Programs Blog
Volleyball on Mo’orea
June 20, 2024
Author: Zeke Reilly, Grinnell College
It’s our 6th day in Mo’orea, we have been staying at the UC Berkeley Gump Station, nestled on the Northwest side of Cook’s Bay just south of the town Piha’ena. This transitory home has offered us a comfortable stay while ashore in French Polynesia. Adapting to life in Mo’orea has been a subtle transition, with time passing swiftly. The notion of “island time” doesn’t entirely capture this accelerated pace; instead, our intensive classroom sessions seem to be responsible.
While our academic pursuits are essential for our upcoming voyage across the Southwestern Pacific, the yearning to set sail and engage in practical sailing and scientific tasks grows with each passing day. Amongst the sea of coursework and the mounting excitement for our expedition, a curious preoccupation lingers in my mind—volleyball. The approaching matches with the residents of Palmerston Island have taken on a newfound significance since the details of our visit were unveiled. The unassuming authorities of Palmerston Island, with its small population residing on a remote Pacific atoll, seemed to raise no alarms with our visit and were more concerned about arranging volleyball games than anything else.
When Captain Rebeca prudently shared this information, it became evident that some serious preparation was in order—especially glaring when our initial attempts on the court left room for improvement to say the least. The absence of dedicated practice time raises questions in my mind. Why hasn’t the facility allocated specific hours for honing our volleyball skills, considering the imminent challenge ahead? The peculiarity of this oversight adds a touch of bemusement to our days in paradise, underscoring the mix of anticipation and whimsy that characterizes our time in Mo’orea.
-Zeke
Recent Posts from the Ships
- SEA Writer 2022, Magazines From the Summer SEA Quest Students
- PIPA Alumni Reconnect with Children of Kanton
- Woods Hole Welcomes Incoming Class of PEP Students
- Muhlenberg Student Finds Perfect Study Abroad Experience with SEA Semester
- SEA Student Describes Pacific Exploration for University of Denver News
Programs
- Gap Year
- Ocean Exploration
- High School
- Science at SEA
- SEA Expedition
- SEAScape
- Pre-College
- Proctor Ocean Classroom
- Protecting the Phoenix Islands
- Sargassum Ecosystem
- SPICE
- Stanford@SEA
- Undergraduate
- Climate and Society
- Climate Change and Coastal Resilience
- Coral Reef Conservation
- Marine Biodiversity and Conservation
- MBL
- Ocean Exploration: Plastics
- Ocean Policy: Marine Protected Areas
- Oceans and Climate
- Pacific Reef Expedition
- S-299 Summer Session
- The Global Ocean: Hawai'i
- The Global Ocean: New Zealand