CTY Trip 4: Gloucester to Provincetown

Ahoy! This is the first blog post coming at you live from the second CTY Bristol group on The Lady Maryland this summer.  The past few days have been jam-packed with activities, and phone/internet service has been spotty along the way, but now that we have finally docked in Provincetown and settled down a bit, I feel it's time to share with the world the seafaring secrets we have so serindepitously discovered.

Our expedition started with a splash- a trip on a commercial whale watching vessel in Glouster! These boats are especially fast and maneuverable vessels that can go up to places where whales usually are and get up close to where the whales are breathing and breaching.  The students were all given Whale Wheels to identify what they saw, but after being in the classroom for 9 days, they are basically experts  on the animals anyway.  On the trip, we saw at least 6 different humpback whales, and came within about 50 yards of some. These included North Star and Hippocampus, two whales that the naturalist on our vessel recognized and seemed familiar with.

After the trip, we boarded the vessel and got ready to set sail. The crew introduced themselves and showed us around the ship.  They explained that all of the students slept in one cabin, while the Captain and First Mate slept on another near the aft (back) of the ship and the rest of the crew slept in another near the front. The crew laughed when one of the cadets asked where the cannons were on the 100+ foot Pungy schooner, but I quickly reminded the students of the cardinal rule of the high seas: if you don't have a defense against the pirates, you are the pirates.

On our trip to Provincetown, we saw at least seven more humpback whales! The crew insisted this was very lucky since the Lady isn't nearly as maneuverable as a whale watching ship. We even saw two whales breach, which means they got their entire bodies up and out of the water.

The students sailed the ship in two crews- Port and Starboard. One crew would do everything to maintain the ship (steer, navigate, do routine boat checks) while the other would do educational activities. They would switch after four hours.

Because we were in deep water last night, it was too deep to anchor, so we had to sail through the night.  This meant that the crew (including yours truly) stayed up in four hour shifts throuout the whole night while students each took one hour shifts throughout the night to help out.  Fortunately, the sailing went well, and everyone is now well-rested and relaxed.

The food has been especially delicious, and now that we are docked in Provincetown, the students have time to get off and buy souvineers. More to come!