Photos from The passage to the Dominican Republic
>> Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Conner at the helm
Morgan at the helm during a squall, or as we like to call them, a fresh water shower!
Sophie stearing by the wind
Journal Thoughts
“Journal Thoughts” - Anonymous
Getting to know people is one of the benefits to being in such a small living space. You make friends with people you never knew before, in a way that is totally unique to this experience. In our watch group , we have many different personalities. We may never have spent time together if it wasn’t for this trip. We’ve all seen each other learn and make mistakes. We’ve seen each other at all hours of the day and night. It’s an experience unique to our group. We’ve had some rough patches, and times when we had to drop what we were doing and support one another. We have a type of “Breakfast Club” dynamic going on. We have been taken out of our comfort zones to complete this challenge together.
“Who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall far behind?” – Skinny Love, Bon Iver
Bow watch is a good time to get perspective and self –reflect. It is the only time you’re alone, but you’re not lonely. It is interesting to think about where you were a year ago, and where you are right now. You’ve changed so much, but you don’t realize it while its happening. Even in the past few weeks there has been so much to learn; from basic knot tying to calling sails. Time is slipping by though, already we have less than a month left of our voyage. If all this change happened in the few short weeks we have been on Ocean, what will happen in the next few weeks? What about next year? If we’ve made it this far, the possibilities are endless.
“When everything is lonely I can be my own best friend. I’ll get a coffee and the paper, have my own conversations.”
- Brighteyes
Sea Time byJake Adick
“Sea Time” By Jake Adick
October 23, 2009
En Route to Samana, Dominican Republic
Time. A simple unit of measure, yet it is so much more to us on Ocean Classroom. To us, 10:00 pm does not exist, it’s 2200. To us the word minute does not just mean minutes in an hour, it also means minutes in a degree. A minute to us also means a single nautical mile on the latitude scale. Our day is not scheduled out in classes, what we are going to learn, and when we are going to do certain things. To us, all we know is when watch starts and ends, and that we have two classes at 1000 and 1400.
During watch anything can happen. You might have 30 minutes of idle time, or you might be out on the head rigging putting a miter furl on the jib tops’l. Still, to us, time is measured by the events taking place, not by what your wristwatch says. We have no need for it, the only thing we need to know is when we take the helm, stand bow watch, due a boat check and when it is “time” to rotate duties. Although being on time is immeasurably important, if you asked us what day it was, it is guaranteed the majority could not tell you.
At mountain classroom, before we left for Ocean, our literature teacher said “One day on land equals three days at sea.” Such a true statement. Our days are long, broken up by random hours of sleep, when you spend more then two days at sea everything meshes together. Right now I am approaching my eighth day at sea heading towards the Dominican Republic and I just learned today what day of the week it actually is. Truly, it is a strange feeling, it almost feels like life is simpler without the complexity of dates, times and long schedules. It lets you think more clearly and enjoy that once in a lifetime sunset while perched high aloft on the foremast.
Night Watch by Sam Brown
Sam Brown
Night Watch
10. 24. 09
As we have spent more and more time on the open ocean following the daily rhythm of life aboard Westward, any shipmate can easily identify their favorite part of the day. Personally, night watches are my favorite part of the twenty-four hour day. On one particular night watch, we were motor-sailing in calm conditions about thirteen miles off the coast of Grand Caicos Island. I stood on bow watch scanning the horizon enjoying the warm breeze run through my hair. Visibility was perfect. Far off, about one point on the starboard bow, I could see a minuscule white light. I waited a few minutes until I was sure it was a light and not a star, and reported it to my mate, Mr. Dimock. He confirmed the light and we went below into the dog house to look on the radar. I was right, a ship of some sort was out there, and holding a course towards us. We were going to have to wait until he got a little closer to make our next decision. Slowly, the tiny white light I had seen grew bigger, until it was many white lights and red and green navigation lights heading towards us. I am going to see if I can contact them on the radio. We went back into the doghouse and tuned the VHF radio to channel 16, the international distress and hailing channel. Mr. Dimock spoke into the microphone, identifying us, our latitude and longitude, as well as theirs. Right after finishing our message, a voice answered back in a thick Eastern European accent. The ship shrouded in darkness was a cruise ship, the Liberty. The captain was aware of us and passing us port to port with a CPA – or closets point of approach – of two miles. We thanked him and signed off the radio. Ten minutes later, we had the binoculars on deck peering at the floating city just two miles off our beam. The cruise ship was so lit up it temporarily covered up the stars. It was strange to have a community of forty people so distinctly separate from a floating city of a couple thousand people. Not before long, the cruise ship was behind us, a tiny speck of white on the black horizon. My watch was just about over, and I assumed bow watch again, peering out at the horizon. This watch is just another example of why I like night watches. Every watch is spontaneous and busy. The stars and moon, when not covered by the clouds, practically illuminate over the deck and sometimes it feels as if our watch is the only watch on the boat. The thrill of sailing at night is an experience I simply can’t capture in words. I look forward to night watch every day.
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.
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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