My Summer 2013

My personal philosophy when it comes to learning is that sitting in a classroom can only teach you so much. Eventually, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty. Reams of information have little meaning if you weren’t involved in collecting it. The human element is lost, and with it a chance to expand the scope of one’s learning from the theoretical into the practical.

The Sea Education Association appears to be in agreement with me. Since 1971, they have been running high school and undergraduate programs from their campus in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. I took part in the Science at Sea (SAS) program that is run for people in high school. The ten day on shore component is the theory, teaching you the skills and information that will be important to you on the sea component-eight days of sailing on a brigantine deploying instruments and hauling away on lines.

When I first arrived on campus, my nerves were lessened by the fact that the place was not actually a prison and looked quite pleasant. After checking in, I was directed to the cottage (C house) I would be staying in. My roommates would be two other boys named (according to the name tags on the door) Luke and Jared. The roster for the girl’s rooms was also posted on the bulletin board, and to my amusement I found that twelve girls would have to share one bathroom. Seeing as how there were only three boys, that wasn’t a problem for us, but the people upstairs would have a hard time of it. The mad rush to schedule shower times was a lively topic of dinner table discussion for most of the camp.

Time passed and everybody began to trickle in and get settled down. The two cottages that the students of SAS occupied were Bellatrix and Capella, or B and C house. Faculty and college students on a different program occupied the three others. The time then came for a big group orientation, which took place in the lecture hall cum study area in a building called the Madden center. There, we each introduced ourselves and our hobbies, and also our reasons for coming here. Most of the people who were there looked like they belonged. About half claimed an interest in a career in science, and of those about a third (including yours truly) said they were interested in marine sciences. There were no classes that day; instead we spent our time at the cottages mingling with each other. Me being the classic introvert, I chose to sit alone and think for some time about what I was getting into. My resident advisor, Mary, came up to me and said that she was going to let me off the hook for the first day, but by tomorrow I had to be more social. I agreed and returned to my ponderings.

Dinner was served, with vegetarian options for the three vegetarians there (myself included). A strict lights out of 2230 was enforced, the reason being that we would all be very tired at the end of the day from all our work, and that sleep was essential. The next day classes started. To call our workload for the shore component “heavy” would’ve been an understatement. “Thrown in the deep end with no life jacket” was a close approximation.

There were three main classes at the camp. Oceanography, which focused mainly of physical and chemical oceanography, Maritime Studies, which taught about the history of the oceans and the events tied to it, and Nautical Sciences, which was a course that taught us everything we would need to know onboard the ship. As the camp progressed we learnt about the history of Cape Cod and the surrounding area, the chemistry of seawater and proper safety procedures onboard the ship, among other things. Each course was meant to give us a historic, scientific, and practical context for what we would be seeing once we were sailing. The work was hard, but during our free time we were allowed to work together with our friends, and our combined efforts meant that there were very few people who didn’t possess a basic understanding of the particular topic we were studying.

The topics we covered were varied and interesting. In oceanography our primary topics were ocean currents and nutrient circulation, but we also covered tectonic activity and ocean geology. Maritime Studies’ focus was the varied environmental policies that countries had passed and their impact on the oceans, as well as the South China Sea disputes and Somali piracy. In Nautical Science, we learned how to tie various knots, take weather observations, and properly plot our positions on a chart. Additionally, the various duties we would have onboard we explained to us.  It amazed me to see the gusto with which people took to the classes. The curiosity and drive to learn that characterizes our generation was readily apparent as we worked.  Everybody brought something to the table, and our combined talents made anything possible.

After ten days, the shore component was over, and after a thorough cleaning of our houses we made our way to Dryer’s Dock, where the SSV Corwith Cramer waited. SSV stands for Sailing School Vessel, and it allows SEA to crew its ships with fewer professional crew than would be required. This is because the students are legally recognized as part of the crew, and have real responsibilities. This also meant that we, as students, had to be more aware of what we were doing and generally be more careful.  We had been introduced to the captain, Virginia Land, two days before we left during our “Life at Sea” orientation. Now we had the chance to meet the rest of the crew. We were divided into watches, A Watch, B Watch, and C Watch. Each watch would rotate through various shifts, being assigned to either the deck or the lab. Deck work involved cleaning the ship, performing boat checks, noting position and weather in the log, and assisting with sail handling. The lab would entail you helping in the deployment of scientific instruments, processing data, and looking at plankton catches through a microscope. I will go into more detail later.

Our duties on the boat were numerous and varied. Most important were boat checks, hourly sweeps of every inch of the vessel and the engine room to see if anything was on fire. They were a way of keeping everyone safe and reminded us that we needed to be constantly vigilant. Out here, we had only ourselves to depend on if a fire broke out of if the ship was flooding. Our captain made mention of the fact that of a half-dozen small fires the crew has had to battle in the Cramer’s lifetime, all were spotted by people on boat checks.

Next was the filling out of the log. The log we had to be careful with, as it was a legal document and therefore needed to be treated well. Mistakes are not crossed out; a straight line is put through them so the text is still visible. Cross something out completely, and you run the risk that the Coast Guard will think you’re trying to hid something. Our position was plotted hourly on the chart and was assisted by GPS. Constant monitoring of the weather was also vital, and we kept a separate weather log.

After a quick set of introductions and watch meetings, we ate dinner and were allowed to sleep a full eight hours, a luxury that we would not be getting for the next few days. Morning arrived and after breakfast, my watch (A) took the 0700-1300 watch. I was assigned to the lab, and we deployed a phytoplankton net and while waiting, familiarized ourselves with the layout of the lab and some of the equipment there.  The scientific instruments were pretty much the same ones that scientists use, and the samples and data they collected was interesting to study.  The whole process of deployment, collection and processing took place across multiple watches, so nobody got to see the full thing from start to finish. It was gratifying to know, however, that somebody on the next watch would appreciate your work, and in return complete another task for you.

Being assigned to deck meant you mostly used your brawn instead of your brains, hauling on lines, scrubbing the deck and steering the vessel. Deck watches were oftentimes filled with periods of inactivity; sails did not need to be constantly adjusted and only one person was at the helm. The flexibility of the watch schedule allowed those who weren’t really doing anything to help out in the lab, or perhaps take over at the helm. Everybody was eager to help and there was always something that needed to be done, even if that something was not your official duty for the day. Kids will be kids and while adults can claim (with a certain degree of accuracy) that teenagers don’t take anything seriously, the maturity of everyone on board was a major help to the smooth running of the ship. The importance of not acting like an idiot was not lost on anyone.

There were, of course, various adjustments that people needed to make to their attitudes in order to maintain their sanity. Learning how to deal with seasickness was one of these. People “donated” to the ocean’s stock of organic matter on a fairly regular basis for the first couple of days. I myself never “donated” but the queasiness was there. Additionally, the tables in the main salon were gimbled, meaning that the tables moved with the motion of the sea rather than with the motion of the boat, and thus kept food on the tables and not on the floor. Still, I never really did get use to the fact that suddenly the table might tip and place my plate of macaroni in a very precarious position (nothing ever fell off though). Elbows on the table were a big no-no, as interrupting the motion of the tables would send stuff flying everywhere. The constant threat of sunburn was another major adjustment, and the crew was very, very serious about the liberal application of sunscreen. There is no mother, living or dead, that can even match the amount of nagging the crew put out on this issue, and for good reason. Sunburn, even mild sunburn, would incapacitate you, which was much more serious in the middle of the North Atlantic than it was on shore.

Hard work might be all the fun that some people need, but there were always times to just unwind a bit and relax. A lot of people could play a guitar or ukulele, and sing-alongs on deck were popular. There were many talented singers present in our group, so it wasn’t torture to listen to us either. Part of our “homework” was to keep journals, and while initially it just started out as an assignment, for me at least it became a way of preserving in a permanent way everything I had experienced on board. There were so many new things to see and new experiences to have that it was impossible for me to remember everything, so the journal offered a place to put it down in writing. It was also quite relaxing at the end of a long day (although due to the crazy schedules, the definition of “day” varies) to have nothing to do but write.

Many people have said that human beings, when put into stressful situations, develop bonds that are stronger than they should be, especially if the people in question haven’t spent very much time together. Eighteen days is not a long time, but getting to know each other developed a real esprit de corps amongst all of us, living on that small ship, a little island of civilization in the middle of a vast and often unforgiving ocean. We trusted each other with our lives, and lookout duty was taken very seriously. Living together, working together, learning together, and never being more than 100 feet from someone else made us into a team, a tight-knit community that functioned smoothly and efficiently. We all had to look out for each other, and we slept better at night knowing there was someone watching over us too.

           

The SAS program is probably the best academic course I have ever done. This has affirmed my lifelong dream of being a marine biologist; I know now with utter certainty that this is the career for me. Nothing bad that happened to me, not seasickness, not sleeplessness, not feeling gross after six days without a shower, could compare to the amount of fun I had and the amount that I learned. It was a fantastic experience, and I made some great friends too.  I am both eager and willing to try their undergraduate programs when I’m old enough, and perhaps do another of their high school ones next year. Without a doubt, this was the best summer I’ve ever had.

And yes, we did sing pirate songs.