Programs Blog

Craig Marin, Maritime Studies

Ship’s Log

Noon Position

20° 41.7′ N x 124° 01.7′ W

Steering and Speed

170° psc. Averaging 8 knots

Log run

949.2 nm

Weather, Wind, Sail Plan

Winds NE Force 2, motor sailing under the trys’l, main stays’l, and fore stays’l

800 nautical miles SW of San Diego

Souls on Board

All blogs from S-305

Greetings from the Aft Cabin!

As we enter the tropics (we crossed the Tropic of Cancer yesterday afternoon), I am pleased to report that all onboard are in high spirits and adjusting very well to life at sea.

As an “other,” (I don’t stand a watch in the cycle of 18 hours) and as part of the Sailing Faculty, I have the distinct pleasure and honor of witnessing, both in the daylight hours and the evening and morning twilight periods (I do take a little time for sleep), all of our watchstanding crew, students and professionals alike, successfully manage the work of the ship.

The potentially daunting tasks, ranging from science deployments and sample processing to sail handling and navigation, are becoming more routine for those members of the crew who are new to the ship, and everyone is finding that mental bandwidth and the energy to devote to non-watchstanding activities like reading, journaling, playing musical instruments, building marlinspike craft skills, learning new card games, and tackling the adventure of doing laundry by hand in a 5-gallon bucket.

I look forward to witnessing (and lending a hand in) even more learning as we set and strike new sails, collect and process more data, and continue to support one another in this shipboard learning community we have created.

Stay tuned for more details in our upcoming blogs!

Fair Winds to all of our readers!

Craig Marin

Maritime Studies