SEA Journal - Second Installment
4/2/09 2324
[...] After class, I hung around on deck. I helped shuck corn for dinner and throw the rotten fruit overboard. We store all of our fruit in nets and it's starting to smell over-ripe. We moved all the oranges to the reefer, preened the lemons and left the pineapple to deal with later.
Oh yeah, also during lunch, Kyle recounted the story of how he stole Devin's clothes. I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt. Devin dropped off one of his bags a couple days early and it ended up in gear adrift. Kyle and this other crewman who left were cleaning out gear adrift and thought they had found the jackpot when they went through Devin's bag. Kyle took all of Devin's clothes that fit him. Later, when we all arrived on the boat, Kyle started to notice something fishy. He was wearing one of our S-222 shirts and someone made a comment about it so he went and changed (into another one of Devin's shirts). When we went to the fish market, he was completely dressed in Devin's clothes and Devin noticed, but he felt awkward approaching Kyle about it. So Devin talked to Amy who talked to Kyle. Ever since then, whenever anyone is missing something (especially Devin) they go ask Kyle if he's seen it. [...]
4/3/09 1627
Sextants are so heavy. OMG. I took 3 sights today. One at 0900, LAN (Local Apparent Noon), and one at 1500 in hopes of completing a running fix. Unfortunately, I didn't swing enough so my LAN sight was inaccurate. Then the 1500 sight was too parallel to my 0900 sight to get a good fix. I'll have to try again tomorrow. [...]
4/4/09 0318
Maybe that whole me skipping my shower thing was a bad idea. Now that it's not raining anymore, it's gotten really humid and I'm starting to smell rank.
They did a meter tow at 2200 and caught a pyrosome - which was cool.
I was so uncomfortable all through watch because I sunburned my knees today and my salt-water soaked shorts kept scratching against it. I just put some aloe on. [...]
I'm glad that I'm finally starting to have fun. I've completely gotten over my seasickness (except for a short bout of nausea during lunch when I was overcome by the memory of puking up macaroni and cheese and feeling it get caught in my nose while I tried to avoid puking before getting above deck. I really regretted putting it on my plate but I ate it anyway). [...]
4/4/09 2107
[After Field Day] Everyone else got to take salt water showers w/ a fresh water rinse but A Watch had to wait since we were still on watch. We had a lovely rest of watch, gorgeous weather, lots of people lounging on the quarterdeck, a ukelele trio performing on the top of the main cabin. We even saw a rainbow.
After dinner, we were all planning to go up on deck for our salt water showers when we got word that we had been given special permission by the engineers to take fresh water showers below deck to avoid using the deck shower at night. It was very exciting. After I showered, I put on a clean dress and sat on deck w/ Katie for a bit. A couple stars were out and I saw Saturn. Then I read for a bit and now I am going to sleep!
4/5/09 0934
I've got the whole day off and nothing to do. Now if only it wasn't squally again. I got rained on a bunch during dawn watch. Welcome to the edge of the ITCZ.
The sun is going to be directly overhead in an hour. We calculated when the sun's declination would equal our expected latitude this morning. [...]
4/5/09 2309
What a sweaty watch. It rained all afternoon. The radar was a huge green blob of squalls. The entire 24nm range of the radar was squalls. So, I put on my neoprene booties and foulies - ready for the nasty weather. At the watch change, we struck the mains'l and raised the storm trys'l. It is on a track right next to the mains'l, but it is smaller and not attached to the boom. And then the squalls stopped.
It didn't rain a drop over our entire watch.
Meanwhile, I changed my shoes because my feet were overheating and continued to sweat in my foulie pants.
Now that we're at 5 degrees north, we're on the North Equatorial Counter Current and in the ITCZ. It's noticeably more hot and humid. It makes chips go stale really fast.
We had a lot of good food today. Afternoon snack was spinach and artichoke dip w/ crackers. Dinner was burritoes. Yum! Unfortunately, I ate too much snack to pig out on burritoes. [...]
4/6/09 1947
I feel like today is the first time I really realized that I'm in the middle of the ocean. It's such an isolating feeling to suddenly realize that you're in the remotest part of the remotest part of the world. [...]
I did laundry today w/ Ryan. I definitely could have brought more clothes. We washed our clothes in salt water. Then did a fresh water rinse and hung them on the leeward side to dry. I'm not sure if they're actually any cleaner (there are a lot of stains) but at least they don't smell anymore!
I'm so happy the weather has improved. I feel like my standard of living has increased tenfold. It was starting to smell pretty rank in Sleepy Hollow as the number of dirty, wet clothes increased. Today we were able to open the vents and air it out, which made a huge difference.
We're starting to move into Phase 2, which is exciting. I feel like I'm learning a lot. Now that all the basic stuff has sunk in, I feel like I'm ready to put all the pieces together.
4/7/09 0330
I saw the Southern Cross and Scorpio tonight! I need to learn more stars. [...]
I drew Christmas Island on the plotting chart - I was very proud of it. We're only 1 degree of latitude away! So exciting. We'll probably get there early and sail in circles for a bit. I got sunburned on the back of my leg. I also put my sleeping bag away because my bunk was getting too hot. [...]
4/7/09 2019
I have been sailing over 1000nm. Christmas Island showed up on the radar, so we are currently sailing in a box while we wait for morning. [...]
During class, we talked about sea level rise. It's really intense to think that tomorrow I will be visiting a place that probably won't exist in 100 years. Kirimati is only 2m above sea level and there is already too much global warming to stop it from disappearing. [...]
I also poked my head in the engine room this morning, McKenzie and James were taking apart the port generator to try and figure out what's wrong with it. On the first night, the high temperature alarm went off and it hasn't worked since. They eventually figured out that the exhaust was bleeding into the coolant, so they are inspecting and replacing parts to figure out the issue. I was there when they took off the exhaust manifold. There was an intense layer of carbon all the way through it. It was cool. [...]
GLOSSARY
reefer = refrigerator
Kyle = assistant steward
Devin = student
Amy = chief scientist
pyrosome = sweet gelatinous organism
Field Day = once a week, we do an in-depth cleaning of the ship and listen to music
ITCZ = inter-tropical convergence zone
Sleepy Hollow = name of hallway with student bunks in the aft (back) part of the ship, that's right - I wasn't in the fo'c'sle.
Christmas Island = Kirimati
McKenzie = assistant engineer
James = engineer
[...] After class, I hung around on deck. I helped shuck corn for dinner and throw the rotten fruit overboard. We store all of our fruit in nets and it's starting to smell over-ripe. We moved all the oranges to the reefer, preened the lemons and left the pineapple to deal with later.
Oh yeah, also during lunch, Kyle recounted the story of how he stole Devin's clothes. I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt. Devin dropped off one of his bags a couple days early and it ended up in gear adrift. Kyle and this other crewman who left were cleaning out gear adrift and thought they had found the jackpot when they went through Devin's bag. Kyle took all of Devin's clothes that fit him. Later, when we all arrived on the boat, Kyle started to notice something fishy. He was wearing one of our S-222 shirts and someone made a comment about it so he went and changed (into another one of Devin's shirts). When we went to the fish market, he was completely dressed in Devin's clothes and Devin noticed, but he felt awkward approaching Kyle about it. So Devin talked to Amy who talked to Kyle. Ever since then, whenever anyone is missing something (especially Devin) they go ask Kyle if he's seen it. [...]
4/3/09 1627
Sextants are so heavy. OMG. I took 3 sights today. One at 0900, LAN (Local Apparent Noon), and one at 1500 in hopes of completing a running fix. Unfortunately, I didn't swing enough so my LAN sight was inaccurate. Then the 1500 sight was too parallel to my 0900 sight to get a good fix. I'll have to try again tomorrow. [...]
4/4/09 0318
Maybe that whole me skipping my shower thing was a bad idea. Now that it's not raining anymore, it's gotten really humid and I'm starting to smell rank.
They did a meter tow at 2200 and caught a pyrosome - which was cool.
I was so uncomfortable all through watch because I sunburned my knees today and my salt-water soaked shorts kept scratching against it. I just put some aloe on. [...]
I'm glad that I'm finally starting to have fun. I've completely gotten over my seasickness (except for a short bout of nausea during lunch when I was overcome by the memory of puking up macaroni and cheese and feeling it get caught in my nose while I tried to avoid puking before getting above deck. I really regretted putting it on my plate but I ate it anyway). [...]
4/4/09 2107
[After Field Day] Everyone else got to take salt water showers w/ a fresh water rinse but A Watch had to wait since we were still on watch. We had a lovely rest of watch, gorgeous weather, lots of people lounging on the quarterdeck, a ukelele trio performing on the top of the main cabin. We even saw a rainbow.
After dinner, we were all planning to go up on deck for our salt water showers when we got word that we had been given special permission by the engineers to take fresh water showers below deck to avoid using the deck shower at night. It was very exciting. After I showered, I put on a clean dress and sat on deck w/ Katie for a bit. A couple stars were out and I saw Saturn. Then I read for a bit and now I am going to sleep!
4/5/09 0934
I've got the whole day off and nothing to do. Now if only it wasn't squally again. I got rained on a bunch during dawn watch. Welcome to the edge of the ITCZ.
The sun is going to be directly overhead in an hour. We calculated when the sun's declination would equal our expected latitude this morning. [...]
4/5/09 2309
What a sweaty watch. It rained all afternoon. The radar was a huge green blob of squalls. The entire 24nm range of the radar was squalls. So, I put on my neoprene booties and foulies - ready for the nasty weather. At the watch change, we struck the mains'l and raised the storm trys'l. It is on a track right next to the mains'l, but it is smaller and not attached to the boom. And then the squalls stopped.
It didn't rain a drop over our entire watch.
Meanwhile, I changed my shoes because my feet were overheating and continued to sweat in my foulie pants.
Now that we're at 5 degrees north, we're on the North Equatorial Counter Current and in the ITCZ. It's noticeably more hot and humid. It makes chips go stale really fast.
We had a lot of good food today. Afternoon snack was spinach and artichoke dip w/ crackers. Dinner was burritoes. Yum! Unfortunately, I ate too much snack to pig out on burritoes. [...]
4/6/09 1947
I feel like today is the first time I really realized that I'm in the middle of the ocean. It's such an isolating feeling to suddenly realize that you're in the remotest part of the remotest part of the world. [...]
I did laundry today w/ Ryan. I definitely could have brought more clothes. We washed our clothes in salt water. Then did a fresh water rinse and hung them on the leeward side to dry. I'm not sure if they're actually any cleaner (there are a lot of stains) but at least they don't smell anymore!
I'm so happy the weather has improved. I feel like my standard of living has increased tenfold. It was starting to smell pretty rank in Sleepy Hollow as the number of dirty, wet clothes increased. Today we were able to open the vents and air it out, which made a huge difference.
We're starting to move into Phase 2, which is exciting. I feel like I'm learning a lot. Now that all the basic stuff has sunk in, I feel like I'm ready to put all the pieces together.
4/7/09 0330
I saw the Southern Cross and Scorpio tonight! I need to learn more stars. [...]
I drew Christmas Island on the plotting chart - I was very proud of it. We're only 1 degree of latitude away! So exciting. We'll probably get there early and sail in circles for a bit. I got sunburned on the back of my leg. I also put my sleeping bag away because my bunk was getting too hot. [...]
4/7/09 2019
I have been sailing over 1000nm. Christmas Island showed up on the radar, so we are currently sailing in a box while we wait for morning. [...]
During class, we talked about sea level rise. It's really intense to think that tomorrow I will be visiting a place that probably won't exist in 100 years. Kirimati is only 2m above sea level and there is already too much global warming to stop it from disappearing. [...]
I also poked my head in the engine room this morning, McKenzie and James were taking apart the port generator to try and figure out what's wrong with it. On the first night, the high temperature alarm went off and it hasn't worked since. They eventually figured out that the exhaust was bleeding into the coolant, so they are inspecting and replacing parts to figure out the issue. I was there when they took off the exhaust manifold. There was an intense layer of carbon all the way through it. It was cool. [...]
GLOSSARY
reefer = refrigerator
Kyle = assistant steward
Devin = student
Amy = chief scientist
pyrosome = sweet gelatinous organism
Field Day = once a week, we do an in-depth cleaning of the ship and listen to music
ITCZ = inter-tropical convergence zone
Sleepy Hollow = name of hallway with student bunks in the aft (back) part of the ship, that's right - I wasn't in the fo'c'sle.
Christmas Island = Kirimati
McKenzie = assistant engineer
James = engineer