Charleston Catholic Program - Day 1

April 19, 2010

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This morning we boarded students and faculty from Charleston Catholic School for a three day adventure. Our plan had been to head out to the open ocean for the day before tucking back into Charleston Harbor for the night. As we were approaching Fort Sumter during orientation stations, the Coast Guard reported that three Right Whale calves had been spotted approaching the Ravenel Bridge. A quick conference of Captain Hall, Ms. Dutcher (the Chief Mate), and Ms. Spencer (the Head Educator) had the ship turning back towards the Cooper and Wando Rivers.

Despite our best attempts to slowly approach the whales' supposedly location, we did not see anything we could confirm as a whale calf. Various people saw what may have been whale blows, but at our distance, could have also been pelicans dive-bombing for dinner.

We spent the afternoon in our two watches. Each watch had a turn on deck watch, manning the helm and lookout positions, completing boat checks and the log, learning about weather and tacking, and tying knots. Each watch also did team building and educational activities with Ms. Spencer. We explored the way lighting is different in the deep levels or aphotic zones of the ocean. This included looking through blue "deep sea goggles" to observe how the color red disappears in the deep ocean while blues and purples stand out.

Everyone has taken to ship's life in a wonderful way. We got some great sailing in today with all four lowers set. Both watches used their time to tack and gybe around the harbor. When it was time to take in sail, everyone knew right where to go. While port watch cleaned up from dinner, starboard watch went out on the headrig to furl the staysail and the jib. We are journalling about our experiences right now and will get a bit of free time before a group game and the beginning of anchor watches.

Till tomorrow-
Head Educator, Beth Spencer