blog post), celebrated two birthdays (congrats Gillian and Leyla!), collected so much data about temperature and pH and biodiversity, learned so much about MPAs and international governance of the oceans, had midnight “family” dinners after long evening watches (shout out to C watch, best watch, and Vix, for leaving food for us), played so much processing lab music, and so many more things that I can’t list. At the same time, it feels like not nearly enough. 

Although I’ve tried to throw everything that has happened on this cruise at you all at once, there is one story from a few days ago that I will focus in on. Although a couple of people have mentioned our navigation, deck, and science reports, no one has really explained them yet! Pretty much, one watch (usually the dawn watch) will be assigned a report in the night orders or might choose to make one if they have enough free time! These reports are then presented at the beginning of class time. Topics of these reports range from our single seabed report to ocean plastics to how far we have travelled so far. Anyway, at around 12:30 on July 12, we C Watch dutifully went up for our dawn watch and read the night orders on our way. There, we were instructed to create a deck report on a type of navigational tool called the “Moon Beam Bearing”. This was allegedly a way to find your ship’s heading with just the moon, yourself, a sextant, and an equation. However, after creating our report, Quinn tried this method out and the heading it gave us was incredibly off. Confused, we (perhaps more awake now) looked back at our report and realized that the equation was MBB = P^2(RA) – NK – we had been pranked! We immediately knew the culprits – our ex-watch members Jordan (1^st assistant scientist) and Tessa (deckhand). We quickly whipped up a part two to our deck report. Based on a real way to find your heading using the azimuth of the sun and moon, we claimed that this method was created by one Dr. Anais Drai (Nice Try). The method was the Line Index Azimuth Relation (LIAR), which would give you either your True Estimated Spherical Angle (TESA) or your Judged Ordinal Angle of Navigation (JORDAN). Written out, our equation gave you LIAR = TESA or JORDAN! Watching our audience, who expected a normal and educational deck report, realize that they’d been caught in the middle of a prank war was beautiful. 

I suppose I should get back to my science report now, where my group is examining if and how zooplankton abundance and which species groups are present has changed since 2009. Anyway, lots of love to my family and friends, and I guess I’ll be home soon with so many stories to share!

Claire Hooper, C-Watch

Rice University