Here Comes the Sun

Tess Madnick & Gabby McCalpin, A Watch/ Ethel Walker School & New York Harbor School

What a great day! Today was a first for everything as we all transitioned into A, B, and C watches! For the first time on our voyage we will be sailing 24/7; this means that we will have groups on watch also for 24/7! We started our day in Gloucester expecting to set sail early this morning, but due to an abundance of heavy fog in the harbor, our voyage was postponed to around noon. While we waited, B watch organized the deck while we went on small boat rides around Gloucester Harbor. Eventually we were able to safely leave and we were underway. At 1300, A Watch started their watch.

The sky began to fully clear up as we lost sight of land. Throughout the afternoon we conducted 5 science deployments which are all being processed tonight! The science deployments included the Secchi Disc (a tool used measure of how far light reaches under water), the Neuston Net (used to collect zooplankton from the ocean's surface), the phytoplankton net (used to collect phytoplankton from near the surface of the ocean), the carousel (used to collect water samples from different ocean depths), and finally the ShipEk Grab (used to collect a sample from the sea floor). As well as very interesting science, the sailing was great! The water was a lot calmer than the day before, but we still had nice amounts of wind coming into Jeffrey's Ledge.  We ended the day with a beautiful sunset and calm waters. Overall we are so happy the sun and clear skies came to join us today after a foggy morning.-Tess Madnick, Starboard/A Watch, The Ethel Walker School & Gabby McCalpin,

Port/A Watch, New York Harbor School

Contact: Douglas Karlson, Director of Communications, 508-444-1918 | dkarlson@sea.edu