Programs Blog

September 5, 2025

Weather/Wind/Sail Plan: Sailing a broad reach through the rain under the four lowers and two of the uppers

Ahoy!

As we exit The Patch™ and make our way gallantly towards Seattle, Jeremy and I have been reflecting on some lessons we’ve learned along the voyage while performing some of the usual duties of a deckhand on a tall ship. We hope you enjoy these words of wisdom, and a glimpse into the daily life of a deckhand aboard the Robert C. Seamans.

Dumping slops overboard: The end of a deckhand’s day is oft marked with what some might refer to as a spiritual journey from the galley to the leeward side of the science deck, carrying a heavy bucket filled with the day’s food scraps. While clipped into the side of the ship dumping slop into the great blue, an important fact of life dawned on us:

• Sometimes, you just need to let go. As much as we love our galley cooks and the delicious food they make for us every day, sometimes it’s best to let things just disappear into the abyss. This journey can bring up a lot of emotions, such as guilt, sadness, and even… alarm. But there is more food to come. Let it go, baby, just let it go.

Submitting the Fancy Weather: “Fancy Weather,” as us deckhands call it, is our hourly submission of weather data that we email to our dear friend and colleague Larry, of NOAA. We are huge fans of NOAA and have been sending so many emails to them, but unfortunately we have not gotten any emails in response. The only thing we’ve received so far was a weather fax containing but one wind vein, which was allegedly calculated by one of our crew. Though we in no way expect NOAA to send us personalized emails thanking us for our efforts, sometimes you need to think about the impact that your work has on the world at large in order to stay motivated.

• Think of the greater good – even though sometimes it may feel like you’re getting nothing in return for your efforts, remember that you may actually be helping to improve weather models, which us sailors depend on. To the grad student using our data points, we see you and we love you. Keeping the big picture in mind can really help you achieve your goals. Keep going, you got this!
• Quality over quantity – it has been brought to our attention that some ships nowadays have automatic fancy weather submission on the hour, every hour. Here on the Bobby C., our weather might be considered fair trade, free range, and even organic. It is carefully harvested by deckhands who are dedicated to their craft, “on the hour, sometimes™”. And that’s the deckhand guarantee.

Cleaning the meat sink: There’s a reason people use the phrase “keeping things in ship shape”- there’s a lot of cleaning that goes into living on a boat with 22 other people! Some of it is more pleasant than others… But there’s always a good takeaway to be had:

• Life is full of surprises! Hanging suspended over the stove on a rolling boat with sweat, dish soap, and grease dripping onto my face and down my arms doesn’t seem like the most enjoyable situation. But much like other gross (but important) chores, with music playing and friends surrounding, this task actually ended up being the highlight of my day. The lesson is, you never know when moments of joy will strike, so don’t limit yourself. There is always fun to be had. The other lesson is, sometimes it is important to keep the meat sink clean in the first place. This way, you won’t need to clean the meat sink later.

Embroidery: Jeremy and I have taken quite a liking to the craft of embroidery on this voyage, despite neither of us having any prior experience whatsoever. Here’s what we’ve learned:

• You have a vision. Never settle for less. Alternatively, if something isn’t perfect or gets too difficult, you can always just stop doing it. This also happens to be the same logic that applies to tacking the Bobby C. Find a different hobby. Gybe instead.

Wake-ups: Another often overlooked aspect of watch duties is waking up your friends before it’s their turn to stand watch, or eat a delicious meal! As easy as that sounds, in reality it can be one of the hardest parts of standing watch due to the fact that we are all working very odd hours and sometimes are pretty resistant to getting out of bed. Here, have some more life advice:

• Communication is important. Pick a good time to have that conversation! Captain Allison taught us that when giving feedback to people, a great first step is to make sure they are prepared to hear said feedback by agreeing on a later time to speak. On the flipside of this, some of us have noticed that asking your friends questions such as “would you rather eat a baby goat or a matterbaby?” or “do you want to see the pit of snakes we found in the engine room?” at 0330 immediately before letting them know that they need to be dressed on deck in exactly 20 minutes to sail through a squall will most likely will not elicit a very eloquent response. So if you’re going to have an important conversation with someone, picking a good time that works for both of you is a really good idea if possible. Unless you’re trying to catch them off guard, in which case feel free to throw open their bunk curtain, shine a red light in their face, and chat away!

Doing a boat check: As part of standing watch, we deckhands perform hourly boat checks to make sure everything is as it should be. As you may have guessed, we’ve taken away some great lessons from this activity:

• As the old maritime saying goes, “check yourself before your wreck yourself.” It’s important to check in on your own wellbeing, ideally at the top of every hour. Ask yourself questions like, what’s the day tank at (read: have I eaten today)? Are all the lines coiled and hung (read: have I tidied up my apartment)? Am I on fire (read: am I on fire)? Regular check-ins can do wonders to prevent burnout, and maintaining situational awareness can help you to function in your everyday life.

Washing our garbage: Another activity we do onboard the Bobby C. is washing all of our trash. We love the ocean, so we keep all of our garbage with us until we get to port. But this presents the risk of getting maggots or bacteria, so we like to keep our trash nice and clean! This obviously has profound implications:

• To quote Katy Perry: “Do you ever feel/ Like a plastic bag/ Drifting through the wind/ Wanting to start again?” We all do at some point, Katy, we all do. If you’re stuck in a rut feeling like trash, maybe it’s time to treat yourself to a nice spa day! If you’re going to feel like trash, you might as well feel like clean trash. Another thing we’ve learned about trash is that no matter how adrift and lost you may feel, the currents will eventually bring you to your own great pacific garbage patch – a place where you’re not alone. A place where you’re more than just one bag, but part of a greater collective.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about some of our daily tasks, and we know you’ve definitely gotten some solid life advice, so you’re welcome. There is no shortage of lessons to be learned on a tall ship, sometimes in the places you’d least expect. Take a trip to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch; you never know what you might find (in addition to the garbage).

-Jer (C Watch) and Anna M (A Watch)