Anchored just east of Appledore Island with our two fellow schooners

Breakfast, Chores, All Hands muster, and preparations for going ashore

Capt. Jim Jefferson of Spirit, former staff on the Island, secured our use of the island's 15' whaler for shuttling participants ashore (stiff breezes, distance, and time considerations kept us from using the dories to row ashore)-in combination with Ernestina's small boat, ably driven by mate Fred Sterner.

Once ashore, we trekked up to the Isles of Shoals Marine lab, now co-operated by the University of New Hampshire and Cornell University. Appledore Island and the Shoals Marine lab were very accomodating to all our students and crew as we spent about three hours ashore in the morning exploring the island and rocky intertidal zone. Capt. Jim had ascertained that no classes or other projects are currently using the lab, so we explored in the tidal pool touch tank... lobsters, crabs, moonsnails, sea stars, and more! Crew offered some knowledge of the marine life, like how to identify the gender of a green crab, the eating habits and regeneration capabilities of sea stars (aka starfish).

Then we went down to the rocky shoreline and students paired up to focus on an area just the size of their logbooks, to see what lives in this environment. The students wrote down detailed observations in their log books. Students identified feathery red algae, a desiccated seal carcass, Common European periwinkles, and more. After the students finished writing observations in their log books, we compared what the students have been doing here about how scientists do research in marine biology. Compared notes and talked about how this is what scientists do: research the health and balance of populations.

A short walk up the hill to the Commons building and we met up with students from the Spirit of Massachusetts and the Lettie G. Howard. For the first time the students from all three ships had time to mingle and discuss their experiences for a short while. Soon our students said goodbye to the other boats and shuttled back to Ernestina for lunch, and after a brief rest hour, we started sailing. This time, it was the students in their watches who led the raising of the sails, with only minimal support and guidance from the crew. "A" watch raised the anchor and led the raising of the main sail, "B" watch led raising the fore, and "C" watch led raising the headsails. The afternoon was further capped by raising not only the jib topsail but also our main topsail. Students on deck worked cooperatively with crew on deck and aloft to unfurl, raise and set the main topsail.

After dinner, as it was getting dark out, crew again went aloft and worked with students and crew ondeck to strike and furl the main topsail. It was a beautiful sail as the off watches slept in their bunks and the on watch capably navigated our way to Stellwagen Bank.

Back to the ship we readied for an overnight sail to Gloucester via Stellwagen Bank. Spirit and Ernestina tacked about the harbor while Lettie G. worked herself free from a cable on their anchor, and we were off to sail with a gentle breeze (and a bit of a rolling sea) with the sun setting behind us.

The night watches were busy as down in the aft cabin students plotted positions and DR's [dead reckonings] every half hour and bow watch watched for the lights of nighttime traffic. Each watch had sail changes or course changes as we navigated our way to Stellwagen Bank.

Some of the students' notes today:

• Night watch- The shifts were 4 hours long and we sailed all through the night. serious, responsibility, reliability, working
  Sightings- whales, porpoises, Grif and Dave sighted UFOs (A.K.A planes) named "UFO" Jess
• Sea- everybody (excluding crew) got sea sick on our first day of open sea sailing [Tuesday]; only 2 kids on the boat did not get sea sick (Brad and Grif) so they were the only ones who could do cabin work. But the other kids or crewmembers made up for their missed work later.

THURSDAY, August 29

In the morning on Stellwagen we found the company of the other ships and a few whales before racing back to Gloucester. Intermittent rain kept some below, but didn't stop some from enjoying the sail up on deck. The off watches played some marine biology games; each student was assigned a plant or animal of Stellwagen Bank and others had to ask up to five yes-no questions to try and guess the creature: What do you eat? Are you long? Where do you live? Do you swim? Who are your predators? After we knew who most everyone was, we went up on deck and created a food web: each of us held a ring of twine one-handed. If there was an algae bloom, algae and other creatures who'd benefit from that took the twine in two hands. Creatures harmed by the scenario (like an oil spill) would drop the twine. It was pretty easy to see that everyone was affected in some way or other by what happened to one or a few creatures.

Once at anchor with sails furled, drizzle and then rain did not impair the traditional dory races between the ships with all the students participating--many of them in dories for the first time. Lettie brought their dory (smaller than Ernestinas') over to the Big Black Bully Boat and our watches each headed out for Lettie from here. It was a relay; so Lettie's three watches rowed the boats from Lettie to Spirit. B watch struggled at the start, but by the time C watch had lost steam on the approach to Spirit, B watch pulled ahead and ended up finishing second only to A watch. Students from each ship had a little time to wait onboard and check out one other ship as the other tag-teams completed the race. Thank you Rob Hancock for announcing the race over the ship's P.A. system. All hands contributed to make it a great, safe, challenging race.

Once our students were back 'home' on Ernestina, a soggy bunch got out of wet rain gear. We hung wet clothing up in the engine room to dry and gathered in the fish hold for some stories and conversations before dinner. We read "The Thing in the Hold" from the Ocean Almanac and from there got into talking about where each of our families came from and a bit about how parents and grandparents from different parts of the world might have met.

After dinner, the watches each put together their creative presentations of their favorite parts of the trip. Each watch and even the crew got in on the 'act', and we all laughed and spoofed each other and recalled our favorite memories from the past several days. By the time all that boogie-ing was finished, everyone was ready for bed by lights-out time. Anchor watch was by now routine for our able student crew.

Program Coordinator: MaryHelen Gunn
Captain: Amanda Madeira