Ocean Poem

Ocean Poem
By Lily Munsill, Piper Tompkins, Story Southworth, and Maddie Koenig
(This poem is about our passage from Fernandino to Samana, Dominican Republic).

Hoist up the anchor
Make ready the sails.
We’re leaving America
With the wind at our tail.

Really big seas.
Really big clouds.
Two week long voyage,
Let’s climb up the shrouds!

We’re standing aloft,
Our feet are shaking
But the beautiful view
Is so breath-taking.

We furl the course!
We strike the raffee!
We sew up the jib!
Get drenched in time for nav-sea.

We have daily chores
That take a half hour or more.
We brasso the quarterdeck
And scrub the soles.
We wash all our dishes
And freshen the bowls.

Ten dolphins off the bow!
Swimming as fast as can be.
There are sea turtles now!
And a whale that just breached!

I’m standing on bow watch.
Watching it all.
Are there ships coming?
I think there’s a squall!

Haul in your downhaul.
Tend the main sheet.
Ease the halyard.
Take it to the cleat.

The head sails are struck.
The lines are in place.
Your watch is over.
Wipe the salt from your face.

Hang up your foulies.
Wring out your clothes.
We’re all very salty
From our heads to our clothes.

Ocean is great!
We’re having a blast
During all our watches,
As well as in class.

We do get wet
And our bunks may be small
There’s some sea sickness
But it’s part of it all!

Our hair is blonder.
Our skin’s getting tan.
You can see all the work we do
Through the calluses on our hands.

This long passage
Feels like a year,
But it’s so amazing
And the water’s blue and clear.

Look at the sunset
The beautiful moon.
Let’s not fret,
We’ll be there soon.

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Cumberland Island Reflections

“Early Morning” By Elliott Hays-Wehls
October 16, 2009
Pre-Sunrise, Cumberland Island, GA

My God, how beautiful the natural world is. I have been so lost in the world of man while on Ocean, I completely forgot the unmoving beauty and stillness that comes with nature. I believe today is Friday; which is fitting, seeing as on Fridays at Proctor I usually catch the sunrise from the water at Elbow Pond. At the moment I am watching that same sunrise, only from the warm Atlantic Ocean. We are not at the beach celebrating the tradition of the Polar Swim; no we are here for fun and education. We are being taught how to appreciate, in these moments of alone time; just how important our thoughts are. We are learning that what we think and how we act is who we are. Simple lessons of self and responsibility.
As a song by The Waifs says “Take it in, take it on in. Now is the time that will not come again. Take it in, take it on in. Now is the time that is here for the living.” I am going to do just that. As I watch the color of the magnificent clouds change from gray to blur to white, as the shade of the horizon brightens to majestic hues of gold and red.. All of this from the ever moving, ever beautiful ocean.



Cumberland Island
by Maggie Hull
October 16, 2009

This morning was a bit indescribable. Waking at 5:30 am, long before the awakening of the sun over the horizon, we prepared for a long day of exploring and experiencing this island. Silently walking through the dark jungle-like terrain, we ended on a long stretch of a fine white-sand beach, just as the sun began to rise over the ocean. The water soon turned orange, yellow, then a deep blue, and the fins of both dolphins and sharks emerged just feet past the break of the waves. Swimming out into the warm water, we all turned to find a full arc of rainbow stretching over the beach. The sky was every color possible from every surrounding direction- orange, yellow, bright blue, dark grey – the morning truly couldn’t have been better. Following the boardwalk back into the jungle, we now sit upon the branches of live oak trees awaiting the long day ahead of us.

Cumberland Island
Madison Koenig
10 / 16/ 09

This morning was amazing. 5:30 am wakeups were less than satisfactory, and via our boat rides to the island, we were all on land by 6:30. We had a short walk in the dark, which was rather scary after learning that the island is inhabited by wild horses, armadillos, and alligators, not to mention lots of snakes and spiders. We walked to the start of the board walk as a group and then started a solo walk to the beach. On my walk I thought about Proctor, and how most kids at school were just about hitting the snooze button on their alarms hoping to squeeze in an extra 5 minutes of sleep, and I was walking on a boardwalk to the beach in Georgia. On the beach we watched the sun start to rise above the horizon and we ran into the waves. As we swam the sun rose and rain clouds started to move in. Sharks were spotted just on the other side of the break and we ran back to the sand. False alarm; just dolphins! The swim call was back on. From the water we watched a double rainbow form as the sun continued to rise on the horizon. It was the ultimate morning that made 5:30 am wakeups worth it. It is only 8 am, but already I have had more excitement here today than three days worth of excitement back at school. While everyone is in classes today, we will be preparing for a two week passage. We will do a section of the “death march”, a 26 mile trek around Cumberland Island. The walk might be miserable as we move along, but after a week or so at sea it will definitely have been worth it. I just keep reminding myself, this is school and there is no better way to learn about the world than seeing the world first hand.

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Virtue by Bud Hallock

“Virtue”
For the Ocean is the Ocean
It has a way of virtue
Both wicked and rewarding
But it is the virtue that makes the
Ocean
Land…for it has no virtue,
Just the adherence to common conformity
That yields its dullness
Despite a pyramid and a tower,
It cannot hold a way based light to the majestic
Power of the Ocean’s beauty of the
Ocean
For it, and everything about it,
I love
From the pit of my heart to the essence of my feeling.
The Ocean is what, of what, I love.

Written by Bud Hallock

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Sailing South by Story Southworth

I just came off of bow watch and it was a moment that will stay with me for a while. First of all it's really foggy and the clouds are covering up all the light so its pitch black out, like the real, dark night, black. The kind your eyes can’t adjust to. As I was standing up there I couldn’t help but wonder what the point of bow watch was on a night like this. I wouldn’t be able to see anything until it was very close.

But I kept up the constant searching, the night vigil, despite these thoughts, sweeping the horizon for lights but finding none.

I happened to glance down, and for a moment I had to squint my eyes, disoriented. Shapes were moving in and out of the waves, but they seemed to be on fire, and electrical glowstick fire. The water the bow sliced through also churned back “on fire”, but then disappeared, turning an inky black and melting back into the depths. I knew what the fire was – bioluminesence, and after a moment I was able to identify the shapes as dolphins, about 5 of them, playing in the bow waves, cutting weaving, the occasional fin breaking the surface. A dance I didn’t know the steps to.

What had originally caused me pause, I now realize, was how the bioluminesence affected the dolphin bodies. The seal, streamline shape of their bodies was highlighted, and they each left a trail of bubbles, comments on the inky black water. They belong in the world of the unreal.

I must of stood there, completely captivated, craning my neck down for a good twenty minutes, watching as they slowly dropped off the bow, one at a time, all to the port side. After they had gone, I was left there, surrounded by fog, watching the water catch fire, and then melt back into darkness, becoming another mile of water racing out behind us.

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Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island is one of the crew’s favorite places on the planet. Although it has a history of human inhabitants, from pre-civil war plantations, to communities of hundreds of African Americans, to wealthy descendants of the Carnegies, the Georgia barrier island currently is a national park and wilderness preserve of maritime forests and marshes. We shuttled ashore at 6 am and walked silently through the dark, twisted forest of live oak trees to the Atlantic coast. White sand beaches stretch the 17 mile long length of the island. We sat on the beach in the cool blue pre-dawn glow, quiet with our thoughts, reflecting upon the hard work it has taken in over three weeks to come so far. As the orange dawn rose, we bathed in the cool breakers. On Ocean Classroom, we joke that there will be magical days when the students will see dolphins jumping over rainbows. As it turns out, we were in luck on this sweet morning! The early light illuminated a doubled arched rainbow over the island, and just past the breakers, dolphins surfaced for air. We all felt awe and excitement on our secluded beach, watching the sun rise under double rainbow arches, feet from dolphins! We spent the day hiking and exploring this magnificent wilderness. We visited the ruins of Dungeness, a burned down mansion once owned by the Carnegies and utilized as a center of social life at the turn of the century. The eerie remains of this once lively home reminded us that this is one of the unique places on the earth reclaimed by nature. Its stewards are now the wild horses, alligators, armadillos, and eagles. Cumberland is famous for its wild horses, and we observed some of these free animals feeding on the grassy fields surrounding the building. Armadillos crossed out paths while we hiked through the live oak forests. After a very long afternoon hike, we collapsed near the docks and had a sunset BBQ, savoring our last moments on land for potentially two weeks.

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Charleston

Charleston

Kayden, the acting Ocean Classroom Director from Proctor Academy, met us in Charleston and spent four days with us. It was great to have Kayden join us for this time!

We also received our mail drop. Thank you to everyone who sent letters and mail.

The Scavenger Hunt in Charleston took students around this historic city. Students searched for things such as landmarks, sweet tea, ghost stories, and citadel cadets. It was the highlight of Charleston for many students.

Another highlight was our visit to the South Carolina Aquarium. In addition to studying the marine life off the local coast, we visited the Sea Turtle Rescue Hospital. It is the only kind of facility like this in the United States. We saw loggerhead and green turtles face to face. The hospital nurses injured turtles back to health and has released over eighty back into the wild so far. Most of the injuries are caused by boating accidents. One turtle in the hospital had its skull cut in half by a propeller. The skilled veterinarians at the hospital were able to repair it and the young turtle is well on its way to being re-released. We all fell in love with sea turtles!

We spent a rainy afternoon exploring Fort Sumter, where the first battle of the civil war occurred. It only rained, however, when we were indoors! Students learned about naval war strategies during the Civil War.

Students also worked on their midterm exams in Charleston. It’s hard to believe, but the Academic program is almost half way finished.

We will miss this friendly southern city. Thank you Charleston for all your hospitality.

The following is student Sam Brown's account of the Scavenger Hunt:

While the Westward was docked snuggly at Charleston Maritime Canter, students were given an opportunity to see the city of Charleston in a perfect way; a scavenger hunt. Paired in groups of three and given a lengthy checklist, Proctor students swarmed the city armed with digital cameras and sunscreen. Charleston has a unique permanent open air market that run several blocks long and had hundreds of local vendors, selling everything from civil war musket shells to hand made sweetgrass baskets. Charleston is a city with many superstitions, including an operating fire station occupied by two ghosts. One group of students got to see a bed in the fire station in which the ghost was sighted. Charleston’s junk food was also quite different that what you might find at Jakes in Andover. Boiled peanuts and sweet tea are local favorites. Charleston’s famous “rainbow row” is a cobblestone city block with three story tenements of every color of the rainbow. After two hours of exploration, students rushed back to Westward to tally points. Everyone has a great time and enjoyed eating out on the town later that week. The Proctor students had a great time in Charleston and are looking forward to the Caribbean.

Sam Brown on Bow Watch:

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