Programs Blog

Author: Riley, B Watch

Ship’s Log

Saturday, 28 October, 2023
Noon Position: 33°02.47’N  X  071°13.98’W
Ship Heading (degrees): 302°
Ship Speed: 4 knots
Log: 1963 nm
Weather / Wind / Sail Plan (from 1300 Watch Change): Warm weather and sailing until we no longer could and we had to motor. With
force 4 winds coming from NEXN
Description of location: Middle of the Atlantic

This morning Ian woke me up for breakfast at 6 am telling me that it was
hot, that breakfast was in a little less than 20 minutes and that watch was
in 50 minutes. I thanked him and then got dressed. After that I got out of
my bunk just in time for breakfast. It was breakfast sandwiches, so good, I
ate one with plenty of hot sauce and avocado and headed back to my bunk to
finish getting ready. After I put on my harness I headed to the quarter deck
to muster for turnover. We’re doing JWOs right now or Junior Watch Officer
where two students (one for each half of watch) would have the deck and
would give commands to the other students; they would mandate rotations and
call out sail handling. I didn’t have to worry about it because I had
already been JWO twice. On deck the A watch JWO did the turnover where they
gave a debrief to the oncoming JWO (Teo) and spun the skirt on to them and
gave the hat over. I actually was supposed to be on lab but I switched with
Mattie because she hadn’t done morning science station often and then I
switched with Noah on dish because he gets really sea sick in the galley.

After turnover I headed down below to do the breakfast dishes I was in there
for about two hours before Teo called me up to do some sail handling because
we had to Gybe for science. After that Teo sent Liam to do dish to give me a
break and Noah and I worked to the Navigation report for class that
afternoon. We drew our track line stating in Woods Hole and ending at our
present location. Than we got the log of all of the nautical miles we had
traveled in the past 24 hours and the rhumb run, which is the nautical miles
from directly where we started to where we were with no turns as the crow
flies. Noah and I took a quick break for morning snack (grapefruit) and to
check in on science (I didn’t win the secchi disc bet). Than Obie (our watch
officer) gave us some reading to do so I read about how to steer with no
compasses and only by the wind and swells and gave Noah the highlights to
write on the whiteboard.

After that I was put on helm for an hour before I
went back to dish to start on the lunch dishes from the first seating. I had
almost finished the dishes before I had to go back on deck for turnover.
Paige was now JWO so she gave the debrief to C watch and they did the
turnover spin. After that all of B watch met on the high side for a quick
recap of watch and then we all went below deck for lunch. And that’s what a
morning watch looks like for me.