Fall 2000 SEAmester Journal
Sent weekly from sea by on-board SEAmester coordinator and professor Chris Hamilton ...
SEAmester Log, Part 2 October 16, 2000
At sea off New York
My apologies to you readers, the first message was cut off by the satellites, the remainder of which we have made into part 2, starting where we left off, on Stellwagen Bank.We even had a few minutes of snow out there! As we were leaving the whales the wind increased to force 6, we struck the jibs and mainsail and entered Provincetown harbor with just the foresail. We tied up to the dock at 1900, a welcome respite after a day of white knuckle sailing. We were all very impressed by how well the students, most of whom had never sailed before, handled their first day of strong wind and hard sailing.
The following morning we rented bicycles and all rode out to the Cape Cod National Seashore. We spent a beautiful and tiring day riding on bike trails through the incredible dunes, visiting the Beech Forest, Race Point Beach, Hatches Harbor (a disturbed saltmarsh in the process of restoration) and First Landing where the pilgrims first stepped foot in the New World. On our way back to the boat we stopped at the Center for Coastal Studies (www.coastalstudies.org) where Ed Lyman spoke to the students about their whale research and disentanglement efforts. Another exhausting day had everyone sleeping like babies that night, but not until they watched the old black and white film Captain’s Courageous on the deck of the Gamage.
The next morning, Peter Trull (Director of Education at the Center for Coastal Studies) came on board to speak to the students. He was so impressed by the ship, the program and the itinerary that he skipped his intended talk on the ecology of Cape Cod and instead delivered what we all felt was a very inspirational message, about making the most of our upcoming experience, using all of our senses to experience everything we could from this adventure and following our dreams and academic interests in life. His words were very powerful and many students commented on how he had made a strong impression on them. We spent the next several hours visiting the museum of the salvaged pirate ship The Whydah, the Provincetown Heritage Museum and the Pilgrim Monument. A reporter from the local newspaper, The Provincetown Banner, joined us to write a story of our visit to the town. We left the dock at 1500 and fired the cannon to salute the town and the small crowd that had gathered to see us off. We sailed toward the Cape Cod Canal which, unfortunately, was almost directly upwind so lots more practice tacking back and forth. We had our first night under sail and the students were exposed to yet another aspect of life on board a sailing vessel.
Students were all a bit sleepy at breakfast after sailing through the night but everyone seemed to be loving every minute of the experience. This was to be a day of classes on board, we started with a plankton tow, the contents of which was examined on deck with microscopes. Academics occupied the rest of the day and we spend another night under sail.
Saturday morning we rose to the first warm weather on the trip, jackets were discarded as we motored up the Mystic River in Connecticut and tied up at the Mystic Seaport. The Seaport is a throwback to colonial times with working cooperages, blacksmiths, sail makers and boat builders, and several original sailing vessels from the 19th century. It has been described as a sailing Disneyland and we became part of the exhibit by tying up at their docks. Hundreds of visitors gawked at our boat, many asking questions about our voyage and life on board. The students were eating it up. Sunday afternoon we left Mystic and we are now sailing our way down toward the Chesapeake filling our days with classes.
Now, for the fishing report. Well, this will be short since we haven’t caught any fish, but we did have two big bites, one over Stellwagen Bank and another in Buzzards Bay. We have lots of lures, line and time, so stay tuned.
Fair winds and calm seas,
Chris Hamilton
