Up early in the am. Our 0620 first seating breakfast began while the sun was still under the horizon. One notices the immediate effect of the warmth of the sunrays this time of year!

The wind speed is down a bit today and it is a fine morning to do our first otter trawl as we depart the anchorage.

The wind had come around a bit North of West so we were able to make a good course for Tarpaulin Cove in Vineyard Sound. The purple track shows our course across Buzzards Bay, through Quicks Hole and up Vineyard Sound to this well know anchorage off Naushon Island.

One of our reasons for going there was also to get within range of the tower located in Falmouth which would allow us to do live video streaming from the ship. One student, Johnathan Ruggiero, had worked very hard securing equipment to put this project together. He had hoped to link it up to the following website: bandum.com. We all felt much frustration as John’s phone call informed us that the ISP had changed with a conversion to a new system and that even if we had gotten the signal, we would not be able to put it up on the site. Darn. The site is still there and will be modified without the live streaming, but with many photos and video clips.

One of the goals of this trip was to analyze and compare organisms and their environments at various points throughout Buzzards Bay. As we entered calmer waters upon approaching Tarpaulin Cove, we were able to do another otter trawl, plankton tow and water sampling before anchoring up by 1500. You can see the large scale image of our track in Tarpaulin Cove on the chart image to the right. After samples and data were recorded a dory was launched and we rowed and climbed until the sun went down.

Captain: Amanda Madeira
Program Coordinator: Inette Rex
Emerson Faculty: Alan Lee Hankin, PhD, Claire Andrade Watkins