Today we woke up at 6 am, and raised anchor before breakfast. By 8 am 5 sails were raised, called the mainsail foresail, topsail, jumbo, jib and jib topsail. Unfortunately, the little wind we had in the morning died out by noon, which forced us to switch to motor. In the duration of the day, we participated in a series of emergency operations, procedures, and drills. After a lecture on specific assignments on how to deal with emergency situations, a practice drill was put into affect and each person on board participated in a group rescue of a manikin. Thanks to the crew, the manikin was rescued safely.

While crossing near Plum Island, the water grew choppy and we once again set sail. At a steady speed of 7 knots, we traveled closer to Block Island Sound. However, just before reaching our destination, we passed through a patch of fog, which took us about an hour to sail through. During the fog, we learned the importance of awareness of other ships. The radar told us the placements of other ships and landforms, but communication between other ships was done with a loud horn.

Luckily we made it through the fog safely and the wind coasted us to our destination. At about 6 pm we lowered the sails and used the motor to bring us into Great Salt Pond [in Block Island]. Shortly before dinner, we lowered the anchor using 70 ft of chain to a 37 ft depth. At 6:30 we ate dinner, and began our nightly chores.

Our first full day went really well, and all of us spent our time learning about navigation, the raising and lowering of sails, safety on board, awareness of other vessels, boat checks, wind conditions and the effects to sailing, and lowering the anchor.

Today we were given the opportunity to strap on personal harnesses and crawl to the very tip of the bowsprit. We literally felt as though we were flying over the water. This was, by far, our favorite part of the day.

Written by Tracey Cullen, Meghan Boian, Tom Bozsik, Aaron Thal, James DeMaio, Steven Napolitano, and Patrick Canon. The whole crew from A watch.

The totals: 70.4 miles traveled, 10 hours spent under sail, 35 gallons of water and 21 gallons of fuel consumed, no rice krispie treats or brownies left!

Captain: Amanda Madeira
Program Coordinator: Inette Rex, Chris Newlan (SSL)