Programs Blog

Author: Alex, John, and Ariv – C Watch

Ship’s Log

Friday, 5 July 2024
Position:  42deg 08.7’N x 069deg 25.0’W
Log: 394.9nm
Weather / Wind and Sail Plan:  Main Sail, Main-Stays’l, Fore-Stays’l
Strong Winds (Beaufort Force 4) from WSW, ½ sky covered by clouds.
Description of where we are sailing:  30 miles N of the tip of Cape Cod, 40
mi from Stellwagen Bank

Today, we sailed consistently, speeding along at around 7 knots for
most of the day. Due to the strong winds that allowed us to sail so much, it
was also quite cold on deck, leading to many of us retreating below deck or
into the doghouse. Early this morning at 0510, a Humpback whale breached
less than 100 meters from our beam, where it showed its flukes! In class
today, Jeff introduced our Oceanography projects, where each watch
researches one of four possible topics (and the science team presents the
last one). The watches debated to come to an agreement of which two topics
they would be willing to research; our watch (C) decided that our favorite
topic was the first: the Weather Report and Megafauna sightings. We
specifically discussed the Spinner Dolphins from the third of July and the
sperm whales from earlier this week.  When the watches came together to
decide who would get each topic, every watch ended up having a different
preference, so everyone could look into their favorite! Watch A ended up
with ‘Deep Sea Studies’ (Sediment, Currents, and Seafloor flora/fauna) and
watch B chose ‘Project Plankton’ (Analyzing the different types of plankton
that we have found). Throughout the rest of the day, we could see people
sprawled around the deck, learning the lines and sails aboard the Corwith
Cramer for the Pin Rail contest tomorrow.  John is already an expert on
sailing, so he gave several of us lessons, helping to memorize the layout of
the ship’s rigging.

For our snack this afternoon, Seb and Annie prepared soft and fluffy
pull-apart rolls, which attracted a crowd. For dinner, they made grilled
cheeses with tomato soup, a perfect dinner, reminiscent of home. C watch
finished the day by cleaning the galley, doing our part to support all the
delicious food that we get to eat here.

Alex, John, and Ariv – C Watch

https://sea.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/July05_01small.jpg