News
Finding Time to Rest and Reflect
Molly Ryan, the University of Vermont
Ship’s Log
Present Location
12° 02.528’ N x 61° 45.750’ W
Ship’s Heading, Speed and Sail Plan
Anchored in Grenada!
Weather
As I write this, the wind is warm but refreshing and the sea is calm, it’s a lovely evening with violin and guitar being played on the quarter deck.
I’m not going to lie, I was supposed to write this blog post yesterday, even the one for today has been written already. I am really out of touch with deadlines and real world timing, which I think is a good thing? Yesterday was starboard watch group’s first day off since we started our journey on the Corwith Cramer on Feb 10th. It was our first day with no watch schedule, no setting sails and even no chores! This day off gave us a chance to reflect on the past two weeks of really doing what we signed up to do, sailing on the Corwith Cramer in the Caribbean. Not much happened yesterday for our watch group, there was a lot of relaxing and napping on the beach which resulted in some sunburns (sorry parents, but all is under control), but it gave me the chance to think about some really special moments that I have been really grateful to experience.
Me at the end of a long dawn watch approaching Grenada, really captures the vibe of dawn watch
All of these moments have happened away from social media and the ‘real world’ which is a pretty cool feeling. On my first dawn watch, 0100-0700, a time that I previously would never want to be awake for, it is a really cool and empowering feeling steering the ship (usually a little off, sorry Megan) and setting sails with B Watch (the Best watch) while everyone slept safely. While on these night/early morning/ generally dark watches, I have really grown to appreciate the night sky absolutely full of stars as well as the ocean sparkling right back, full of life and bioluminescence. Watches are definitely tiring, but also when will I ever be up for the hours 1-7 am sailing in the Caribbean again? More awesome dawn watch moments: going onto the bow sprit in big rolling waves pulling down sails while the stars are still sparkling but the sun is warming the sky. While my hands are looking a little gnarly, it is super cool to be responsible for directing Cramer in the right direction.
Watch supporting in blue during the very stressful line chase.
Sailing on Cramer reminds me a lot of summer camp, except there is a lot more work, sometime we have to wake up at 1 am to count zooplankton or spend the day hauling sails up and down. This blog post is taking so long to write (again, sorry Jeff) because after cleaning for many hours after snorkeling, it was swim call time! Jumping off the bow sprit with a really great group of people, while anchored at a Caribbean island is really unforgettable. While there are so so many examples to prove how special this experience has been, I will end it on this evening.
The quarterdeck currently has two guitars (Savi and Adam), two ukes (Peter and Cat) and a violin (Sophie). While they play in harmony, students are gathered around silently drawing, painting, reading or just hanging out. I keep running back and forth from the sweaty library and I think it is time to sign off and go experience Camp Cramer!
– Molly Ryan, the University of Vermont
PS: Hi family and friends that I sent the link to instead of explaining everything, I love and miss you all and can’t wait to annoy you with sailing stories! Also to ease my parents minds, my pinky is all healed, more blisters from sailing are joining the hand, let me know if you want pics of my hand still looking icky 😉