Yesterday we used the trawl net. It has a large opening and fins at the end to catch the maximum amount of fish. We trawled right in front of New York City on Bay Ridge Flats. We caught many species! Those animals included a seahorse, flounder, windowpane, sea robins, a pregnant blue crab, and spotted hakes. We got to hold the seahorse and when we held it, it wrapped its tail around our fingers. The flounder was enormous - 17 inches! Trawling was overall a very rewarding and interesting experience in terms of learning about sea life. Hi, Dad!
Day 3 - Maggie's Blog Entry
When we woke up, we were just leaving the Atlantic Ocean and sailing into New York Harbor. It was amazing to see the beautiful buildings and the sheer size of the city and to imagine the view of so many reaching the US for the first time as we passed the Statue of Liberty. As we passed Brooklyn, we dropped our trawl net to catch fish and sea life to observe. Some species we caught were a 17 inch summer flounder, a sea horse and 3 sea robins. We continued sailing up the East River and into Long Island Sound, where we dropped anchor in Cold Spring Harbor. Once anchored we went swimming and we able to "shower" and get relatively clean. That night was our first anchor watch. It was similar to doing a boat check, but was concerned with factors specific to being at anchor. We were woken up for one hour and 15 minutes during the night to check the boat in small groups at 30 minute intervals. Because we weren't underway, last night was the first night we could sleep on deck. I chose to sleep on the side of the ship to see the stars. It was a little bit cloudy, but from the Lady Maryland I have seen the stars almost better than I have ever seen before.
Jumping off the Lady Maryland for a swim!
Alex steering the boat into Cold Spring Harbor
Day 4 - Cold Spring Harbor
After our first night at anchor, we explored the Whaling Museum in Cold Spring Harbor before moving on in our journey. Everyone learned about the role that whaling ships played in the evolution of sailing and we compared the Lady Maryland (104ft long) to the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan (115ft long)! We also got to try on costumes from sailors and explore their fates. After returning to the boat, we did some trawling and caught a common mantis shrimp and a horseshoe crab, then raised the sails and went on our way!
Enjoying the land after 2 days at sea
Exploring the Whaling Museum
The mantis shrimp caught in general trawl net
No comments:
Post a Comment