Programs Blog

Thursday, October 30^th, 2025

Noon Position: 22°14.1’ N x 059°21.5’ W

Ship Heading: 222°

Ship Speed: 6 knts

Log: 2429 nm

Weather: SSE Wind Force 3, sailing under Deep Reef Mains’l, mainstays’l, forestays’l, Jib.

Description of location: 300 NM away from the BVI’s

Today I was politely woken up by Magnus at 06:00 for my breakfast in 20 minutes and my watch in 1 hour. This morning we had crepes prepared by our “stu stew” Colin. I then met with Captain for a briefing on being a JWO (Junior Watch Officer). We are now in the third phase of standing watch where 2 student crew, each taking half of the 6-hour watch, are Junior Watch Officers. This morning it was Brooke and me. Being a JWO means you take up the responsibilities of the mate but you don’t have the con or the legal responsibilities. For those of you reading at home, I was practically (but not quite) second to only the captain of the SSV Corwith Cramer for 3 hours! I must say this was pretty stressful and although I felt prepared, I soon became very overwhelmed. While the mate is still on deck with you they are not supposed to tell you what to do unless there is a safety issue. later in the watch we had a science station where the A watch lab team deployed a Secchi disc, Phyto net, Neuston tow,  and the deepest CTD deployment of the trip to 1000 meters. At that depth they were getting readings from water that is over 900 years old.

We were down two people to help with lines after science station, which made my job a little more difficult in covering the rotations and wakeups. So, I recruited Captain and Jeremy (A watch’s Mate), to fill in. I felt very weird to tell Jeremy to run around the ship and sheet out the stays’ls and sheet out the main, but even more weird to tell captain to relieve helm and to mark her head. While Captain is the Captain at all times she was now listening to my commands. Although this was fun it did not last forever, and we later transitioned into turnover where I led the turnover to explain what tack we were on, what sails we were using, wind and sea state, vessel traffic and more. After turnover we had lunch, which I ate on deck with Sam Z. We had Ships meeting at 14:30 which also included a test fire drill. We have practiced these before, and it went smoothly. Each watch has a different responsibility for certain emergencies. A watches responsibility during a fire drill is to man the salt water fire hoses. Since it has been so hot recently and the hoses were already primed captain called a fire hose shower after the drill, and everyone got changed and went to the science deck to “shower.” After the shower I felt clean and relaxed and happy to be off watch. I chose to use my free time to read a book, which I got about 6 pages into before I decided I’d rather take a nap.

Will D., A Watch