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Thursday October 20, 2005 |
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Morning Position |
Midday Position |
Evening Position Bay Ridge Flats 40˚ 39.9' latitude 074˚ 02.6' longitude |
Quicklinks Use these links to jump directly to an event. |
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0630 hours: Rise and shine. 0700 hours: Breakfast. 0800 hours: Research begins. 1000 hours: Research continues. 1200 hours: The matrix. 1230 hours: Push-ups! |
1300 hours: Lunch. 1330 hours: Back to work. 1400 hours: Zodiac exploration. 1430 hours: Going aloft. 1445 hours: Gun port maintainance. 1500 hours: Student teachers. |
1530 hours: Zodiac findings. |
0630 hours: Having recovered from our impromptu, multi-hour singalong last night, we rise to greet what will surely be the busiest day of this Voyage of Discovery: our research layover. We will remain at anchor here on the Bay Ridge Flats until tomorrow morning. This will allow our student crew to focus on data collection for their team presentations. |
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0800: Data collection begins in earnest. The students are scheduled to collect readings for their scientific experiments (generally, doing so every half hour) throughout the following twelve hours (until 2000 hours). This intensive data collection will allow them to track environmental changes thoughout an entire day. Although gathering this data can prove a strenuous task, the students work in teams to ensure that their bases are covered. For the rest of the day, the ship will be buzzing with activity. Here, Candice performs her first titration test for the day, measuring dissolved oxygen levels. |
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Just a few feet away, Nate sets up a photovoltaic cell on the capstan, which he'll be using to track solar energy output throughout the day. The capstan makes a good spot for Nate's equipment, since it'll seldom fall into shadow and, since we won't be using the capstan while at anchor, it'll be out of harm's way. |
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1000: The students' research continues throughout the morning. Here, Captain Reynolds looks in as Sam takes a humidity reading with his sling psychrometer. |
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Elsewhere, Nick takes a reading of the surface air temperature while his teammate David helps out by recording his findings. |
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Out on the channels, Zach and Matt work side by side in their research. While Zach uses a Van Dorn sampler to capture water samples from beneath the water's surface, Matt takes a break from his own research project to learn how to use a Secchi disk to measure turbidity. |
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Nearby, Kris uses a hand-held anemometer to measure wind speed. While he measures wind speed on deck, his crew mate Amro is aloft in the main top, measuring the wind speed at higher altitudes. Kris and Amro are on different project teams, but that doesn't mean they're in competition. |
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1200: The students are eager to learn how to perform as many shipboard activities as possible. Their accomplishments are noted on the task matrix. Even this early in the day, the matrix is already suprisingly full -- the students have been busy! To the left, Nick and Alex W. check out their progress. |
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1230: As the afternoon begins, Matt finds himself with enough time to get a little creative with his salinity research. Along with recording the salinity levels in Bay Ridge Flats as the tides shift, he also measures the salinity of a human tear (donated by Mrs. Franz). Next, it occurs to him to measure the salinity of human sweat, so Mr. Dawson is recruited to toss down a quick twenty push-ups. Unfortunately for the sake of Matt's research, Mr. Dawson never breaks a sweat. This might be due to Mr. Dawson's physical fitness, but atmospheric conditions likely also factor in -- currently, both air temperature and humidity levels are quite low. (As temperature and humidity rise, Mr. Dawson would be more likely to sweat, as the crew members on the first leg of the voyage could attest.) (You can move your mouse over the image to the right to make Mr. Dawson do push-ups all day, but he never will sweat.) |
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During the first leg of the voyage, the Zodiac expeditions set out to explore Athens Channel. On this leg, the Zodiac crews are exploring the Brooklyn waterline, to our east. It's a very different environment, to say the least. |
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1445: Mr. Morel is also keeping busy. He decides to remove the gun port covers for some minor maintenance. Nate is eager to help out and, in between taking photovoltaic cell readings, acts as Mr. Morel's assistant. (Nate is hidden in this photo, since he's on the orlop deck helping remove a gun port cover as Mr. Morel perches outside). Working together, they work on all gun port covers to Mr. Morel's satsifaction and have them all back in place by the end of the day. |
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1500: As students master their individual fields of study, they also start teaching other students how to perform their experiments and use their equipment. To the right, Candice shows Matt how to perform a titration test. Performing other students' experiments helps the students function as teams, and is also the key to filling up the task matrix. By the end of the day, every student has performed every kind of scientific study available on board. |
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1530: Meanwhile, Mr. Dawson continues taking crew members out for Zodiac expeditions, continuing to poke around the Brooklyn waterfront. At least two adults (including Mr. Dawson) go on each of these trips, and the tender stays in constant radio contact with us. Particularly in busy waters such the harbor area, safety always comes first. |
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As opposed to our Athens Channel layover, the Zodiac teams on this leg are exploring a highly urban environment. Thus, they find much less wildlife to study, but recover many more cultural artifacts in turn. |
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1800: As the sun sets, we call for a break in data gathering. 1830: Dinner is served! Over dinner, the adult crew members discuss the state of the students' projects. The teachers believe the students have done an excellent job of collecting their data, and everyone agrees that nightfall would make the last hour and a half of research increasingly difficult. Thus, the students are delighted to learn that they can call it a day -- no more data collection is required. The students have the rest of the evening to relax, update their journals, and start thinking about how to present their findings tomorrow. 2100: We all agree on an early lights out. Anchor watch begins. |
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Three Days after Departure, 1609: The sixe and twentieth was faire weather, and the wind at South a stiffe gale, wee rode still. In the morning our Carptenter went on Land with our Masters Mate, and foure of our companie to cut wood. This morning, two Canoes came up the River from the place where we first found loving people, and in one of them was the old man that had lyen aboord of us at the other place. He brought another old man with him, with brought more stropes of Beades, and gave them to our Master, and shewed him all the Countrey there about, as though it were at his command. So he made the two old men dine with him, and the old mans wife: for they brought two olde women, and two young maidens of the age of sixteene or seventeene yeeres with them, who behaved themselves very modestly. Our Master gave one of the old men a Knife, and they gave him and us Tabacco. And at one of the clocke they departed downe the River, making signes that wee should come downe to them; for wee were within two leagues of the place where they dwelt. -- Robert Juet's Journal. |
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