Gearing up for CTY

Hello from the Lady Maryland 2019 crew, and welcome aboard the world’s only Pungy schooner! We’ve spent the last couple of weeks preparing the boat for the arrival of students at Norte Dame’s Center for Talented Youth (CTY) summer program. We’ve tested our scientific equipment, run emergency drills, and gotten underway sailing around Baltimore Harbor. We can’t wait to include students in our adventures as we head up to New England to study whales and estuaries. Stand by for blog posts from our students in the coming days!

Trip 4, Last Post!

A final Ahoy to all of you readers! Tomorrow morning the Lady Maryland will be ending her fourth and final student summer trip. This last day was one of the most eventful yet!
We sailed for most of the day and visited the Narragansett Bay Research Reserve! Here, students were able to put into observation everything they learned about estuary systems. We grabbed some nets and got to work, nabbing every sea critter we should find in shallow waters. Then, we visited the exploration center, where they were able to learn more about the Bay’s ecosystem.

To end out final full day on The Lady Maryland, students presented their final projects. They were all very well researched and included a variety of interesting topics. The whole crew was very impressed  by their presentations, and everyone had a lot of fun, both presenting and listening. With that enthusiastic and laughter-filled atmosphere, we had our final good nights.

Thank you for reading and following the adventures of Lady Maryland! Until next journey. [Captain “Karla” Kidd, signing off]

Trip 4, Almost Done!

Ahoy! We are nearing the end of Trip 4 on the Lady Maryland, but do not fear, there is yet to be another blog post.

On Monday we had an exciting field trip to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, said to be the best Whaling Museum in North America! There we learned about the endangered Right Whale, the Sperm Whale’s ability to recognize whaling ships, and the different types of baleen for varying diets. We were in awe of the large Scrimshaw collection they had (we worked on Scrimshaw ourselves, but on Tagua nuts instead of whale ivory) and perused the knot exhibit, where students could identify knots they learned on the Lady Maryland. The most fun they had, however, was probably crawling into a replica heart of a Blue Whale, the largest animal to ever live in the ocean!

Also in New Bedford, they got to study a giant map of Buzzard’s Bay, and identify previous stops and routes.

On Tuesday we got the chance to swim and then we set sail again! Students worked on their final projects after the morning “pool party” and had another Sink Off. This time, however, the buoyancy test included balloons. Who said you can’t learn and have fun! Today, we prepare ourselves for our final full day on the Lady Maryland, so stayed tuned...