Programs Blog

From the entire ship’s company, crew and students alike, thank you Peter for being a great shipmate and inspired educator.

Numerous times on this voyage we have witnessed a “Green Flash”; at spectacular sunsets and to bring on a luminous rising sun. This flash, or spark, is no stuff off romantic legend but an atmospheric phenomenon where blue and violet wavelengths are scattered and shorter red/orange/yellow wavelengths are the first to actually set below the horizon. Left behind is only a greenish-white image of the top of the sun like a bright diamond splinter. We may not have a chance to witness it every day. But knowing the wonder is out there is part of the journey.

At the same time, rocking and heeling through rough seas or rolling calms, the students have twined their own wavelengths to share works of science and art, inspired by observations, writings, paintings, and drawings. These have been centered by their journals- indeed, works of science and art that stand alone and were presented last week at L’Exhibition Internationale du Corwith Cramer au Mer, attended by luminaries from the C277 community.

The commitment and confidence of these sailors/artists/scientists, beginning with those frigid early days back in January at SEA’s Woods Hole Campus, is truly remarkable. They have embarked on their mythological journeys with energy and compassion. And this life-skill (I prefer to call Art and Science Nature Journaling) has brought forth inferences, imaginings, and expressions that will remain with them long after they step ashore in Key West at the close of the voyage.

It may pass like the glinting fire of a Green Flash. But the memory has been an awesome privilege to be a part of. What a wonderful gathering of human beings. C277, Rock on!

– Peter C. Stone, Author / Artist / Instructor