Lady Maryland: Trip #4 (Day Eight)

Hard to believe, but it's already our last full day on the Lady Maryland! Today was a busy day as we tried to clean up the ship, squeeze in some last minute lessons, and, finally, end our adventure with some fun and games.

Before anything else, we started the day off with a swim call before breakfast. Almost everyone jumped in for one final swim, and despite the hour (7:00am), it was a fun and refreshing way to start the day.

After we hauled back anchor near Warwick, RI, we were headed, at long last, back to Bristol. We started off the day by throwing a plankton net into the water and collecting different samples of plankton to look at under our magnifying camera. We learned about the importance of plankton despite its small size -- for example, nearly 70% of the oxygen we breath comes from plankton -- and got a little more practice in identifying different creatures.

After playing with the plankton and returning them to the water, the cadets threw the trawl net one more time. This time, we hauled up a few blue crabs, which have a brilliant hue of blue on their legs and pinchers.

Finally, it was time for what the crew referred to as "Field Day", what we soon learned meant cleaning - a lot. We spent the afternoon scrubbing the lovely Lady Maryland from bulkhead to bow and left her in sparkling condition for the next group.

The second, and more exciting, half of Field Day was the Schooner Olympics, during which the two watches, Port and Starboard, faced off in various challenges, including identifying the different lines, knot tying, on-watch skills, recalling the ship's Standing Orders, and, as the grand finale, setting the jib in "storm conditions". This meant that the crew, standing in as stormy weather (since in reality it was another nice night), used buckets of water to simulate big waves at the bow and hoses to simulate torrential rain. The cadets did a great job, the Port watch team even singing sea shanties as they set the sail, and everyone had a lot of fun.

After changing into dry clothes and eating a great last dinner on the deck, each watch presented their final project. The Port watch group created a "whale of the past," the predecessor of the narwhal called a "narwhog", which had a tusk resembling that of the modern-day narwhal but lived both on land and in the water. The Starboard watch group created a "whale of the future", the descendant of a sperm whale called a "deviljho", which had various adaptations making it more suited for a far-distant future, where the ocean is more acidic and the whale hunting technology is much improved. Both groups did a great job.

We finished the night with a game of Whales and Estuaries jeopardy on the deck, and then, with a view of the Bristol harbor and skyline, we all settled into bed, ready to wake up for one final anchor watch. What an awesome trip it's been!

The cadets haul back the anchor as we leave Warwick, RI and head back towards Bristol.

The group catches plankton in a plankton net to study under the microscopes.

Studying different types of plankton under the camera -- here, a "megalops" (on the screen).

Ready to throw the trawl one last time!

The Starboard watch team tying various knots during the Schooner Olympics.

Captain Michael explains the last event in the Schooner Olympics -- setting the jib in "storm conditions"...

Starboard watch team sets the jib!

Port watch team sets the jib...

and still sings sea shanties, despite the terrible conditions!

Lady Maryland: Trip #4 (Day Seven)

Today has been fairly leisurely, as we were at sea most of the day, sailing through Narragansett Bay, finally headed back towards Rhode Island. The cadets split the day between being on watch and working on their final projects, which involves creating whales of the past and future based on what they know about whales of the present and the various adaptations of whales.

During the educational portion of the day, the cadets learned more about estuaries - how they were formed and why they are so important as mating and nursing grounds for so many different animals. They also returned to their lesson about water health, examining the results of their experiment from a few days ago. They found the calcium carbonate of the egg and crab shell entirely intact in both the fresh and salt water, and very much dissolved in the vinegar, to the point where the egg had almost no shell at all and the crab shell was flexible and bendy, almost like plastic. Though vinegar is an extreme example to represent the pH levels in our oceans, the levels are changing each year, and the cadets were reminded that if these shells could dissolve in strong acid in just a few days, they could definitely be effected by weaker levels of acid throughout their lifetime. Additionally, plankton has much thinner calcium carbonate shells than the full grown crab shells we used for our experiment, and should plankton stop being able to survive, it would effect the food chain all the way to the top.

The cadets, feeling a little somber after this lesson, were cheered up by the fact that we had accidentally anchored right in the middle of a cat boat race track. Though this meant we couldn't go swimming, we spent the night watching small boats race around us in Greenwich Bay, and were promised an early swim call in the morning.

Tomorrow, we head towards Bristol!

Lady Maryland: Trip #4 (Day Six)

"It was cool to see the ways things were long ago in Mystic, in the old timey days." - Sarah

Today we woke up early and sailed into Mystic Seaport on the Mystic River in Connecticut. The seaport is home to one of largest maritime museums in our country, with its shoreline set up as it would have been in the mid-1800s, back when Mystic was an important seafaring village full of big trade boats and skilled craftsmen.

Unbeknownst to us, we were sailing in on a very important day for Mystic – the birthday of Herman Melville, who wrote the American classic Moby Dick. Therefore, there were multiple celebrations going on around Mystic, including a 24-hour reading of Moby Dick which we were lucky enough to walk into during the climactic last chapter.

The cadets spent the day exploring the museum, one of the highlights of which included the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship in the world. The ship is under renovation, but visitors are still allowed to walk inside for a closer look at how and where the crew would have worked and lived. The cadets are now familiar with different parts of a ship, but this was definitely the more massive and impressive version we’ve seen so far. We learned a lot about the process of whaling and the dangers that sailors used to face as they attempted to find and kill whales. Even after the hunt was over, the whalers would have to drag the whale back to the ship using a small boat, often rowing for hours due to the weight of the whale, and then start the long process of cutting off the blubber, hoisting it onto the ship, and cooking it down into oil, often in a race against the sharks that would circle the whale and eat away at its blubber. We all agreed that we’d pass on a position as a whaler were it offered to us.

The rest of the museum was made up of other ships, various exhibits (a favorite being the exhibit on the history of tattoos), and old buildings set up as 19^th century businesses, including a bank, a publishing house, a grocery, a chemist, a ship supply shop, a blacksmith, and many others. A scavenger hunt encouraged the cadets to interact with the different staff members who were posing as craftsmen, and they learned a lot about how a seafaring village would have been run. We also joined a small audience to watch an interactive play called “Tale of a Whaler”, during which we learned more about life on a whaling ship (and reaffirmed our conviction that we wouldn’t want to be a “greenhand”, or an inexperienced sailor, on a whaling ship).

In the afternoon, we were treated to a lesson in sea shanties, or songs sung on deck to help in the hoisting of sails, the heaving in of anchors, and other jobs that involved rhythmic work. We were told that a shanty has been said to be equivalent to ten extra men on the line. Music was a big part of life for sailors, and the sea shanties had influences from all over the world due to the diversity of the whaling ship crews. There was also often a designated “shanty man” who would be responsible for leading the shanties. After our lesson, we went back inside the Morgan to witness a “dog-watch”, which is a two-hour shift on deck during which the men were allowed to socialize and, often, play music. Here, we heard more songs of the sea, this time mostly ballads, played on multiple instruments that the crew would have had on the ship, including a pair of “rhythm bones” made from real bone.

After a long day, we headed back to the Lady Maryland and settled in for a night at the dock. Thunder storms were rolling in all around us, but somehow avoided the area where we were docked, so that we had a great view of the storm without getting wet. Before bed, the crew had a surprise for us. Below deck, we got to watch a movie called Around Cape Horn about a man named Irving Johnson who sailed around Cape Horn aboard a shipping vessel in 1929 – and filmed it. The storms the crew encountered near the Cape were incredibly violent and dangerous, and the footage, some of it shot from the highest rigging, was extraordinary. Though we all went to sleep feeling a little less intense about our own adventures, I think it’s safe to say we all feel a little smitten with the sea.

Tomorrow morning, we head back towards Bristol!

Preparing to dock at Mystic.

Cadets ready to ease our docking with a few roving fenders.

A demonstration on the different positions of the crew during a whaling kill.

A small model of the Charles W. Morgan, the last remaining wooden whaling ship in the world.

(Almost) the whole gang of the Lady Maryland at Mystic Seaport!

Watching the storm settle over Mystic River.

Lady Maryland: Trip #4 (Day Five)

"My favorite part about visiting Block Island was getting to feed the dead squid to the spider crabs after we dissected them." - Harry

Another awesome day on the Lady Maryland! It's hard to believe that our voyage is halfway over already!

This morning we set sail early and headed towards Block Island, an island off of the Rhode Island coast that attracts a lot of visitors for its bicycling, hiking, fishing, and of course, its beautiful beaches. We started the day off by exploring more of the local marine life, this time using a tool called a "dredge" that sinks into the muddy ocean floor and catches sea life as it drags along the bottom. The cadets all helped to haul the dredge up, but they got a little timid when they realized that what the dredge had primarily caught was a whole lot of mud. Nonetheless, some jumped in to feel their way through the mud, and we eventually sorted out a few shell fish. Not entirely satisfied, we decided to throw the trawl again, too. This time, we hauled up a whole spectrum of creatures: small fish, starfish, jelly fish, crabs, shell fish, and more. The cadets spent the next hour identifying and studying our different species before we released them back into the water.

The group was feeling much more energized and alert today after a good sleep on a calm sea under the stars, and as we sailed towards Block Island, the group kept in high spirits by singing songs, new and old, as they stood watch and cleaned the ship. The cadets also learned about water health, and tested the varying levels of phosphate, dissolved oxygen, and salinity in samples drawn from the side of the ship. They determined that the water was fairly healthy, but talked about the overall health of water on our planet and how it is being affected by humans. We will take more tests tonight on anchor watch to see if the water where we anchor, near land, is any different from the water further out at sea.

Captain Michael had warned us that the Block Island harbor would be worse than the mall parking lot on Christmas Eve, and sure enough, when we sailed into the salt pond in the center of Block Island that serves as the harbor, there were boats everywhere: huge yachts, fellow schooners, fancy sailboats, small speedboats – even an old, rusty military tug boat! It was fun to look around at all the ways to travel over the water, and to compare our dear schooner’s various parts to other boats as we passed. Finally, we found a good place to drop the anchor, and a small transporting boat picked us up to take us ashore.

We were dropped off at BIMI, the Block Island Marine Institute, where we spent the next hour observing the marine life that BIMI had collected in observation tanks. In one tank, where scallops cohabited with starfish, the cadets attempted to place scallops near enough to starfish to witness the starfish catch and eat the scallops, as they had learned that starfish eat by vomiting digestive fluids into their prey. Though there were some close calls, the scallops always won out, snapping their shells and scurrying away at the last moment. Needless to say, it was very interesting to watch, and the cadets were amazed at the diversity of life in our waters.

After spending some time at the observation tanks, our cadets got the opportunity to dissect squids! Each cadet got his or her own, and they were taught how to cut a squid apart into its various organs, learning each organ’s purpose as they went. A few cadets were brave enough to eat the lens of the squid eye – supposedly full of vitamins – and most ended up with more than a little squid ink on his or her fingers. Afterward, they got to feed the squid pieces to the spider crabs in the observation tanks. Opinions were mixed about whether the lesson was gross or awesome, but overall it was very interesting. Afterward, the cadets were ready to head back to the ship and haul out towards the Fishers Island Sound, where we would anchor for the night.

The cadets continue to have a great time, and each day they become more comfortable with the different components of sailing, taking initiative and often handling the sails almost completely on their own. Tomorrow, we’ll sail a short distance to Mystic, Connecticut – our sixth state in as many days! The crew is very excited for Mystic, a port that they had to skip on the previous trip, so we're excited, too, though we're not sure what we'll find there. Another day, another adventure!

Cleaning out the trawl net after fishing.

Studying the animals we caught in the trawl.

Observing the marine life at the Block Island Marine Institute.

Squid, pre-dissection...

and mid-dissection.

Captain Michael lays the charts out to show us where we've been and where we're headed.