Programs Blog

30 August 2025

Location: 39° 05.732’ N x 141° 14.375’ W

Ship Heading: 036°

Ship Speed: 5 knots

Log: 1705 nm

Weather/Wind/Sail Plan: Sailing under the 4 lowers (storm trysail instead of main) and the topsail on a broad reach heading as NE as possible while keeping our sails happy.

Hello from the middle(ish) of the North Pacific!

My name is Kayla Gardner, and I am one of the scientists aboard the Seamans for the crew transit. I recently received my PhD in biological oceanography down the road from SEA’s offices at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Now, I will be signing on to work with SEA as a marine technician! I will also be taking over SEA’s Tiktok (@sea.edu) and Instagram (@sea_education_association) next week, so be sure to follow them if you want an additional look into sailing and science with SEA!

For now, I wanted to give a bit of an update on the state of science onboard. We have been towing a daily neuston tow at 10:00 am local time. We have collected several Portuguese Man-O-Wars for collaborators at Yale, biovolume and special critters (halobates, fish larvae, salps, and more!) for collaborators at Blue Nature Alliance, and a TON of plastic for SEA researcher, Kara Lavender-Law (if you have heard of the Pacific garbage patch, let me assure you it is very real). We have also caught some particularly charismatic zooplankton and nekton such as the Glaucus nudibranch, commonly referred to as the sea dragon (see photo). These guys may look cute, but they actually eat the Portuguese Man-O-Wars, so can pack quite the punch. Because all scientists love numbers, here is a summary of life on board viewed through some important (but also fun) numbers.

Science (and more) by the numbers:

• 12 Neuston tows
• 4670 pieces of plastic
• 1074 halobates
• 15 Larger sea dragons (many more tiny ones)!
• 3.26 degrees of water temperature change
• 1 tropicbird on deck
• 9 sails used (that’s all we have on board!)
• 1706 miles traveled
• 12,130 reps of pushups (or other exercise chosen to do for every nautical mile- 13 participants)
• 350 eggs consumed
• 970 gallons of diesel used
• 4962 gallons of water made

Thanks for tuning in everyone,

– Kayla Gardner, 2^nd Scientist, A Watch

Shout outs: Sending much love to my child (dog), Remi. I miss your snuggles and unconditional love. To my partner, Kat, and her dog, Hoagie, I love and miss you bunches. If you wouldn’t be sick for the whole journey, I would say I wished you were here haha. Congrats on running such an amazing road race 🙂

Finally, to my family- I miss you all immensely and am thinking of you extra today. I am so sorry I cannot be there with you all to love and support you and receive that love and support back. I assure you my shipmates are taking great care of me.

I dedicate this blog post to my grandfather who passed while I was at sea. May his memory live on through all his children, grandchildren, and community members who loved him dearly. Miss you and your rosy smelling feet XOXO