Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Trip 4 Day 8 (August 5th) - Long Island Sound, NY to Alpine, NJ

August 5th: Long Island Sound, NY to Alpine, NJ
Written by Tim and Crew:

Today was a sight seeing day. We finished off the Long Island Sound in the morning and started up the Hudson River in NYC. We passed the Chrysler building in the morning and the UN building soon after, followed later by the Empire State Building. Soon all of the skyscrapers were lined up along the horizon. Further down the river, the Statue of Liberty was really close. We got great views from lots of different angles and then passed Ellis Island.

From here, we started on our way to Alpine, NJ, which is about 2 hours from NYC. Here, there are beautiful cliffs along the coast with lots of trees. We docked there for the night and had our last dinner of breaded chicken with sweet potatoes, coleslaw, and corn on the cob. It was yummy. After that, we did our projects which we had worked on all week. They went well and we got to play frisbee and use flushing toilets. Now, on our final night, we are all going to sleep on the deck of the ship!

Trip 4 Day 7 (August 4th) - Mystic Seaport, CT to Long Island Sound, NY

August 4th: Mystic Seaport, CT to Long Island Sound, NY
Brief Summary:

Today we made a lot of distance. We set off sailing at around 7:00, stopped for gas (which costed almost $400!), and then were on the water moving until 12:30 AM Although it started out REALLY foggy, we were able to both sail and motor all day and it was pretty smooth moving.

As far as the day went, we started off with a delicious breakfast of muffins and fruit, and then did normal cleaning and watch duty. For our learning time, we got to work on our final creative projects which is a skit about past and future whales. We also learned a lot about wetlands, did some water quality testing, and learned how to make monkey's fists with string and a marble. We learned some more games to pass time on watch and told each other jokes, riddles, and stories. During the day, we had the best lunch of the whole trip: baked stuff cheesy breadcrumb pasta shells! Yummmmmm.

After dinner and muster, we all went to bed while the boat was still underway and, luckily, we didn't even have to wake up for night watches! We got a nice, good night sleep in preparation for our last FULL day!

Trip 4 Day 7 (August 4th) - Mystic Seaport, CT to

Monday, August 3, 2009

Trip 4 Day 6 (August 3rd) - Block Island, RI to Mystic Seaport, CT

August 3rd: Block Island, RI to Mystic Seaport, CT
Written by Andy and Crew:

Today was easily one of the best days of the trip so far. We started off creeping through the fog out of our anchor position at Block Island and continued forward into a beautiful sunny day. After we arrived in Mystic Seaport, a new staff member named Nina came on board to join the crew and replace the Educator Lisa, who is leaving tonight.

We ate lunch at the dock and then broke into groups of 2 or 3 to explore the museum. A scavenger hunt took us to the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling vessel in the world. During the day, we also watched and participated in a 19th century baseball game and a skit about whaler life.

Later in the day a terrific chanteyman named Don Sineti taught us a thing or two about chanteys, and even a bit about cetaceans. The best part of the day, though, was a special surprise that we had to earn by cleaning up dinner and doing Soles and Boles duty in 20 minutes. We were told that if we completed it in that time we would get a prize. With 9 seconds left, we finished and were told to go TAKE A SHOWER! It was like getting every present we ever wanted and then some. For most of us, this was the longest we had gone without a shower, so this was a long time coming but GREATLY appreciated. It was a great way to finish the day, and it was one of our favorite moments so far.

P.S. Did I mention we took a shower?

Trip 4 Day 5 (August 2nd) - Cuttyhunk Island, MA to Block Island, RI

August 2nd - Cuttyhunk Island, MA to Block Island, RI
Written by Nina and Crew:

Today we woke up at 6:30 to set the sails. We had breakfast and then Port went on watch first to manage the boat, be on lookout, navigate, and steer the boat. After 4 hours, we switched with the other watch.

Today we anchored at Block Island in Rhode Island and took a boat ferry to shore. At Block Island, there were tons of different kinds of boats that were there for a fishing tournament that was in town. When we got on land, we went to a place where we were able to dissect squid. We learned about squid anatomy by dissecting it with our hands and some of us even ate the lens of the squid (which is supposed to hold tons of vitamins and minerals)! Then we got to eat the best ice cream in the world and then go to the beach for 10 minutes to play in the sand and water.

We got back to the boat in time for dinner and it had already started raining. We had delicious chili. For our night activity we sang some old sea shanties with Bard and had a chance to create our own shanty with our watch. Now we are going to sleep a bit earlier than usual so that we can wake up early to head into Mystic tomorrow.

Trip 4 Day 4 (August 1st) - Provincetown, MA to Cuttyhunk Island, MA

August 1st: Provincetown, MA to Cuttyhunk Island, MA
Written by Jesse and Crew:

Today started off bright and early at 6:30 A.M. with eggs, cheese, and tomato on English muffins. Today all we did was sail. I actually enjoyed cleaning today. We started out breaking into our watches (port and starboard). We learned about water quality and also about acids and bases. We also practiced for out skits and learned more about navigation and steering.

Lunch and dinner were great as usual. For lunch we had burgers and for dinner we had soup. The best thing about today was the fossil presentation by George; we talked about shark fossils and we watched a video on the evolution of whales. Today was really basic but it was really fun anyways!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Trip 4 Day 3 (July 31) - Stellwagon Bank, MA to Provincetown, MA

July 31st: Stellwagon Bank, MA to Provincetown, MA
Written by Lisa and Crew:

Morning
In the morning we headed out for Provincetown. Breakfast was pancakes, bananas, and blueberries, which were really good. For the rest of the morning we rotated watches and finished our flags. We did see some whales surfacing for air every once in a while. Around 10ish we were able to see some whales breaching (jumping high out of the water) only about 40 ft from the boat!!! Everyone literally dropped what they were doing and went on the deck to watch. There were several breaches and they were awesome!

Afternoon
Once we reached Provincetown, we walked to a local marine life entanglement center, which works with animals such as whales that get caught in things such as netting and lobster traps. For the next one and a half hours we got to walk around Provincetown and look at all of the shops and things. At about 3:30, we all met back up at the boat to pack lunches in preparation for our whale watching adventure. The ship that we boarded for the whale watch was called the Portugese Princess. It was an official whale watching boat and had two decks. We saw 12 humpback whales! The experience was amazing! Most of the whales were just surfacing for air so we were only able to see a small portion of the back and the dorsal fin. However, one of the humpbacks breached pretty high only about 150-200 feet from the boat! Most of us stayed on the outside of the boat for a better view. Every once in a while a whale would get close enough so that we could actually feel the warmth of its breath! On the way back to the dock, all of us stood on the bow and enjoyed the wind while we got soaked with rain.

After returning we used indoor plumbing (a big deal) one last time and went back to the boat. The rest of the evening was spent finishing nightly duties and getting ready for bed. Overall the day was great! No one got sick and we had lots and lots of fun!

Trip 4 Day 2 (July 30th)

July 30th: Isle of Shoals, NH - Stellwagon Bank, NH
Written by Sarah and crew:

Today was horrible but we also saw many whales. Overall, we saw 12 humpbacks, 1 finback, and 1 minke whale. It was awesome! We saw them breaching, lobtailing, fin slapping, deep diving, and logging. Unfortunately, we haven't seen them doing any spyhopping yet so hopefully we'll get to see that later on. Anyways, the weather in the morning was really rainy with lots of clouds and fog. That was the time when everyone started getting seasick. Lots of dizziness ensued and all but three of the kids ended up puking. When the weather cleared up, we started feeling better and started doing some more work. During class, we got our first creative project, which was to create our own flags for our watch (each student is divided into one of the two watches: Port or Starboard). It was really exciting for us!

At night we got another interesting thing from one of our crew members named Bard. He gave us a plastic Dubloin and instructed us to keep it with us at all times. Bard would be doing checks with us throughout the week and we have to have it with us so we won't get disqualified for the prize at the end of the journey.

Later that night, we each had to do night shifts watching the boat. We saw bioluminescent jellyfish and really pretty starts. Hopefully everyone won't be as sick tomorrow.