Land Lubber No More!

My new position is the Alumni Relations Coordinator for Sea Education Association (SEA), a term abroad program for college, graduate, and post-graduate students interested in oceanography, maritime history, and nautical and marine sciences. Students attending the program spend 6 weeks at the shore facility in Woods Hole learning about marine science, maritime history, nautical science and developing a research project. The second 6 weeks of the 12 week program is spent at sea on a 134ft brigantine tall ship in the Pacific, Atlantic, or Caribbean. During the sea term, students work together to sail the ship, navigate using celestial navigation, and conduct research for the project using cutting edge scientific equipment. It's a difficult but extremely rewarding program, and, since I am not an alum, I am over-the-moon to spend 18 days sailing around the Caribbean.

Corwith Cramer, my future home for 2.5 weeks. Photo SEA

The sea term begins in St. Croix, USVI, where I will meet the ship, students, and crew. From there, we sail around the British Virgin Islands and make port in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After spending a couple days in Old San Juan, we'll haul anchor and head for Samana, Dominican Republic, taking advantage of the warm Westerly trade winds. I leave the ship in Samana and return Boston (works calls!), but the students and crew continue sailing and stop in Port Antonia, Jamaica, round Cuba, and finally dock in Key West, FL on January 2nd.

Close-up of a sextant used to calculate ship'd position by sighting celestial bodies like stars.

On board the Cramer, I'll join a watch: A, B, or C and will rotate spending time on Deck, Science, Galley, and Engine Room watches. During deck watch, which is 6 hours except for 1-6am when they are 4 hours, I'll learn to navigate, plot courses, use a sextant, set and furl sails, practice emergency drills and steer. On science watch, I'll learn to deploy neutson nets and other scientific equipment and help identify marine invertebrates (my favorite). On engine room watch, I'll be in the engine room helping with ship maintenance. Every Sunday, everyone on the ship dons a costume for field day, also known as scrubbing the ship from top to bottom. During downtime, which is not much time at all, I'll probably sleep, take pictures, and sketch (actually, part of the program involves sketching, drawing and painting).

Student navigational aid adorned with doodles.

Though I'll miss sharing Thanksgiving with family, I'm confident spending the holiday in St. Croix won't suck. While I am away, I will not have access to email or phone. SEA maintains two ship blogs, written by students, so you can follow the cruise track and read our thoughts and musings about life at sea: http://www.sea.edu/voyages/blog_cramer_237. The blog is updated on weekdays by shore staff, so please be patient!

Lastly, wishing everyone a great Thanksgiving! I'll return Dec 13 with stories to tell and pictures to post. I can hardly wait!