Despite a warm and sunny morning, the weather turned rainy and cold but we still learned a lot and enjoyed our first day aboard the Denis Sullivan. Upon boarding we were separated into watch groups where we took a tour of the ship and learned the proper names for locations and navigational tools. Then we all participated in launching the boat from the dock. We then “mustered” and joined together to learn proper safety precautions such as what to do in the case of a fire, man over board, or abandon ship preparations. We practiced putting on our immersion suits which allowed for warmth and resembled a red Pillsbury Dough Boy or Gumby. We then dined on chicken and rice and a vegetarian curry that the ship cook had prepared.
Next we performed one of the more dangerous tasks of sailing, docking. We were each given jobs such as watching the bumpers on the side of the boat to assure that they lined up with the dock. All went well. We then picked our berths below deck and prepared for bed. We were each assigned an hour in the night in which we would watch and inspect the boat. While inspecting the boat we had to record the latitude, longitude, water depth, air and water temperature, wind speed and direction, cloud cover and type, barometric pressure, and the battery voltage. We also checked the water levels in the bilges to make sure the boat was not leaking. Each person did their watch and inspection until seven in the morning, when we were all awakened to a beautiful sunrise and lovely weather.
- Quachardd Sloan, Catalina Todd, Julia Bendon, and Gary Giombi
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