As the day neared a harrowing email from the Professor, “the R/V Hogarth would not be able to accommodate our cruise dates” followed by “we will be departing on the R/V Weatherbird”. 115 feet, nearly 200 tons, and 1200 horsepower at her disposal; needless to say we lucked out. The adventure started at 2:30 in the morning to make sure my ride to Key West was awake. Fast forward 3 hours, and we pulled off in Big Pine Key to find some Key Deer before meeting up for breakfast with the rest of our class. Once we boarded the boat, our Captain and Crew introduced themselves, we had a safety brief and left Stock Island, headed Southwest towards the Dry Tortugas overnight. One power nap later, and we
The thought of being at sea for 5 days was both exhilarating and terrifying. I had no idea what to expect. I knew it would be a good experience, but never would I have imagined it being as amazing as it was. The crew were wonderful. We were incredibly lucky to get such an easy-going, helpful crew! Jeff the Chef was amazing. For every meal, we were greeted by a variety of delicious food as we entered the mess deck. I think it’s safe to say that everyone gained a few pounds. The rest of the crew were also super cool. I enjoyed talking to them about their experiences at sea and on the R/V Weatherbird II. The weather was perfect. We could not have asked for calmer seas. It really made for an ama
I’ve been excited about this course (OCB4005-C) since the first time I heard about it, around two years ago, while touring the R/V Hogarth. That was the first time I knew that I really wanted to experience being aboard a research vessel, surrounded by nothing but the ocean while working on a project. I got to check that off of my bucket list this semester. Although initially scheduled to go on the R/V Hogarth, we ended up going on the R/V Weatherbird II instead, a bigger (and better equipped) ship. Because we were scheduled to depart early morning, we were able to get started right away. After some brief setting up, we deployed our first trawl. After that, we did trawling day and night. Each
