Programs Blog
Couldn’t Be Better
June 12, 2025
Time: 1839
Location: Pape’ete Harbor
Weather: Clear skies, calm water
Hello world!
For our first official communication from us to all you wonderful folks watching at home, I thought it would be reasonable to give our honest evaluation of what we as a group know so far. Here it is: Gump Station on Mo’orea is gorgeous, offering delicious meals and a classroom with the board conveniently placed opposite the windows overlooking the bay. We know that a morning dip off the dock was not only enjoyable, but an incredible way to start off a day of studies and excursions. An afternoon break from class required that we take time to test our volleyball skills with the net and pink ball on the quad. Starfruit and passionfruit were our guilty pleasures. Our nights brought about Manhunt (intense hide and seek) and board games.
Of course, our time at Gump came to an end earlier this morning. We took a ferry back from Mo’orea to Tahiti and saw the ship we will be spending our next few weeks on. Now, I have some predictions to share for our time on the Robert C. Seamans. They are as follows: watch will be exhausting, we will be spending a lot of our free time on deck, and seasickness may overtake quite a few of us. However, we know each other now from a week together. There will be laughter and shared memories galore, sunsets and sunrises, and each day new observations and discoveries.
We got to meet the crew today too! They are so wonderful and knowing the full complement of the ship means that now we can make even more connections. There are visiting researchers, Audrey and Brian, Lara is here on an internship, and the rest of us who signed up for this crazy adventure as professionals or students. Although we are only in harbor today, setting off tomorrow around 1100, our orientation has given us trainings to work as a team in boat checks, watches, emergencies, and life on board.
Finally, to those of you joining us from home and on land, thank you for your support of our interests and letting us take on this opportunity.
Peace and love,
Emmy Tublin, B(est) watch
UNC Wilmington
Recent Posts from the Ships
- Ocean Classroom 2024-A collaborative high school program with Proctor Academy
- Collaborations and Long-term Commitments: SEA’s Caribbean Reef Program Sets a Course for Coastal Programs that Compliment Shipboard Experiences.
- Sea Education Association students prepare for life underway using state of the art nautical simulation from Wartsila Corporation.
- SEA Writer 2022, Magazines From the Summer SEA Quest Students
- Technology@SEA: Upgrades Allow Insight into Ocean Depths
Programs
- Gap Year
- Ocean Exploration
- High School
- Science at SEA
- SEA Expedition
- SEAScape
- Pre-College
- Proctor Ocean Classroom
- Protecting the Phoenix Islands
- SPICE
- Stanford@SEA
- Undergraduate
- Climate and Society
- Climate Change and Coastal Resilience
- Coral Reef Conservation
- Marine Biodiversity and Conservation
- MBL
- Ocean Exploration: Plastics
- Ocean Policy: Marine Protected Areas
- Oceans and Climate
- Pacific Reef Expedition
- The Global Ocean: Hawai'i
- The Global Ocean: New Zealand