Wind: North/ Force 3
Precipitation: Heavy Rain
Visibility: Very limited in Fog
Seas: 2'
Clouds: Nimbostatus
Temperature: 22C

Day #3 of our trip started out with some wet weather.  The anchor watch reported that at about 0330 the wind shifted to the west, thunder and lightning rolled its way in, and the rain began to fall.  It rained for about four hours, and the coffee mugs left on deck accumulated about 2 ?” of rain in them.  After our 0545 wake-up, C watch turned to raising the foresail, hauling back the anchor and setting the jumbo and jib.  After that, we went down below into the foc’sle to eat breakfast.  We ate eggs, sausage, bagels and fruit.  Immediately after our “yarlicious” breakfast, the sun broke out and we had an hour of bright sunlight until the weather changed to a favorable southwest breeze for us to sail with.  With this great wind “we are getting to see Ernestina sailing at her best.”

The crew then rounded up all of the participants to have an all hands muster, where Fred the chief mate explained to us about “field day.”  We don’t really understand where the “field” is, but we soon figured that we had to do a major cleaning of the boat to try and get her as clean as she was when we got here.  We see this cleaning as a celebration and appreciation of the age and beauty of the Ernestina, and realize that if people hadn’t cared for her like this through the years, she couldn’t have possibly survived for 107 years.  Jonathon said that “this trip was well worth going on,” and enjoyed learning some more knots, a bit about sailing, and a lot about communal living”.

More observations follow as a summary of the three-day voyage:
On August 17^th, three UB students and one staff member headed down to the coast of Massachusetts to participate in the Tallship program on the Schooner Ernestina. We joined 20 other participants and 10 crew members for three days on a 156 foot sailboat. What appears below are brief excerpts, which students wrote in their journals while on board the Ernestina or shortly thereafter.

The first day here they had us pull up the sail and then we headed out…people started to…get sick and I got a bad headache…I could not eat lunch or dinner…the crew members were all very nice and tried to help us as much as they could.
The second day there we had to wake up at 6 am in the morning and by then we were out of Buzzard’s Bay. We had to put the Jumbo and another sail up and we had to coil ropes…we had to wash the ship and I had to do "bow watch"…I got to steer the ship and I had to navigate where we were going.
- Tony Lawton

8-18-01 (first day)
4:00 pm My group is getting ready to go on duty in Group B. Sea-sickness has been rough on some people- even older people like Shaili…too much water around us, but food was o.k. for lunch.
8-19-01
Noon …got a lot better, went swimming, raised sail, ate a good breakfast…also got up at 3 in the morning for night watch.
8-21-01
…swaying back and forth. For nearly three days, I did this on the Ernestina- a big sail boat. I like this journey because it showed me how much effort you have to put in. What I liked most was watching the sunrise off the horizon.
-Alice Foote

Day 2
1:00 pm I went on duty for the second time but this time I was in charge of assignments. Before duty I had lunch and it was great. I assigned my team members to jobs and I did some too.
3:00 pm We did boat drills. We did a man overboard drill and a fire drill. We learned the basics of what to do in case of a fire or if a person is thrown overboard.
1:00 am I had to get up because I was on anchor duty. It was raining, so I had to put on a raincoat. I then did a check of the boat at 1:50 and went back to bed at 2 am.
Day 3
1:00 pm Well, we’re heading back for port in New Bedford. I’m having a great time. It’s gone by so quickly and I’ve enjoyed a lot.
-Pete Newvine

Captain: Willi Bank
Program Coordinator: Inette Rex