Programs Blog

Kerren Matthews, Colorado College, C Watch

Ship’s Log

Present Location
26° 53.5’ N x 068° 28.0’ W

Ship’s Heading, Speed and Sail plan
195° PSC, planning to keeping going south with the Stays’ls and Jib.

Weather
Winds: E x N, Beaufort Force 2. Sea: NE x N, 3 feet. Off and on squalls.

Souls on Board

All blogs from C-294

It was a dark and stormy night on the Corwith Cramer as C Watch slid out of their bunks at 0030 on October 31st, 2020. They begrudgingly “foulied up” and made their way onto the Quarter Deck for dawn watch. They quickly snapped out of their sleepy state as they encountered what would be their environment for the next six hours: pouring rain and howling winds. After a quick turn-around with A Watch, C Watch had control of the deck. The shadow for the night, Claire, quickly delegated shipmates to the helm and lookout positions. As the night slowly progressed, the squalls only seemed to worsen. The wind picked up, whistling off our stern and creeping behind our backs, and the moon slid in and out of the clouds, shining an eerie glow onto the ship. As we stood there, hairs on end and listening to the screaming winds, we began telling stories of pirates, sunken ships, and whatever else gave us an extra chill or shudder that night. With the almost-full moon glowing from above, we slowly made our way through the darkness and further into the unknown and wonders of the Bermuda Triangle.

Carolyn and her shadow, Claire, twinning during watch turnover.

Happy Halloween from the Corwith Cramer! After a spooky night, I woke up to the sounds of lunch just outside my curtains (Yes, I live in the Main Salon and it is quite the party!). I stuck my head out to see what was for lunch to a room full of costumes. Our First Assistant Scientist Jordan was dressed as a Narwhal, Alexis as Wonderwoman, Lucia wore a sick shark mask, and the third mate Cassie was a flying squirrel. Further into the afternoon, more people began dressing up. Megan and I, the two swimmers on the boat, were “Swim Superheroes”. Harrison became the “Good Morning Princess” and Sam put on his barista apron. We even had some members of the Scooby Doo Gang, Catherine as Scooby Doo and Logan as Shaggy. Raechel schemed with one of our professors, Craig, to stealthily snag Jeff’s iconic hat to dress up as Jeff for the day. She even clipped Sargassum to her head (Jeff is the Sargassum expert) as Jeff’s hair and carried a camera around with her all day. Becca and Nora borrowed outfits from the other two faculty members, Sean and Craig, to complete the trio.

Later on in the evening, storms rolled in, setting the stage for another spooky night, and this time on the Blue Moon. After a delicious dinner of butternut squash soup and quinoa prepared by Yoela, Katey and Adam, we all mustered in the Main Salon for some Halloween activities. We were handed bags and got to go trick or treating at all the crew’s cabins. We were asked to sing songs and even had to face a menacing lobster (Jeff) in order to earn our candy. We ran around the ship and eventually all mustered back in the main salon. There, Elijah performed a chilling and fantastic scary story as we all listened with wide eyes. We finished up the night with a quick game of Mafia led by our Assistant Steward Katey and C Watch returned to being on watch. It was overall a fun-filled, yet appropriately spooky Halloween on the Corwith Cramer in the Bermuda Triangle, and definitely one to remember. It felt very special to be celebrating Halloween surrounded by such excited and happy shipmates!

– Kerren Matthews, Colorado College, Class of 2022

PS: To Mom and Dad, sending lots of love! I hope Halloween was fun on Edgewood Road, and I hope you at least tried to stick a costume on Charlie. We talked a lot about childhood Halloween traditions throughout the day and it definitely made me think fondly of Grandma and appreciate all the work she put in to make our Halloweens extra special. Send my love to Daniel and Miranda as well! To Halle and Ana, I miss you both so much and I’m so excited to tell you both all about it. I thought about you both as we sailed through the bay of Cape Cod and around Provincetown (where we even saw whales!). To Grace, Ceilidh, and Schuyler, if any of you have been keeping up with the blog, I hope you’re getting excited for your boat component and I hope Woods Hole is treating you well. I’m excited to come back and tell you all about it and give you all the tips and tricks!