Programs Blog

Author: Piper Browne (she/they), A Watch, Emerson College

Ship’s Log

Saturday, 29 June 2024

Position at Noon: 20 deg 28.9′ S, 160 deg 59.9′ W
Ship Heading (degrees): 310 deg
Ship Speed (knots): 1.5 kn
Log (nm):  854.5
Weather / Wind: Sunny, 4-6 ft swells, Beaufort Force 4
Description of location: Northwest of Rarotonga
Whale Sightings: 3

The ship is as busy as ever as we move on to from Rarotonga to Palmerston.
My day started at 1 AM with a dawn watch where I spent the morning sketching
lab safety diagrams and logging a copious amount of Copepods from
yesterday’s 2330 Neuston Tow. A Watch was filtering in and out of the lab
all morning to study up as students prepare to take a more active role in
running the ship, and that landed me a nice job on a sunrise lookout from
0600-0700 at the end of my watch. Seeing as it was the most beautiful
sunrise I’ve seen in a while, I sacrificed some sleep for an hour and half
sketch of the sea and sky. I’ve already been drawing a lot in my personal
journal this voyage, but last night our Chief Scientist Skye showed me some
pen-watercolors of all the islands she’s been to over the years, and if the
natural beauty around me hadn’t inspired me yet, that certainly did.

After my morning sketch, I washed up, spent an hour trying to get a
particularly stubborn estrogen patch to stick to my arm – now fastened with
some med tape and my bandana – and put one earplug in for my only two hours
of rest of the day during which three whales were spotted by the crew on
deck. Pictures of those will probably sneak their way onto the blog in the
coming days, sorry I don’t have any. In my sleepless state I’d managed to
convince myself that my second watch today was 1300-1900 rather than the
true 1900-0100 upcoming shift, but I had to be up anyways for the incredible
occasion of Field Day.

Field Day is a two-hour session of deep cleaning the Seamans. For me, that
meant etching away at stovetops and gunky corners in the galley to all the
greatest hits downloaded on Hunter’s phone. ACDC and Harry Styles aren’t
exactly my style, but the work would probably have been more unbearable with
the ambiance of humming air conditioning and the clunking of dishwashing.
Hopefully this night watch doesn’t leave me completely dead, but I’m not
sure I have high hopes for the rest of this 24-hour day.

Love to all my family back home and a special thanks to Sam for inciting my
new doodling habit.

Piper Browne (she/they), A Watch, Emerson College