Programs Blog

October 8, 2024
Location: Port Denarau, Fiji

My name is Brooke Grasberger, and I’ve been teaching Marine Environmental History for the Oceans and Climate Program. After six weeks of teaching and getting to know our wonderful students in Woods Hole, I arrived in Fiji on October 4th and began getting to know the Robert C. Seamans—our floating home and workspace for the next six weeks.

Students arrived on Sunday, and after a quick introduction, a meal, and some rest time, they started getting oriented to living and working aboard ship: breaking into watches (five students, one mate, and one scientist per watch), learning the basics of the ship as well as some elements of its operation, like line handling and safety, getting oriented to our galley (kitchen) procedures and how meals work, orientation to our ship’s lab as well as practicing a science deployment dockside—alot to take in! Especially after such a long day, more than a day, of travel. But luckily our professional crew are excellent and experienced, and they’ve been taking great care of us.

We expected to get underway yesterday, but we had some delays (biosecurity regulations are on the rise!) and so this morning instead of writing to you from sea I’m writing from the dock in Port Denarau with the barest of movement in our hull and everything sitting pretty much level. Though it’s frustrating to delay our sailing even for a day, we’ve made good use of our extra port time. Students got set up on our ship’s intranet, so they’re connected to our lab and library computers. In addition, we were able to put on harnesses and climb the rigging—a memorable experience even without the sea’s motion.

We’re getting ready to cast off today; if you’d like to follow our ship’s track as we head north to Tuvalu and beyond, you can find it here: https://sea.edu/explore/sea-ships/

Our (Top-Notch) Crew:

Rick Miller, Captain
Claudia Mazur, Chief Scientist

Brooke Grasberger, Maritime Studies Professor

Rocky Bonner, Chief Mate
Hila Shooter, Second Mate
Spatch Patulak, Third Mate
JC Parker, Engineer
Sam Barresi, Assistant Engineer
Tobi, Steward
Tom, Assistant Steward
Süpi Vallas, First Scientist
Katherine Rigney, Second Scientist
Matthew Lawson, Third Scientist
Jackie O’Malley, Mate-in-Training
Gus McGuire, Deckhand
Francesca Johnson, Deckhand