Programs Blog

Author: Liam M., B Watch

Ship’s Log

Friday, 20th October, 2023

Noon Position: 36 deg 26.1′ N x 063 deg 48.7′ W
Ship Heading (degrees): 195
Ship Speed (knots): 5.3 knots
Log (nm): 1175 steering 195
Weather / Wind / Sail Plan (from 1300 Watch Change):  Light and variable
winds build to BF 4 and 5 from the south later in the day. 
Description of location:  Gulf Stream crossing into the Sargasso Sea

Today started off like any regular day, getting woken up and coming onto
deck very tired and looking out at the horizon and seeing pretty calm seas.
Unlike last night, we were out of the Gulf Stream now and into calmer water.
Except I didn’t see much of a horizon because I was on dawn watch and it was
1:00 AM in the morning. I was in lab with Paige, Riley, and Alli and we were
chilling, it had been a pretty calm watch since there were no deployments
because of rough weather. After our watch ended and we mustered we all went
straight to bed. I only got 2 hours of sleep though and then woke up at 9
and for some odd reason and couldn’t fall back asleep. So I took a shower
and went up on deck and before I talked to some people on C watch I noticed
the sea color, it looked oddly purple for some reason.

Then up until class at 14:30 everything went on as a normal day. The beginning of class was
normal with reports on Navigation, Weather, and Science. But then for the
main activity we were told that we were doing a special secchi disk bet but
there were multiple colors on. So as watch we guessed which colors would
disappear and which would stay the longest. But there was a surprise,
instead of a secchi disk it was two containers, one of MandM’s and the other
one with Skittles. At first we did actually throw MandM’s in the water and
kept track of how long we saw them but after that we all just ate them and
had a good time. Then after that it started raining for a little bit and we
went to the main salon and there it was, fudge popsicles and jolly rancher
popsicle.

Now at this moment I don’t know if I could’ve been happier. So
most people grabbed fudge popsicles and some grabbed Jolly Rancher popsicles
and it was really good. Then since it was raining A-Watch was on deck and
the rest of us were either sleeping or playing cards. Then it was just a
normal day until about 17:30 or 4:30 PM. At which some of use went on deck
because it was too hot below deck, and the first sight we see is massive
waves crashing over the side of the ship and onto the deck. So what do you
do at that moment you might ask, well some of us stayed down below and slept
but most of us got our harness and went to the bow, and within minutes all
of us were soaked.

Most of us sat at the bow singing songs and chanting to
What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor. The swells were so big that it would
hit the side of the ship and drench us all in salt water. Some people were
smart and got there foulies on, Jackson even got his swim shorts on, but I
just sat there in all cotton having the time of my life with everyone else.
We sat out there for about 50 minutes and then went to dinner and dried off,
then throughout the night the waves just got bigger and bigger. But most of
us had fallen asleep, I wanted to but I was on watch for six hours again off
of two hours of sleep, not a smart decision on my part but I had fun so I
was fine with it.