Programs Blog

Colette Shaw, C Watch, Eckerd College and  Nina Mewborne. A watch, American University Talia Felcher, A watch, Scripps College

Ship’s Log

Noon Position
35° 28.718’ N 130° 45.643’ W

Ship Heading
103.3°

Ship Speed
5.9 knots

Weather / Wind
cloudy, Beaufort force of 3
Sail Plan
Mains’l, Mainstays’l, Forestays’l, and Jib

Latest Neuston tow plastic count
176

Souls on Board

Hello all, due to the fact that there is no internet available on board, we have been living the phone free life. It’s a wonderful and very conversational way to live, but it is very hard to efficiently answer questions that come up in conversation. I have taken the liberty of recording things that I want to google later, in the order in which they’ve occurred to me. Some have been answered by my classmates and the crew, others remain unanswered, and I encourage you to fall down any of these potential Wikipedia rabbit holes.

Colette enjoying the view!

How long can one wear a pair of socks safely?

What does two G’s of gravity feel like? (prompted by an estimation of the motion I feel in my bunk)

How fast do fingernails grow back?

Where IS Cornell? (answered promptly by the student and two alumni on board)

Is it hard to grow earl grey tea?

What are the chemicals that kill your microbiome?

How many times is the average T-shirt worn?

Forgotten Traditional American Crafts

How to whittle

How to spell bouy? buoy? (answered with a dictionary)

How do you order from the Amish catalogue?  Is the Amish Catalogue online?  Do they accept credit cards?

What are the seven wonders of the world?

Who was Ernest Shackleton’s navigator again? (Cap knew that one.)

Duluth Trading company overalls

Why are boat dreams so vivid?

What is a coding decision tree and how does it work?

Sarasota bulk packaging-free supermarkets Where does the recycling go really?

Where are kiwi fruits from?

Do people eat the skins of kiwi fruits?

Map of where different sharks live

Where are the Azores?

Light pollution map

In addition to the various questions that arise when we are Wikipedia-less, we also tend to get a bit more creative. During dawn watch, when we’ve been up for many hours and while the rest of the ship is asleep, we are only able to see by our night vision or the occasional red light that helps us not step on each other. During some of these dawn watches, while in lab, we write haikus. These haikus tend to start off more coherent, but often get more confusing as the watch goes on. Some haikus become so “creative” that we can’t even explain what we were trying to say. Here is a short sampling of some of those haikus:

Once upon a time

Cap did say “Hey you’re that rope!”

But I’m “afrayed knot”

Black Glaucus dressed in

A Halobates costume

On Halloween night

Why am I awake?

Oh I’m a woman in STEM

My life is sails now

Colette Shaw, C Watch, Eckerd College

Nina Mewborne. A watch, American University Talia Felcher, A watch, Scripps College

P.S. Mom (Ariane Wolf), if you’re reading this please make me an orthodontist appointment for my bottom retainer that’s half broken before we leave to New York – Talia P.P.S. Mom (Liz Mewborne), I don’t need an orthodontist appointment, I just wanted to say hi <3  -Nina