Programs Blog

Cate Humphries and Franny Lux

Ship’s Log

Noon Position
18° 58.7’ N, 155° 19.5’ W

Ship Heading
200° PSC

Ship Speed
7 knots

Taffrail Log
3081 nautical miles

Weather / Wind / Sail Plan
Wind NExE F5, seas NExE 8’, clouds 6/8 Cu, Ac, St, sailing on a port tack broad reach under the stays’ls and the jib

Description of location
Off the southern coast of Hawaii (the big island!)

Souls on Board

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Cate (C watch): My day started at 0030 when I was woken up for dawn watch. We took the deck at 0100 and began our rotation. Jack was the first JWO (Junior Watch Officer) and Beanz and I were swapping between helm and lookout. We battled a few squalls, wearing full foul weather gear all of watch. Then at 0232 while on lookout, Beanz saw lights on the horizon – our first sighting of land since we left the Marquesas three weeks ago! After some excitement on the quarter deck and another go at lookout for me, I took over JWO for the rest of watch. Just before reaching our next waypoint at around 0600 I got the news that we were going to gybe. We did so just before 0630 when we reached our waypoint – this was my first time calling a gybe! Everything went smoothly and after a lot of cranking on the jib sheet winch we were sailing on a port tack again for the first time in what felt like forever. Once we finished gybing and recounting funny dawn watch stories to our friends on A watch it was just about time for turnover.

Franny (A watch): After Cate and C watch signed off A watch took the deck! Cate handed off JWO to me, with the ceremonious donning of the JWO vest. Quickly into the watch the wind picked up to a force 5 and we sailed along happily at 6 knots. The mission for my three hours of junior watch officering was to double gybe the boat and hove to for our CTD carousel and neuston net deployments. We spent most of the trip on a starboard tack, so we only needed to gybe once for our deployments. A double gybe wasn’t really any harder, but definitely a few more steps.  We did our gybes and then it was time for science. My JWO was done so I handed the vest off to Noelle who lead us through the deployments and back onto course.

Both: After we both got some rest, A and C watch got to eat dinner all together. After dinner, the two of us did star frenzy together along with Jo, Ruthann, and Carla from B watch. I scribed while Franny and the others shot the stars with their sextants. Franny got a really good fix! All in all it was a really fun day.

Signing off, happy Star Wars day and may the fourth be with you all.

P.S. Happy birthday mum and Owen! I love you both! – Cate

Cate Humphries and Franny Lux

Barnard College and University of New Hampshire

Ana and Cate during JWO phase.