Out on the Pacific, Part 1

With four days until I head off for Europe, I've finally gotten a chance to type up some of the best excerpts from my ship journal. I didn't want it to be too long, so I have only included the first half of the trip here, and I will post the second later. Enjoy the small window into the most amazing experience ever.

6/21/09 – 14:06 – Waikiki

Liz is coming!! I emailed in my paper this morning and got an auto-response that Liz had shipped out and would be sailing with Class 224. I told Meg and Melanie but I think it’s supposed to be a surprise.

16:02 – at the hostel

Caroline got the auto-response too and texted Clara to tell everyone so now the surprise is spoiled.

I can’t believe I’ve only known this group for a month. A month ago yesterday was when we all first met. I feel like these are the kids I’ve gone to school with my whole life.

6/22/09 – 22:13 – Robert C. Seamans, Pier 36, Honolulu Harbor

I am in bunk #4, in the foc’s’le! My bunk is under Madelyn, and across from Caroline who is under Kim. Together we occupy the forward-most racks in the ship. The crewman who showed us this space remarked that this is where all our dreams will involve flying. I really hope I don’t spend all my time seasick!

My watch officers are Chief Mate Pamela and 2nd Scientist Adam. Captain Chris called Adam “Dr. Feel-Good,” as he dishes out the seasickness meds. A-Watch had our first meeting on the starboard foredeck, where we had to go around the circle and share our goals. What I told the group was: I’ve been in activities before, be it colorguard or bluegrass, where there is no individual success, but only the success of all the individual parts working perfectly within the whole. What I am most looking forward to is getting to that point here, where I know I am competent and I know everyone else is too, and together we can make the ship do amazing things.

The box with the J-Frame driving controls in it — need to find out what it’s called — has two controls: one for J-Frame out/in, the other for wire raise/lower. The inside of the cover has “POOP?” written on it to remind us to turn off the poop pump before we do deployments so we don’t collect our own refuse. And to turn it back on when we’re done!

We got to practice sweating a line with Bryce by hoisting Liz into the air on the gantl’n. The process: Two-Six-Heave!

We have to wake up at 0520. Ugh.

6/24/09 – 16:54 – between Molokai and Lana’i

Yesterday was a mess.

After lunch we cast off from the deck and set sail in Force 5 (20 knot) winds. Once the four lowers were set, and we had spent some time watching Oahu disappear to the north, Pamela told us to go get some rest before dinner and evening watch. At this point, four people had vomited over the leeward rail.

Caroline, Zack and I headed down to our bunks in the foc’s’le and lied down to nap. The up-and-down motion of the bow made it literally hard to keep my head on the pillow. I rolled over. Bad idea. My head started spinning, my heart and breath quickened, and my mouth filled with saliva. I got out of my bunk, but I was too weak to get my shoes out of the drawer. I made it to the top of the lobby, but the doors were closed to keep out the high waves and I couldn’t get one open. I called for help and Zack came up, opened the door, put his harness on me, and clipped me to the rail just forward of the rescue boat so I wouldn’t tumble into the sea. The fresh wind cured me long enough to be moved up to the quarterdeck with all the other sickies. In all I hurled four times. Most of that evening is a blur.

Tonight I’m on galley clean-up during mid-watch (2300-0300). That should be lovely. If anything makes me vomit again, it’ll be cleaning nasty food below decks.

6/25/09 – 19:28 – north of Oahu

Land is no longer visible.

I had to vomit two or three times during mid-watch galley clean-up last night. It’s hard because I want to be selfish and just go lay on deck when I feel that miserable, but I am on watch and I have to keep doing my job.

Tomorrow I will finally get to take a shower.

6/26/09 – 16:37 – Pacific Ocean

I got a haiku from Meg and Alex (both in B-Watch) on my bunk. B House love. It reads:
Hershey’s chocolate
It’s good going in and out
Clean the heads thour’ly
I absolutely love it. I miss B House. I miss the nice 24-hour schedule. I miss chillin’ in our common room. I miss going to Pie in the Sky and Coffee O. I miss bike rides and walks to the beach. I miss having a house that we ran all by ourselves, not with a big crew more experienced than us, making sure we do everthing exactly one way.

I bet I’ll miss the ship though. It’s a ton of work, I never feel totally relaxed, and I’ve spent far more time sick than I’m ok with. But I don’t have to think about anything more than the very immediate future, and I’m surrounded by a great group of people out on the Pacific Ocean. Time passes fast because of the strange watch schedule, but for now it’s a pretty sweet life.

6/27/09 – 19:35 – bunk

No seasickness today! Hopefully it’s over for good.

6/28/09 – 21:00 – bunk

I am so happy right now. It’s amazing how my fiddle can do that. Just holding it puts me in a good mood.

The winds died down quite a bit today. And we’re heading them up pretty hard. Which means rather than speeding to San Francisco, we are crawling toward Japan. But the forestays’l has been fixed so we can set that now and unreef the main, which should help carry us through the doldrums.

Things are starting to feel routine, which means time is passing faster. Tomorrow marks one week on board the ship.

6/29/09 – 13:32 – quarter deck

Swim call!! This afternoon Capt. Chris let us go swimming. We scrambled into swim suits, mustered on the lab deck, and after a safety talk jumped overboard. That was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Crystal clear cobalt blue water below and the horizon stretching in every direction. Beautiful.

The wind is dead. It’s funny, anywhere else we would consider this perfect weather, but as sailors we think it’s terrible. Dawn, however, was absolutely gorgeous. Jon and I had to stop to admire it. The water was like glass, the clouds the perfect fluffy kind radiating out from the horizon, the sky a full palette of colors – coral pink, tangerine orange, sweet lime green, and lavender lining the bright white clouds. Just stunning.

7/3/09 – 13:55 – quarterdeck, North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

It’s been more than a full rotation since the last time I got a chance to write. Since then we have changed watch officers and changed course. And I think my outlook has changed a bit too.

For one thing, I am a helm junkie. At first I loathed taking the wheel, because she would never go the direction I wanted. I was convinced I wouldn’t ever get the hang of steering, and that I would be personally responsible for the ship going wildly off course. But after only about two times at the helm I figured her out, and now I am a pretty darn good helmsman if I do say so myself. At this point steering the ship is my favorite thing to do. Especially by the stars.

We’re motor-sailing straight through the gyre because of the weird weather systems. There are pieces of plastic floating by once a minute. We get hundreds of particulate plastic pieces in our surface tows. It’s ridiculous and horrifying.

7/5/09 – 17:32 – quarter deck

Happy Independence Day, America. We officially rescheduled the Fourth for the 5th on the ship, and our great swizzle, themed “As American as Apple Pie” just ended about half an hour ago. The primary activity of the swizzle was singing, which I love. I keep getting complimented on my singing voice, and I know I owe a lot of that to Patrick. I’m going to miss all my music groups next year!

I’ve decided I love it on the ship. I love living in this small community where everyone knows each other really well and sees each other every day. It’s like having a huge family. I love working on a sailing ship, I love doing the science, I love being on the water. It’s so chill, and so healthy, and everything we do has a real impact on our community.

7/7/09 – 19:35 – saloon

I’m in a great mood right now. I was “it” today for afternoon watch and everything went really well. I kept up a quick rotation, sent off the report to the Nat’l Weather Service, pre-computed stars for evening twilight, and — wait for it — trimmed the sails! The wind has shifted to NNE, force 3, and we’re sailing full-and-by under all sails fore and aft, due east to San Francisco. We’re barely making 5 kts, but it’s a beautiful thing.