A Whale of a Good Time

And so ends day two aboard the Lady Maryland for our 10 new adventurers!  Living up to the programs reputation, today was a rewarding, educational, and tiring day.  The students were awakened at 7 am, and immediately hauled back the anchor.  At breakfast the students were very excited to receive double bacon rations, which started the day off on the right foot!  During the morning hours, Chief Mate Emily taught a theory of sail class.  It was interesting to see the students have a “light bulb moment” when they understood the mechanics of what makes Lady Maryland sail the way she does.  The students also tried trawling with the net, but unfortunately the water was too deep, and not a single thing was caught!  There is still ample opportunity for a good catch, and our crew remains optimistic that it will happen soon.  Around lunch time we reached our destination and went to the whaling museum in town.  The Lady Maryland is too large to pull into the harbor, so the students were shuttled using the Swamp Fox, which is Lady Maryland’s little motor boat.  It’s called the Swamp Fox because it has the tendency to get a little wet.  Before the students got to the museum, they worked on an art project in the park.  When everyone had made it to land, we set off for the museum.  Our cadets had a wonderful time at the whaling museum, learning about the harsh life of a whaler, and the history of the whaling industry.  It was a tiring day, but the students perked right up when we got back to the boat and had a swim call!  It was a soapy swim call, nonetheless.  One of our students said, “My favorite part about today was swimming because we showered for the first time in 3 days!”  They perked up even more when they were served a delicious spaghetti dinner.  Immediately after dinner, the typical duty of cleaning the boat and cleaning up from dinner commenced.  

The students are looking forward to tomorrow’s adventure, and our future destinations.  But before then, we have another night of anchor watch, which involves an hour out of the student’s night to help make sure that the boat is not moving from her anchorage.  It was a little difficult for a few of the students to wake up last night, but they are excited for another try!  Which is the theme on the Lady Maryland: we learn by doing, and by doing we learn. 

Getting ready to trawl

Our youngest (and luckiest) student sniffing the trawl net for good luck!

Learning some more on a Living Classroom!

Sail on, Lady Maryland!

Checking out a model whaling ships at the museum. 

Look at that huge whale jaw!

One of our students next to the skull of a killer whale

A whaling boat that would have been used to go out and kill, then drag the whale back.