Programs Blog

Author: Chelsea Moody, B Watch, Bowdoin College ’25

Ship’s Log

February 21, 2024

Position: 38° 54.312’S and 179°28.060’W

Heading: 100° true

Speed: 7.7 Knots

Distance: 567

Weather: Today we’re riding 5-6 foot waves, with southeasterly winds at a
Beaufort 4. Cumulus and altocumulus clouds are blanketing about half the
sky.

A hearty hello from sea! We’re the furthest offshore we’ve been all trip –
about 100 nautical miles from land. Today was a busy day. I started off my
morning watch with my stomach full of gingerbread pancakes, ready for my
first full day of wearing long pants while aboard. B Watch’s victory in the
pin rail chase yesterday served us well: we raised the jibtops’l and the
fisherman stays’l with confidence! To be honest, I’m still riding the high
of winning yesterday – and riding the high of getting to climb on the head
rig. The waves were giving us a bit of a roll around in the early morning,
which made for a bouncy, but fun ride for me as a lookout. By the end of
watch we were starting to cruise along, and were joined by some albatross. I
also tried my hand at data wizard-ing for the science team during our
carousel deployment, racing to write down all the necessary information.

During the afternoon we made a landmark crossing: we went over
the International Date Line, so we’re officially in yesterday! Hello western
hemisphere (does it look the same? Yes. Can we still be ridiculously excited
about it? Also yes)! While we’re keeping the date the same on the ship, it
feels cool to do a bit of time travel. Afternoon snack today felt like a
mini celebration of this crossing, with apple crisp and homemade whipped
cream eaten on deck. Some people bravely volunteered to complete the
strenuous task of finishing the whipped cream – I’ll let you guess who. I’ll
be hitting an early bedtime tonight, with a 04:30 wake up tomorrow for my
day as the student steward (although to be honest I’m not sure I’ve gone to
bed past 21:30 – sailing will really get ya on an early bedtime schedule).

I’m signing off as blog writer for now, but worry not, I’ll be
back at it! A special shout-out to my family, both immediate and chosen – l
love and miss you KM, BM, LM, AR, CB, LB, MS, and VA!

https://sea.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/S313_2_21_photo1small.jpg