End is in Sight

Grace Doughty, C-Watch

Welcome to the SEA Corwith Cramer Blog, ladies and gents! Today marks an exciting day: our second-to-last full day on the boat! It also marks the end of 6-hour watches divided by A, B, and C groups. We’re only a few hours out of Boston at this point, and this evening all of the crew will be kept busy with anchor watches that last through dawn.

A Watch furls the jib

The end is in sight, and I’m unsure of how I feel about it. I don’t think I’ll be able to tell until I step off the ship and realize that I immediately want to go back. There are some things I won’t miss—the constant interrupted sleep, the urge to hurl in unsteady waters—but everything else is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. Also, the idea of once normal things seems foreign now. The ground not swaying beneath me? Staying for as long as I want in the shower? Nope, not possible.

As for our course, we’re currently only a few hours out from Boston. We’ve settled into motor-sailing until our return, and we’ll anchor in the harbor for the night. I believe our speed is currently around seven knots.

Tomorrow will be occupied with two essential events of the last day at sail: a Field Day, where we scrub the ship top to bottom, and a Swizzle, which is a celebration of community usually held on the final day of a voyage. Past students have been told that it’s a talent show, but we as a group were informed that talent is not required.

I hope the next edition’s writer talks about the Swizzle. I have some high expectations for the chaos we’ll present.

Along with the end to our time solely sailing, today also marks the conclusion of our final mission. The final mission was to, as unaided as possible by staff, conduct a Neuston Tow and a Surface Station and analyze the results to determine the amount and variety of zooplankton in various sections of the Gulf of Maine at select times. Each group delivered immensely and had incredible results, and our (growing) independence was shocking even to us. But many thanks should be given to the staff, of course, who we still would have probably failed without.

I can’t think of much else that occurred today, except for the megafauna sightings. The first was a blue shark incredibly close of the aft port side of the ship, barely a few meters away from the boat. It dipped up a few times above the water, enough so we could see its fin. Later, another shockingly close creature was found, this time a fin whale! I’ve never seen megafauna that close to the ship before, and to have two sightings of separate species in that range is rare. Overall, it was a very fulfilling morning for any marine biology nerds on the boat.

That’s all I have left to share. I think I’m going to go and sleep now.

Someone should have told me that sleep will become a luxury, and now I’m dying to get all I can of it.

Goodnight, then! Or… good morning? Good afternoon? I’m not sure what time it is anymore. My sleep schedule has never been so discombobulated.

We’ll see you when we get into the harbor!

Grace Doughty, C-Watch

(P. S. Hi Mommy!!! I haven’t had contact with you in almost two weeks; how crazy is that? Say hello to everyone for me, especially the dogs. I love

you!)