Up your aft...

Our first program was amazing. 10 days out with First Year WHOI/MIT grad students. There was a lot of intense science, we even deployed an autonomous glider that self navigates and emails data to a lab. The whole cruise was incredible because we had an amazing group of students. My face hurt from laughing so much. Though there was some bad weather in the middle of the cruise and the entire vessel was engulfed in fog for about two days. That means the fog horn has to be sounded every 3 minutes, so kiss sleep goodbye. The horn also broke on my watch, so the engineer and I have to shimmy up the mainmast in Force 6 seas, rain piling down on us and about 6 wrenches strapped to my appendages. It was intense and character-building, especially because the engineer was getting seasick while we were up there. Awkward about 100 feet above deck.

The sailing was good in general, we basically set every sail and had all the kids aloft. And by kids I mean science geniuses that are actually older than me. Being back on dry land is nice though, the cold salt water showers and I are not in love. I've also gotten the job of being "Morale Officer" on dry land, which basically means I get to plan events and make sure everyone has a good time when we are in port. Translated into sailor lingo, that means I'm "Chief Beer Pourer" for the populous.

Below are some pictures. There will definitely be more stories after I get back from this next 20 days of high school trips. Adolescents, that could be bad.

My Watch=Awesome

Sailing under bridges=scarey
Harnesses, sunsets and peeing away from the wind
Captain teaching celestial navigation
Watch meeting aloft and an awkward angle

My watch, C watch, kicking some serious line-chase ass.

PS. I nicknamed one of the other deckhands, a 6'4" 250 lbs boy, Muffin. Now the captain calls him Muff for short. Best decision I've ever made.