Thursday September 15, 2005

Morning Position
Beacon
41˚ 30.5 minutes latitude
073˚ 59.5 minutes longitude

Midday Position
Lange Rack
41˚ 41.2 minutes latitude
073˚ 56.7 minutes longitude

Evening Position
Roundout Creek (Kingston)
41˚ 41.2 minutes latitude
073˚ 56.7 minutes longitude

0600 hours: Rise and shine! After the initial rains last evening, the skies have largely stayed clear throughout the night.

0700: Breakfast is served, followed by a deck wash.

0900: The first tasks of the day done, we pause to read some entries from the journal of Robert Juet, an English sailor who accompanied Captain Hudson on several of his voyages in search of a Northern Passage. (You can read some of these same journal entries in these daily logs.)

Now that our student crew members are grounded in the basic realities of life on the Half Moon, they can begin to expand their horizons. By reading Juet's journal and discussing its historical context, they can apply their immediate experiences to those of Hudson's men four centuries ago. In addition, many of their tasks and experiments today will expand on the knowledge base they are continuing to build.

0945: Captain Reynolds unrolls a pair of Hudson River charts and uses them to orient the students in chart reading and some basic navigational skills. One river chart is modern, but the other (visible to the upper left) dates to the mid-1600s. It was created by some the Dutch explorers who followed in Hudson's wake to explore the region and establish the New Netherland colony. The students note that, despite the Dutch chart's age, it is reasonably accurate, and features many landmarks and settlements that are still present today.

1045: Time to weigh anchor and be on our way. Our anchor weighs more than 300 pounds, and the anchor chain doubles that weight. As you might imagine, raising it from the river bed is no easy task! This requires coordinated teams working in unison all over the ship.

The brunt of the heavy lifting is accomplished with the capstan. To the right, Richard, Katie, Adam, and Kyle man the capstan bars, while several adult crewmembers stand by to lend their weight when needed.

The capstan extends down through the weather deck to the orlop below. As the students above turn the capstan, another team monitors the anchor rode (line) wrapped around it. Mrs. Colley leads the orlop team this morning. Here, you can see her offering guidance to Shannon and Keith.

Within an hour, we are motoring north and enter the Lange Rack. This section of the Hudson River is long, straight, and narrow. Once we enter this stretch of river, we cannot stop until we reach Kingston; setting anchor in the Lange Rack would be like parking a car in the middle of a two-lane street.

 

1200: Lunch break! Today it's make-your-own BLTs.

1300: Harness training continues during the afternoon. Any students who have not yet had an opportunity to take their harness tests, such as Ericka and Kathleen here, can now do so.

 

 

 

 

Some students who were initially nervous about climbing the shrouds (the black, ladder-like lines Riki and Mrs. Colley are climbing to the right) have now decided to give it a go. While no one is ever required to climb the rigging, many crew members consider it a personal achievement to do so.

1400: The teachers set out many of the scientific instruments the students will be using for their experiments and start instructing the students in their use. After Mr. Prime demonstrates how to use his handheld GPS (Global Positioning System), Katie takes readings and is soon charting her findings.

1430: The teachers expand their briefing, gathering the students around the capstan to introduce them to the topics of their team projects. Port Watch will be studying weather phenomena, while Starboard Watch will be studying water phenomena. By the end of the briefing, the students understand the basics of what will be expected from their work and begin to think about ways to collect data.

1545: After the briefing, those students not on duty enjoy some downtime. Here, Kathleen, Riki, Adam, and Katie continue practicing their knots. With Mrs. Colley's eager aid, they add several new, more complex knots to their repertoire.

Meanwhile, Richard applies some creative thinking to a sticky situation. After a few days of heat and humidity, everyone is feeling particularly grimy. We usually fill canvas buckets with river water to perform our deck washes. As you can see to the right, Richard takes the initiative and gives himself a cool dousing.

Everyone sees the appeal, and soon many of the crew are cooperating to pour water over the heads of crewmates who want to wash their hair.

Of course, as with Richard and Adam here, many simply opt for a hearty drenching.

1600: We set anchor near Roundout Creek, off of Kingston. The Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge is not far to our north.

To the left, you can see Mr. Dawson carefully guiding the anchor down to the water line. When the anchor is at the water and he receives the captain's command, he will pull a rounded wooden pin (visible in the picture) called the "carrot" free, releasing the anchor.

To the right, Madena acts as a communicator, relaying messages between Captain Reynolds on the Quarter deck and the crew working on the orlop deck. It's the 1609 version of an intercom.

1700: Just as we're wrapping up a chicken cassarole dinner, we notice another evening storm bearing down on us -- this time coming from the north. We expect heavy rain, but fortunately we have a few minutes to prepare. Some of the crew scramble for their rain gear, while others lower the flags for the day.

Meanwhile, Mr. Colley ventures up to the fore deck with Madena, who is studying weather phenomena with the rest of Port Watch. We have several instruments set up on the fore deck, including a rain gauge and the minimum/maxmimum temperature thermometer Mr. Colley and Madena are examining here. They quickly take readings and reset the instruments to compare yesterday and today's storms.

The heavy rain soon reaches us, growling with distant thunder. While some crew members take shelter on the orlop deck, many decide to make use of this natural shower to rinse their hair.

The storm blows over within half an hour. However, when Madena checks the rain gauge again, we discover that in just that brief span of time, this storm poured twice as much rain on us as we received all last night.

1800: There's still enough daylight left for one more exercise. With Captain Reynolds' guidance, our student crew members expand on their charting knowledge to learn how to use lines of position. Working in teams, the students use compasses to sight distant, stationary landmarks. By noting the relative direction of three such sites, our crew members learn to accurately triangulate the Half Moon's position on the river.

1900: As the day fades, we fire a salute with our aft cannon to the Rip van Winkle, a tour boat out of Kingston, as it passes us on an evening cruise. Our crew and the Rip van Winkle's passengers cheer each other on.

The evening storm that just rolled through has taken most of the sky's bluster with it. The northerly winds have pushed out the heat and humidity, at least for now, and the clouds quickly part enough for us to see the sun set behind the western shore. By the time the nearly full moon rises, the sky is almost clear.

As the day winds down and the students update their journals, the crew of the Half Moon settles down for an evening of cool, pleasant sleeping weather.

Tomorrow, we intend to continue upriver to Athens Channel, where the student crew will begin gathering data for their academic team projects in earnest.

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