Programs Blog

Saturday, October 26, 2024
Position (Lat and Long): 36° 56.1’N x 075° 37.1’W
Log (nm) since Baltimore: 136.6nm
Weather / Wind and Sail Plan:  Sunny BF 3 gusting 4, under the 4 lowers and the fisherman on a port tack
Description of where we are sailing: 20 nm East of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay

Image Caption 01:
Image Caption 02:  Weather report from Penelope, Reagan, and Virginia during
ship’s meeting

Since leaving our port stop in Baltimore, the crew of the Corwith Cramer has
been enjoying warm, sunny days, with mostly some light Beaufort force 3
winds.

Lighter winds can be frustrating aboard the Cramer. When we’re trying to get
to a special morning station and we just don’t have the winds to get there,
hearing the engine rev on in the middle of the night is usually not a
welcome sound. Finding the sweet spot for getting going at 2 knots for a
neuston tow becomes more challenging, and everyone can get a little
disheartened by the lousy sailing weather.

As frustrating as doldrums can be, sometimes in lighter winds the conditions
are just right for setting some of our less frequented sails. Our “kites”
are the sails that are set the highest up in our rigging to catch higher
wind. Two days ago we had the pleasure of setting the raffee for the first
time this trip, and today we’re enjoying a fisherman filling from the North.
The raffee is a square sail shaped like a triangle that is set at the very
tip top of our foremast, above the top yard, and is most useful sailing down
wind and we want to catch the higher air. The fisherman, which we set for
the third or fourth time of the trip this afternoon, is a fore and aft
rigged sail that fills in the highest airspace between the two masts, above
the main stay’sl. It’s the most useful sailing between a beam and a broad
reach and we want a little extra boost from that higher wind that the
stay’sls aren’t catching.

Now that we are returning to offshore waters, we’re welcoming the
opportunity to set some extra sails that the extra space away from traffic
and shoals allows. Hopefully, by tomorrow, they will have pushed us all the
way to the Gulf Stream, and we’ll get a chance for sampling some deeper,
warmer, bluer water!

1st Marine Technician Raechel Zeller

PS: Love to Mom and Dad, Dan and Lucas, and Halsey.