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March 16, 2010 – At Sea, 09º 59’S, 079º 37’W
By Herb McCormick
If we’ve learned anything on our ongoing voyage Around the Americas – today less than 900 miles from the Galápagos Islands, with the tenth degree of southern latitude now in our wake, after some 21,800 nautical miles sailed since leaving Seattle last May – it’s not that the meek shall inherit the Earth, but the children. And thank heaven’s, there’s nothing meek about them.
We’ve had a fair bit of email the last few days inquiring about our wellbeing after a break of ten or eleven days between crew logs (honestly, it felt like 20 minutes!). In any case, we’re fine, thanks, and in the meantime we’ve managed to catch up on a lot of business, both expedition-related and personal. One of the truly productive things several of the crew did, under the direction of our current onboard educator, Roxanne Nanninga of the Pacific Science Center (PSC), was pay visits to local schools in Lima, Peru, and last Wednesday, to host nearly a hundred junior-high students from Lima’s Roosevelt School at the fine facilities of the Yacht Club Peruano and onboard Ocean Watch.
Education is one of the project’s primary missions, and the entire campaign has been blessed to have the support and assistance in pursuing this goal with the PSC, one of the co-supporters (along with the conservation group Sailors for the Sea) of the entire voyage. Before Roxanne came aboard, the PSC’s Zeta Strickland was our onboard teacher and took our message, in the form of school visits, boat tours and dockside presentations all through the Northwest Passage and down the Atlantic Seaboard. Zeta’s back in Seattle now coordinating and overseeing the entire education program and curriculum, and Roxanne has become the face of the project to scores of school children in South America.
So, just for the record, we weren’t completely goofing off!
At nearly every port we visit, we try to host similar activities and visits. From Eskimo kids in Alaska; to inner-city teenagers in New York City; to inspirational boys and girls in wheelchairs at the Shake-A-Leg facility in Miami; to those impressive students we just met in Peru, some of the best moments of this entire journey have been those when we shared our adventure – as well as our knowledge, questions, hopes and fears – with the next generation of sailors, scientists, teachers, truck drivers…and every other occupation under the sun. We go in thinking we might have a lesson or two to offer…and always come away having learned something even more important ourselves.
In Lima, during our visit with the throng from the Roosevelt School, while mate Dave Logan and photographer David Thoreson rotated groups of curious kids on and off the yacht club launches to visit Ocean Watch on her mooring, our newest crew, Bryce Seidl – the President and CEO of the Pacific Science Center, who is serving the role of onboard scientist for the legs to the Galápagos Islands and Costa Rica – oversaw a group of eager assistants and junior scientists who helped record cloud observations for our ongoing work with the NASA S’COOL Program. While all that was going on, Roxanne’s husband, Mario, manned the tent that serves as the hub for our port presentations (a naturalist and guide from Costa Rica, Mario is one handy fellow to have around, on multiple counts).
Meanwhile, Roxanne herself narrated a slide show and kept the “stations” of kids moving from one activity to the next, and I had the chance to lead four “writer’s workshops” with the group, who were attentive, funny, curious…and fluent in English, to boot. There were some extremely smart people in my classrooms, the least of whom, trust me, was the guy conducting the proceedings.
A couple of days later, the teachers at Roosevelt assigned their classes the task of writing letters to Roxanne and the crew, in effect some “thank-you” notes addressed to “Dear Ocean Watch…” We’ve spoken often in this space about how lucky we are to have this opportunity to sail Around the Americas, and all that was confirmed once the latest pile of mail was delivered. Here are some excerpts:
From Daniela Delgado: “I liked very much how you showed us to read clouds, it was really cool. I highly appreciate your work and how you educate people around the world to what you do and how you study different places. When I was looking at the website I noticed all your stops and I think the work you do opens so many doors to see the world in different eyes.”
From Valerie: “I really liked Ocean Watch. I thought it was really neat that the boat was small and that everything fit. I also really liked the warning about bumping your head, although I bumped my head anyway.”
From Vincenzo Benham: “I was the blond boy that touched everything. The first thing is, I’m sorry for that. The reason is because I love sailboats. I’ve actually won sailboat competitions here in Peru… I learned a lot of new stuff that I didn’t know about sailboats… I know you are getting tired of all these thank you letters but I really hope you know I am not doing this because you think the teacher told us to. I write this for my passion of sailboats and how I admire you guys that have traveled thousands of miles. That actually is difficult. Please read (this) to all the crew because I would like them to feel special for what they are doing.”
From Kevin Lo: “I had a really fun time visiting your boat even though I got a little bit dizzy. When I went downstairs and saw your living room, I was really impressed. I liked the rooms and the kitchen. I couldn’t understand how you could be there for more than one year and how you wouldn’t get dizzy.”
From Barbara Aveggio: “I WANT TO HAVE AN ADVENTURE LIKE YOU, YOU ARE SO LUCKY!”
From Blanca Badiola: “Thank you for caring and showing people the importance of ocean pollution. It is a very important problem that we should always have in mind and try to help.”
From Gisella: “There is a lot of ocean contamination going on such as toxic waste, oil spills, etc., and it is affecting marine animals. By continuing to throw the trash in the garbage and not polluting I can continue to help the negative impact in the ocean. Also I can continue recycling paper, plastic bottles and batteries to help the environment. If everyone would do these things our ocean would be less contaminated.”
From Lorena Delgado: “I think that I can help the ocean by telling people not to pollute and to pick up trash you see in the beach. Thank you for giving us such a wonderful day where we learned many things.”
From Maria Gracia: “On the great fieldtrip we made on March 11 I learned many interesting facts. I got to see all the technological equipment the crew had on its boat that made the journey possible. I could see all the inside of the boat, the kitchen, the beds and the outside of it. I saw awesome stuff that was on the boat like the camera outside, the weather station and the engine. I learned many new things like how to write better, how to look and recognize clouds and many more things. My favorite part of the day was when I visited the boat. I loved going in the boat and looking at all the small rooms. I loved this field trip, it was more than awesome.”
From Claudia Garcia: “I loved that you showed us pictures of all your adventures, and that you gave us a visual idea of what your work was about. Also I could see how much you enjoyed your work… I thought this trip was going to be like any other trip but I realized that it was very fun and interesting. The best part about your group is that you guys go around the world and then teach others about what you do and the animals you see in your way. And how you make it fun to learn. I think that is very nice and that it is a great way to teach others. Now I know that there are many different types of clouds, and what the differences are. When I realized that, I could tell what the beauty of the cloud was and just not see it like any other ordinary cloud.”
From Jannina Kroschel: “I learned so much about the ocean, boats and even writing. For writing, I learned that you should never repeat words because it makes your piece boring and lame. You also taught me about the sea. I learned that the populations of jellyfish are in one place and in some parts there are no jellyfishes. You take samples, and see why they are so many in one place, and if it has to do anything with the ocean pollution. I expected a big boat, when I saw the sailing boat I was surprised. I never knew that a sailing boat could make it Around the Americas, but you showed the world that you can.”
From Herb McCormick: Pretty cool, huh?
One last thing: Here on Ocean Watch, we have a guest book we ask everyone who visits to sign, kids and adults alike. It’s worth a story in itself, but we’ll save that for another day. But the students at Roosevelt School did make entries during their tour, including this one from a 7th grader named Lola. On a page that asked visitors, “What did you learn during the visit to Ocean Watch?” she kept her answer short and sweet:
“That a writer’s job is more interesting than I thought.”
See? To paraphrase the immortal words of Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey and The Who: The kids are definitely going to be all right.
-Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson
*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos
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