Another week closer to some hands on sailing experience. It’s great to have a theory component, but I think I’m more of a hands-on type of learner. On my way down to St. Croix to meet the ship, I’ll be stopping in Puerto Rico for a few days, to check it out. I have several friends from there and it’s supposed to be beautiful, so I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to stop there. During our cruise, we will be going from St. Croix to St. Martin (wind and weather permitting), Samana in the Dominican Republic, Port Antonio, Jamaica, and finally arriving in Key West.

I’ve been spending a lot of time doing a lot of research for papers and projects, but every time I’m in the library, I get distracted by the amazing amount of great maritime history books. Maybe I’ll ask the SEA people to let me come back after the cruise and just live in their library for a bit.

A few days ago, we had a presentation from an organization that does sustainability projects in Haiti. They’ve been involved in the country for several years, creating fish ponds with low resources, and therefore proving the locals with fishes to sell in the markets. Bill Mebane, the man in charge, made such a great emphasis on providing Haitians with means of sustaining themselves instead of merely relying on relief money. You know, the whole concept of give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him to fish, etc.

Here’s a link with more information. I’m sure several of my Arizona folks will be interested in learning more about this project and how they might get involved.

While we’re on the Haiti subject, since our trip will be taking us very near Haiti, the wheels are in motion for us to alter course and deliver some supplies (SPAM to be more specific. Very popular down there!). So we’re taking donations and having a fundraiser to pay for the 3,000 lbs of SPAM that we’re hoping to deliver. More specifically, we’ll be (hopefully) delivering this food to Jeremie, Haiti, to the Haitian Health Foundation. They’re seeing a lot of refugees arriving from Port-au-Prince, and all supplies running low.

Let me know if anyone is interested in donating, I can give you some more specific information. Any little bit helps, of course.

I have two presentations — one tomorrow and one on Tuesday — and I’ve been wagging a personal battle with Power Point.

Wish me luck…

Yesterday we explored Quissett Harbor in Woods Hole. Our assignments were to draw an “interpretation” of the harbor and an object from nature. What at first seemed like a random task requiring artistic skills, eventually made sense when we discussed how explorers had to create their own maps, and also had to be naturalists in some respect. They had to document new lands and species, often by drawing them. And then there’s the concept that a lot of those first documentations were biased depending on what the goal of the expedition had been, and who had sponsored it.

After a lengthy discussion on map making, I realized that my sorry-excuse of locators maps at the AZ Republic are NOT really map-making. It’s tracing Google Maps. Not the same.

UPDATE: By popular demand..

You can sort of see it’s the house from the third photo. Clearly I was thinking more along the artistic lines than the location/scale accuracy.

Not unlike having to get your “sea legs” when you first start on board a ship, I’ve slowly started to get the hang of being a student again. I’m not going to lie, it’s kinda weird.

The houses we’re all living in — Antares and Bellatrix, and four snowmen, melting.

We had our first field trip to the Science Library in Woods Hole, and then walked across the street to the Aquarium.

We got to see a seal feeding. Too bad all I could think about, every time Rachel the seal wrangler said “loose seal”, was of Arrested Development.

Everything is going smoothly so far, although I do miss my friends and warm temperatures in Arizona. I’m actually eating better here because there’s people far more competent in cooking than I’ve ever been. There are tons of papers and work ahead so off to get some rest!