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Date: Sunday, June 2, 2002
Bourne High School

Under a ponderous heap of heavy thunderclouds, the Ernestina slipped her dock lines and backed out into New Bedford Harbor with 16 sophomores from Bourne High School. With a few claps of thunder for applause, the fresh crew raised the mainsail, then the foresail, jumbo and jib, and the ship glided through the Hurricane Barrier and out into a glass-like Buzzard’s Bay.

After refreshing the ship with a brief shower, the storm clouds dissipated and the voyage really got underway. With a student at the helm and another few standing watch at the bow, the rest of the sophomores broke themselves into small groups and began to learn a little bit about navigation, plankton, and the multi-faceted history of the good ship Ernestina. As the students all rotated around the ship through their educational stations, the wind began to pick up and the sun broke its way through the storm clouds.

After all had filled their brains to capacity, the lunch bell rang and the belly-feeding began. Once sated, all hands turned toward the deployment of our otter trawl. Under the careful guidance of Otter Trawl Captain Du Jour, Liz Maloney, a superfluity of scup were hauled back. Among the other items that we caught in our net were: Moon snail egg sacks; a few massive hermit crabs (one of which was living in a five inch hairy whelk shell!) and a few normal-sized ones; 2 flounders; limpets; squid; spider and sand crabs; barnacles; codium; and red algae. It was quite a haul.

By the time we had everything identified and sorted into life-support tanks, we were well on our way back into New Bedford. The wind was blowing like stink as we flew past the parading circle of protesting fishing boats and wove our way between small sailboats racing across the channel. The students were brave enough to survive the bucking bowsprit, and a few even braver souls helped to furl the jib as we nosed our way through the waves. Once we cheered our way through the Hurricane Barrier and were safely back home in New Bedford harbor, we lowered the jumbo, the fore and then the monster mainsail.

With all the canvas neatly furled and put away, we triumphantly slithered through the precipitously skinny space between the fishing boats and the cement pier. The 16 Bourne sophomores used this short respite in the busy schedule to write some reflections about their day aboard the 108-year-old fishing schooner. Safely at the dock, the students retrieved their bags from the fish hold and bid adieu to the Ernestina and her crew. The crew will remember the Bourne 16 as enthusiastic, energetic students who were happily willing to engage in new and different experiences and who came together as a team in just a few short hours.

Respectfully submitted by Jessica Bryant and Amanda Lake

Captain: Willi Bank
Program Coordinator: MaryHelen Gunn

We would like to thank Lotus and IBM for donation of software, hardware and funding to enable regular electronic updates from the ship.

NOAA Chart is provided courtesy of Maptech using Cruising Navigator 4.3 and grabbing the image using Grabit Pro 6.02.

 
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Copyright 1997-2002
Schooner Ernestina
89 North Water Street, P.O. Box 2010, New Bedford, MA 02741-2010
phone 508.992.4900 -- fax 508.984.7719
www.ernestina.org

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