What a great way to say goodbye to our sailing season!  Twenty-two students from Mass College of Art led by Rick Brown and George Greenamyer joined us for a two-day, two night sailing trip from New Bedford to Woods Hole.  We were fortunate to have a great weather window of mild temperatures and a fair breeze out of the Southwest, not typical of October in the North Atlantic!  The barometer was unusually high, I think the highest we've seen it all season peaking at 30.64  around noon on Monday.

We, of course, took full advantage of this opportunity and once we set our four lowers as we left New Bedford Harbor Monday morning, we left them set for the next 29 hours.  We also set two of our topsails during our 128 mile sail, keeping the jib topsail up through the night.  Our goal was to sail as far away from land as possible and still make it to our anchorage in Tarpaulin Cove off Naushon Island by sunset Tuesday evening.   As we all were awoken a few minutes before sunrise Tuesday morning the Captain informed us this was as far away from land we would be.  Rick and George had an "all hands" ceremony planned - literally.  Just as the sun began to rise we were all given paper mache hands to throw in the water (biodegradable of course!) to signify all the hands that have worked together over time to keep the Ernestina sailing.  A small wooden boat with small figurines representing us all, was also set adrift in the ocean of hands.  It was a memorable moment.

The students rotated through the watch schedule, and during their off time they were kept busy climbing the masts, riding the bowsprit, learning about the tools we use on board, how the boat was built, and the different woods that were used.  Being 3D art students they were very interested in the configuration of the boat and sail theory.  At night they learned some astronomy by finding constellations they had never seen before.  We also entertained each other by doing some skit performances.  They were supposed to show a certain time frame in Ernestina's history, however that wasn't always the case, we were lucky our historian wasn't on board!  Wednesday morning we hauled back the anchor and motored into Woods Hole reaching the dock around 9 am. Although the trip was over we will hopefully see our new sailing friends again when the Ernestina crew visits Mass College of Art and gets a taste of the artists world!

Captain: Amanda Madeira
Program Coordinator: Crista Mellican