Programs Blog

Ana Beatriz Fernandes Costa, C Watch, Grinnell College

Ship’s Log

Noon Position
1323.72’S x 14545.40′

Ship Heading
000

Ship Speed
1.5 knots

Taffrail Log
431.6 nm

Weather / Wind / Sail Plan
Clear sky and light airs, Cumulus and Altocumulus, 32.5, Motorsailing

Description of location
French Polynesia, beautiful clear sky after the day of intense rain that was yesterday.

Souls on Board

All blogs from S-308

Hi everyone!

Writing in swinging tables while the boat is moving is always an interesting experience, but I’ll give it my best!

Days aboard the ship are a little different from what we are used to on land. As I like to see, our days are pretty much 18 hours long, including 6 hours of standing watch and 12 hours off, and then doing it all over again.

Last night, C Watch had quite a busy Evening watch, 1900 to 0100. Some of our shipmates were feeling a little bit under the weather due to the big swell we were experiencing, but we still pulled through and even got some science done! Even though I was not on science rotation, I still got to help out on lab when deploying the carrousel and performing pH analysis on our water samples. Besides it just being fun in general to be in the lab, it is always good to escape the heat in the lab’s AC!

While on deck, some of my responsibilities include doing boat checks, gathering and plotting our position, recording the weather, taking the helm, and many other little tasks that pop up here and there. My favorite part of night watches is definitely lookout. When on lookout, we get to stay in the most forward part of the boat, and we stay vigilant so that we can see ahead of time anything that might be of concern. This includes other boats, submerged containers, buoys, squall and rain clouds, etc. Last night, however, one of the main concerns was lightning. We had some rough weather coming into our watch, so every time I saw lightning, I would tell my mate.

I was also told to report immediately if I heard any thunder, but hopefully that didn’t happen. Whenever nothing noteworthy was happening, I would entertain myself by singing into the wind as there was no one there to hear me.

In a little while, C Watch will have a meeting so we can talk about how our next watch is going to be (we have afternoon watch, 1300 to 1900). I’m excited to know what we will be doing, especially since I believe there will be some data processing in the lab today. Other than that, at 1600 hundred we will be having class and, according to the schedule, it should be celestial navigation!

Also, there is a very special reason why I chose this day to post: it’s my best friend’s birthday! Happy birthday Elisa! I hope you are having a wonderful birthday day!

And for my family: Eu quero dizer que eu estou beme que eu estou amando essa estar aqui. Eu espero que estajam todos bem e eu mal posso esperar para falar com todo mundo quando eu voltar. Estou com muita saudade e amo muito todos!

Ana Beatriz Fernandes Costa, C Watch, Grinnell College