![]() ![]() This means everyone contributing to raising the sails, not just those on watch. We set sail at 0830 with all hands on deck. As usual, we had a feast: breakfast burritos with eggs, beans, cheese, bacon, avocado, salsa, and sprouts, followed by a mid-morning snack of banana bread. Class on the Bowspritīy Molly Stark-Ragsdale ’17 (Missoula, Montana)īreakfast this morning was as it always is: way beyond one’s expectations for breakfast aboard a ship. We’re finishing the day with some smooth guitar tunes and hanging out on the science deck. We played games, did mid-air animal impressions, and took part in some gentle peer pressure to get everyone into the water. It’s what some would call a classic “dip in the water,” except you do it by jumping from the bowsprit of a 134-foot brigantine (two-masted sailing vessel). They also hit us with some stellar pizza, following the flawless execution of what is called a “Sierra Charlie.”įor all you landlubbers, a Sierra Charlie is one of the most critical components of any successful voyage. Steward and second assistant scientist Sarah Fuller and her trusty sidekick Tim Dooley, from Grinnell College, made some wonderful meals, keeping seasickness in mind. We arrived in the majestic Whangaroa Harbor on the northern coast of Northland, New Zealand, at about 1430 today. Watch groups and schedules have also been running more smoothly, with everyone literally learning the ropes. A current research project is looking into whether salps vertically migrate in the water column from day to night.Īt 1200 hours our calculated rhumb line was determined to be about 108 nautical miles, which means we have traveled 140 nautical miles in a straight line from noon yesterday to noon today. According to my Mac classmate Molly Stark Ragsdale, salps stand for “snacking and lunching on plankton sludge.” While that may be true, salps are also hermaphroditic tubular shaped gelatinous organisms, which can exist as a single polyp or in a colony. To quote our captain, she moved “like a bar of soap slipping across your bathroom floor.” At 1030 hours we deployed the CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) for the first time, and collected a lot of salps. We Execute a Sierra Charlieĭespite some bouts of seasickness, it was smooth sailing all through the night. ![]() Below are brief accounts of their daily activities. They also visited marine and coastal protected areas and various ports of call along the way. They traveled for two months in the South Pacific from Auckland to Wellington and back, exploring the unique environmental and complex cultural influences that have shaped these islands. Two students from Macalester- Molly Stark-Ragsdale ’17 and Hoai-Nam Bui ’17-took part this spring in a Sea Education Association (SEA) Semester of environmental studies at sea.
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