Programs Blog

Wednesday, 23 July 2025

Noon Position: 40deg 12.6’ N x 069deg 5.7’ W

Ship Heading (degrees): 297.6deg

Ship Speed (knots): 6.2

Log (nm): 468.5

Weather / Wind / Sail Plan (from 1300 Watch Change): Motor Sailing. Main sail, Main Staysail, For Staysail. Put up Fisherman sail. Warm weather, clear and sunny day.

Description of Location: Continental Shelf

This morning, A-Watch woke up nice and early, around 0100 with Dawn Watch. Due to clear skies all around, the bright stars and a sliver of a red moon created an incredible sight. The morning was enjoyable, yet stressful for A- Watch’s Mate, Ryan. Throughout the morning, we saw at least 25 fishing boats within a short distance. Ryan spent most of the morning helping us maneuver around the curious fishing boats. Some boats were even brave enough to come up to the Corwith Cramer and take pictures. Despite these circumstances, we spent the early hours watching an incredible sunrise and a few jumping tunas. The day was relatively calm throughout and most members of A-Watch spent it catching up on sleep while others played board games and enjoyed the incredible ocean views. Dinner was a delicious classic pizza and salad combo, which fueled us for a long evening watch. Another breathtaking surprise awaited us as we were creating the blog. Several whales were spotted around the boat. We saw at least 5 to 7 whales and it was such a great way to end an already enjoyable experience given that today is our last night sailing. (P.S. A – Watch chose Deep Sea Studies as our research project! Yipee! :))

Aside from A-Watch, the other watches worked during the day to collect data. This is important because, even though we didn’t know it at the time, this data would aid us in our research projects. B-Watch will be tackling whale watching and weather reports, while C-Watch will be embarking on a quest for phytoplankton city. These projects will be completed in our watch groups and presented to each other at the end of our journey. On a separate note, several of us discovered a secret stash of ramen that had been kept in the main salon where we take all our meals, in the same place where we are able to indulge ourselves in a little morning coffee or before-bed tea. My favorite part of this whole trip has been the midnight rations, or the mid-rats as it has been lovingly dubbed by us crew. Our assistant steward Darren has been spoiling us rotten each night with a new kind of cookie. My personal favorite has been the snicker doodle. I really like snicker doodles. But tonight was good ‘ole chocolate chip cookies, large ones at that, in addition to the celebratory chocolates given to us by our watch mate Ryan. Then, we all enjoyed a beautiful sunset together that seemed to stretch on forever. I’d like to call the color Cheeto or Dorito orange, but Ryan thinks that I’m delusional. Just for that, I agreed to abandon my first mate and join our crew’s doctor Sophia as she staged a mutiny to turn our ship into a pirate ship, just because I agree that our Corwith Cramer needs some cannons and a plank. After the sun set, we were treated to the stunning sight of shooting stars among the endless Milky Way. Huzzah.

Early in the morning as I opened up my eyes, I awoke to a clear night sky, and a cool ocean breeze, and although I was tired, I was ready to process data from the deployments we did the previous day. Randomly, I spotted a streak of silver in our bucket of zooplankton, and as I looked inside, I found a friend. A small fish, around 4 cm long and 2cm tall, he was a thin silvery fish, with brown and yellow stripes covering him from head to toe. I instantly grabbed a spoon, went over to the bucket, and scooped him up, before dunking him into the aquarium. I decided to name him “Charles”. Later that morning, I opened a book, designed to identify the local marine fauna of New England and spent a painstakingly long time going through it to discover what species of fish my new friend was. Eventually, I discovered that he was a beautiful juvenile banded rudderfish, which gave me some insight into his behaviors and how well he would fare in an aquarium. Later that night, I found four little rocks, except when I went to pick them up, they swam away. This is when I realized that these were not rocks, but rather late stage (megalopae) crab larvae. I picked them up with a spoon and placed them into a petri dish, before observing them under the microscope. When our research was done, I put them into the fish tank along with Charles. They spent several hours swimming aimlessly into the glass wall, except for one, who flew too close to the sun and trespassed upon the large crabs burrow. Before long, our poor megalopae crab got sucker punched from below. The blow shattered his carapace and before long he was in the clutches of this behemoth: likely many months his senior. Like Mike Tyson, the larger crab began to beat the megalopae crab to a pulp, and all the fish watched in horror as he was gobbled up. Besides a single casualty, all organisms that were placed into the aquarium survived. Around 1300, a filefish was found hiding in a clump of sargassum, and after we had studied him, it was time for me to release him back into the wild. I scooped him up with my bare hands, and although he struggled a lot, he was trapped. I slid him off my hand into the deep blue sea along with the clump of sargassum he came with. Then, out of nowhere Horatio appeared behind me and told me that the fish fell on its side and died. Despite this terrible accusation, I refused to accept it, instead believing that Horatio was “rage baiting” me. Aiden backed my claim and although I am almost certain that the filefish survived the fall, we will never know. This is all the fish/crab drama that occurred today. (Tobi didn’t mention it but he also drew ducks)

Elana and Sydney (A-watch)

Elana- Mama and dad, I miss you guys so much, yet I am sad that this trip and experience is coming to an end. Say hi to all the pets for me please! I love y’all and can’t wait to see you soon. xoxo, E.

Sydney- Hi Mommy and Doof, I can’t tell you how much fun I am having on this trip. The things that I am experiencing and seeing, the friends and connections I made, it is just unbelievable. I am going to be so sad when this ends but I miss you guys so much. Please give hugs and kisses to the pets for me. I can’t wait to tell you about this when I get home. Love you guys so much, Sydney

Kiara and Tobi (A-Watch)

Kiara- Still alive. First night sucked but after the weather cooled off I was fine. I am fast approaching 24 hours without sleep. I think you’ll be happy to know that I talk to multiple people regularly. I hope you’re proud. Hide the Greenie under her toy box instead of inside it.

Tobi – If only I could bring Charles with me…