Day Five - Fisher's Island to New Bedford

We woke up early this morning, anchored at sea, and all got to help with the reeling in of the anchor. With two of us on either side of the crank, syncronization and heavy lifting was no easy quote. Before we started, Asher said "It's just a crank, you don't need muscle power for this..." Wrong!

As soon as the anchor was up and we were on our way again, it was easy to notice what a big change in weather there had been. Instead of wearing shorts, we all had to pile on multiple layers to keep warm. Many of us began to feel seasick and were trying to keep our eyes on the horizon. The waves were bigger than we'd ever seen them, allowing the boat to rock enough so that the rim skimmed the water.

We continued working in our watches as usual, only we were all hidden under our heaping piles of warm clothing. Huddled in a close circle for body heat, Port watch began our Whale of the Past, Whale of the Future project. We went to the library to search for information and clues to help us. We also learned about the history of whaling and had a chance to do some creative writing about what we had learned. I wrote from the perspective of a whale, while some wrote from a fisherman's view, etc. We learned about the whale dories that whale hunters would use when they went whale harpooning.

After docking in New Bedford we got a chance to see what it was like to row a whale dory. Similar to canoeing, we each had an oar and we had to stay synchronized and work together. It was cool to think about how in this small boat they would have had to not only row extremely fast, but also harpoon, tow, and carry this massive creature. The oars took a while to get used to, and Machie had to do some Matrix moves to prevent decapitation. We had to stay in sync with the people at the front, Andrew & Asher.

After our whale dory expedition, we walked back to the Lady Maryland. A kind fisherman nearby had caught a huge fish, and he gave it to us! We took lots of pictures with it, and then cut it upto keep fresh for tomorrow. Having been caught less than five minutes before, it was the freshest sushi anyone had ever eaten. We all tried a piece right there, during the dissection of it. The bravest was Machie, eagerly eating over eight raw pieces of bloody fish, followed by the fish's eyeball! We all thought it was gross, but Machie insisted that it was delicious. We had so much fun dissecting the fish, like children in a toy store, except instead of toys, we had fresh fish organs. We stretched out the stomach, found the heart, and everything else.

When the bloody mess was cleaned, some of us got to learn to fish with a pole while other sat around Jimmy's guitar. Dock watch under a clear, starry sky was the ending to an amazing day!

-Lexi