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Date: Sunday, June 16 through Wednesday, June 19, 2002
Upward Bound Multi-day Program

Sunday:
Again, it was time for another Upward Bound trip. It was decided that we were going sailing. It all began on a Sunday night. Where we boarded the Ernestina. It lay in the water docked next to its sailing partner the Spirit of Massachusetts. We had already had dinner at Quincy Market. All of the gear was brought on board, everyone was excited to find their bunk. Ryan was dissatisfied with her bunk stating it was much too small for her. Gina switched with her, being only 4'5" she fit perfectly. After getting settled we had an all-hands meeting. Everyone gave a small introductory statement about themselves. This consisted of there name, what town they live in, and if they could be any one in history who would they be and why? We were also divided up into three watch groups (A, B & C). A watch group is basically in charge of running the ship during their watch time. At all times there needs to be someone at the bow of the ship as a lookout, a person at the helm to steer the ship. Every hour you need to do a full boat check. This consists of a sweep of the heads, all cabins, the bilges, a complete deck check, and an engine room check. There was a brief orientation of the ship and also the safety equipment on board. The crew kindly let us sleep the first night while they rotated through the anchor watch.

Monday:
Monday morning we were awakened promptly at 6:30am. Watches began and so did other routine things such as chores and the daily run down. Each watch went through an orientation during the day. These orientations involved learning about first aid, the history of the boat, and many other things. Throughout the day watches kept the boat running smoothly as it should be. The only thing that could be seen was the ever so blue sky with the matching ocean. The Spirit of Massachusetts and the Liberty Clipper, another boat joining us, sailed along our side. Both ships eventually passed us. After dinner the people who were not sailing the ship learned the stories of a band of pirates from history. We also invented stories of what pirates' lives would have been like. Finally after a long day of sailing, Casey was at the wheel as we came into Provincetown where we anchored the ship for the night. After we lowered all the sails, we were really tired. By ten at night many were asleep, while a few rotated every hour for anchor watch.

Tuesday:
We awoke at 5:00 am to start our watch. Our teammates just got off their watch, so they awakened us for our duties. We were in charge until 7:00 when breakfast was ready. We went around every half-hour doing a boat check. We were anchored, so one of our jobs was to check the anchor to make sure it isn't running against the side or gone. We also go into the galley to make sure the freezer and refrigerator are at the right temperature. Along with all of that we make sure the boat isn't moving. We have three landmarks we check. The mate chose three points on shore that don't move and we use the compass to check our position every half hour to be sure we don't drift. If it is different we know we are moving or turning in the waves. This is repeated every half-hour. Chores were a major part after breakfast, cleaning the galley, washing the floors in deck and below. Everything needs to be moved and scrubbed. Finally all of that was done, and we went ashore to Provincetown for a couple of hours.

To get to land we used small motor boats. Once we were on land people had trouble walking with their sea legs after they first got off. We went to the Pirate ship museum where there is all this stuff they're pulling out of the ocean from the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah. Some of the things that we saw were the Pilgrims' Monument, museums, shops, etc. At about 12:30 we started to head back to the boats for lunch and continue sailing.

Once on the boat many students got the idea of going swimming and with the captain's permission, the students got their wish. Many jumped off the side to cool down after we raised the mainsail. Once again we could sail. The water was cold but refreshing after being on the land under the sun and raising the huge sail. After jumping repeatedly from different heights, the students pulled themselves aboard the deck to dry. Twenty minutes had passed and we now needed to sail on.

Next we had classes or some had their watch time. While one group controlled the boat, another towed a small net over the side to catch plankton to look at under the microscopes. B-watch found and caught a giant bug, a Japanese beetle we think, and we caught it to keep it safe til we could release it on land. This was all going on while we were also doing an activity. In the activity we played a game where we the name of a sea animal taped to our backs and we had to guess which sea-related animal we were by asking questions about where we lived and what we ate and who eats who, etc. We were everything from a whale to a seagull to a sea cucumber. Then we made a web and figured out who was affected when one animal dropped out. It was hardest figuring out what a diatom is and who it's related to.

Before and during dinner we watched the other boats sailing with us-they looked romantic in the afternoon sunlight. [You can see our track over Stellwagen Bank in the chart image to the right.] And we watched for whales. Some people on A watch heard some whales spouting or blowing but it was too dark, even with the half-moon, to see the whales. Some people also learned some new constellations while looking at the stars on night watch.

Wednesday:
In the morning we were all pretty sleepy at breakfast but we did our chores and then some people took naps. We had a choice of 3 activities in the morning-writing and journaling for ourselves and for this web story, making up a legend about our voyage and turning it into a play, and completing our seamanship challenges. The play involved pirates and whales and Ernestina saving the day.

Captain: Sophie Morse
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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