Floating across the great blue, time flows a little differently here in our coconut life raft. At times it passes by slowly and at other times, all at once. Our concept of time doesn’t begin or end with the sunrise or the sunset, but rather revolves around a twelve-hour rotation schedule crafted by a clever algorithm. Since sailing from Key West, both the sun and the moon have watched us set and strike the sails, scrub the deck, deploy the hydrocast, and tow the neuston net. We in turn have watched the sun and moon chase each other across the North Atlantic sky and have even begun to learn the constellations of the stars during the night watch shifts.
As our knowledge of the ship and its interactions with the seas and skies broadened, we as a collective group have progressively become more keenly aware of our surroundings. We have dealt with countless hot days in the sun and have stood watch in the heavy rains brought on by angry squalls of the night. But last night was our first encounter with a cold front that brought on an especially energetic electric storm accompanied by 12 ft. waves. I’ve had my fair share of thunder storms from the safe comforts of land and insulated housing, but never from a 120 ft. long hunk of metal floating in the middle of an ocean. Attached to this said floating hunk of metal are two equally long lightning rods conveniently angled at 90 degrees to hold the varying sails up, as well as daring every God of the sky to strike her mast.
All jokes aside, we would have been fine - the lightning would have been redirected around us and straight down to the hull where the electricity would then have been dispersed into the ocean. It was actually pretty mesmerizing to watch the flurry of flickering bolts jump from one cloud to another. It was also fascinating (and slightly ominous) to track the storm on the radar and how quickly the cold front was able to cover 72 nm within a couple of hours. Our shift for B watch began at 1900 but it wasn’t until 2030/2100 that the wind picked up to a force 7 and the distant flickering lightning began to creep closer from the North. At 0015, we gybed by passing the storm tris’l and turned 180 degrees to sail south.
Although we were unable to avoid getting hit by the storm, we met her on our own terms and instead, got clipped by a smaller portion of the front moving northeast. Unfortunately, the rain and wind were still strong and poor C Watch took the brunt of the hit since our turnover was at 0100. Nonetheless, it was an unforgettable experience that certainly served as a humbling reminder just how beautiful but also powerful the ocean is.
All in all, sailing from Key West to the South Sargasso Sea, through Bermuda and finally to NYC Harbor was a once in a life time experience. Shifts were split into 6 hour shifts between three groups. You can imagine just how chaotic our sleep schedules were. Waking up at 1:00 am for a shift was a little painful, but seeing the night sky with absolutely no light pollution was breath taking. We hit a patch of bad weather as we were trying to out run a storm in the South Sargasso, but made it to Bermuda safely. We had a breathtaking view of the harbor when we were allowed to crawl up the mast and sit on the top beams. But the coolest experience before docking was the night before when we anchored outside of the country when we ran into a pod of breaching Humpback whales- one of which swam under our boat and surfaced 10m away from us.
BERMUDA
While I've had my fair share of going
through immigrations, this time was certainly a unique experience. To be cleared to dock, we had the Royal Bermuda Coast Guard pull up next to us as we sailed in and had the boarding Customs Officer board our ship as we were guided into the harbor of St.. George. One by one, they led us into the library of our ship and cleared us to enter the country.
We had a week at port to re-stock our supplies, do some ship maintenance and explore the country. While we rotated in our shifts, we also had several opportunities to meet and interact with the local scientists through behind the scenes tour of the Bermuda aquarium followed by a lecture at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science. On our days off, we managed to explore the cave systems open to the public and checked out the coral reefs and cliff sides. But after less than a week in Bermuda, we had to wrap it up and set sail sooner to avoid a tropical storm that had formed.
The rest of the trip following the coast of the US was an easy sail until we crossed the Gulf Stream and hit some rough weather with some cold fronts and rough squalls. Between the 12 ft. waves and the sheets of rain hitting us, I don't think I stayed dry longer than 6 hours. Thankfully it warmed up the night before we sailed into NYC. But with that came the thickest fog I had ever been in: you couldn't see more than 5m ahead and all you could hear were the loud fog horns echoing around like some dystopian movie. The next day, we sailed into New York City and can say that was one of the coolest things I've ever done.
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