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You can probably write a haiku about that

February 27, 2024

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Ship’s Log

February 26, 2024

Hello from Aotearoa New Zealand!Today, I was woken up at 0030 by my shipmate Tiegan for dawn watch. It waschilly on deck, but there wasn’t enough wind to sail and so we were motoringalong with our sails along the middle of the ship.Kristin and I started off the watch strong by picking out fluffs and seedsfrom our Neuston tow samples. Fluffs are these little white seeds that floatover the ship when we are near land and get caught up in our tows. Theship’s chief engineer Marshall believes them to be interdimensional. Despitethe fluff, we persisted and eventually had a graduated cylinder full ofplankton we would take the biomass of and use for our 100 count.A 100 count is when we take a random scoop of plankton, put it under themicroscope and count the first 100 organisms we see. We counted so manycopepods, and said the word copepod so many times copepod didn’t seem like areal word anymore. We decided to write a haiku about it:Copepodscopepod copepod cope cod? copepod cope pe podDelphine and Alex also wrote this haiku, which I feel describes dawn watchperfectly:Dawn WatchLove hate relationShip cruising in the dark nightJust a fever dreamAt the end of dawn watch, we see the sun rise, eat breakfast and go to bed.One of my favorite parts of dawn watch is how little sense that order ofevents would make in any other context. There have been so many new rhythmsand ways of thinking to learn on board so far. I feel sometimes like I amrelearning how to walk, both in a figurative and literal sense as I try totraverse the ship, ricocheting off the walls as I go. Thankfully, theprofessional crew of the Bobby C, who have all mastered the art of walkingand move around the ship with an ease that still confounds me, provide uswith constant streams of wisdom, patience and encouragement.Halfway through today, the wind picked up and we needed to take down theMains’l. While we were furling the Main, a huge pod of dolphins (AT LEAST700) swam up to the boat, playing and jumping in the waves as they went. Myshipmates Delphine and Alex wrote this wonderful haiku about it:So many dolphinsJumping, spinning through the wavesSlay dolphins, so slayWe celebrated Prof. Dan Brayton’s birthday today as well! A secret messagewas passed along to the ship, so we celebrated with a surprise partyincluding his favorite lemon pound cake. The dolphins were a great birthdaygift, but the company of amazing shipmates can’t top it.Just a few minutes ago, as I was finishing up this blog post, our logreached 1000 nautical miles! Katie rounded us all up on deck to do thecelebratory egg dance, which was a lot of fun and is difficult to explain inonly words. Thanks to Cam, I’ve included a picture.Hello to the family in Albany, and to Ben in Minnesota! Amelia and Vivi, Ihope all is well in England! I miss you guys and love you all and will callyou soon when we get to Wellington!Bethany Quist, C Watch, Boston University ’25

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