T’was the night before anchor…

Anna Capitano, B Watch, College of the Atlantic

T’was the night before anchor, when all through the boat, MOST people were sleeping as we were afloat.

Today began at 0100 when B Watch took to the deck. We gybed all morning past St. Thomas and St. John each of us rotating through positions from the helm, lookout, and to a new position in the science lab called “finish your change project!” We have all been working on individual research projects that we began back on campus in Woods Hole. Some of our time on the ship and in port has been spent doing research and making observations covering topics such as gender, music, tourism, food, colonialism, climate change, seabirds, poetry and so much more!! Posters presenting our findings were due today at 1430 and B Watch worked diligently (and deliriously) all morning to meet that deadline.

By sunrise, heavy-eyed and sleep deprived, we turned over to C Watch and they graciously brought us to anchor in Cruz Bay to clear customs while B Watch power napped. Many of us had the most delightful experience clearing U.S. customs that we’ve ever had. After handing over passports we all got the best (soursop, mango, banana, guava, passionfruit) smoothies from a wonderful man named Thomas and then a few of us treated ourselves even more and got french fries from another place while waiting for the next boat run back to the Cramer. So far, we love St. John. Then we returned to Cramer and had lunch and continued working on our projects until 1430 when we began our change project poster session. Everyone’s presentations were wonderful and it was amazing to see all of our work come together. The crew asked many great questions of all of us and it was such an engaging afternoon that we even went over our scheduled presentation time!!

Cramer sailing under the squares’ls and main stays’l looking glorious on our last long sail of the trip

We closed the afternoon with one of our favorite events…SWIMMM CALLLLLLL!!! At 1745, the pool opened and our lifeguard was on duty i.e. 2nd Mate Boson Megan Frey standing midships on the portside rail leaning dramatically over Maho Bay as we jumped off the bowsprit and into the water. It was golden hour and the sunset was truly amazing. Arguably, this swim call was the swim call to beat all swim calls.

Today is also a holiday. It’s 2nd Scientist, Jordan Eckstein’s birthday!! We all serenaded her with a beautiful cover of her favorite song, “Happy Birthday” and get this…we got ice cream!!! The ice cream brought elation, uncontrollable laughter, and did bring some of us to actual tears. It has been a while since we’ve had ice cream, okay. It was a big deal. If you’re reading this please wish Jordan a Happy Birthday in the comments below!!

P.S. I love you, Nana, Mom, Dad, Kirsten, Ben, & Ben 2 <3 Eat more garlic.

Anna Capitano, College of the Atlantic