Around the Americas

Crew Log 253 – Dorothy Was Right

June 29, 2010 – Seattle, Washington By Herb McCormick Precisely one year ago today, the 64-foot cutter, Ocean Watch, had just passed the 60th parallel en route from the Aleutian Island fishing outpost of Dutch Harbor, en route to another famed Alaskan port called Nome. Smack dab in the Bering Strait, the crew was enjoying a spectacular summer day, with a radiant blue sky reflected in a calm, almost mirror-flat sea...

Crew Log 252 – Wrapping Things Up

June 24, 2010 – Seattle, Washington By Herb McCormick It’s been precisely seven days now since Ocean Watch and her crew stepped ashore at Seattle’s Shilshole Marina to close the circle on the expedition Around the Americas, and in a lot of ways, the last week has been a whole lot stranger and more bizarre than the fifty-five – the length of the voyage – that proceeded it...

Crew Log 251 – Closing the Circle

June 17, 2010 – Seattle, Washington By Herb McCormick Long ago and far away, when Mark Schrader was but a wee lad growing up on a Nebraska farm, on one fine summer day he drew a big circle on a map of the family spread and then hopped on his bike to trace his line. The simple act became something of a ritual. As the boy grew into a man, whenever a matter large or small piqued his curiosity, he’d get out a pen and draw a circle around it. It was a way to bring order, reason and structure to issues and concepts that didn’t always have hard, measurable boundaries...

Education Log 4 – Ocean Watch and Mars

Ocean Watch is now on Mars! Well, sort of.

For the complete coverage, we are going to our friend and colleague at Pacific Science Center, Alice Enevoldsen. Alice works at Pacific Science Center, and writes a blog called AstroInfo in…

Crew Log 250 – Two Tales in One

June 15, 2010 – Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington By Herb McCormick and Roxanne Nanninga If you stroll up off the docks, hang a right and walk down the quiet highway in the fishing port of Neah Bay, after about a mile you’ll come to a tidy little park with flags flying that commemorates three things: the heritage of the First American natives of the Pacific Northwest, the Makah Nation people, the watermen and women who thrived along this rich coastline for centuries...

Education Log 3 – Reflections on a Voyage of Discovery

Onboard educator Roxanne Nanninga was a part of the South American journey of Around the Americas, as well as the ports on the west coast of the United States. As Ocean Watch slowly made its way home, Roxanne took a…

Crew Log 249 – Around the Corner

June 14, 2010 – Neah Bay, Washington By Herb McCormick We’ve seen our fair share of capes and points on this voyage Around the Americas: At the tippy-top of North America we gazed upon a glorified sand spit called Zenith Point, and at the very end of South America we took in true glory in all its wild majesty at wild Cape Horn. For heaven’s sake, along the eastern seaboard alone we negotiated Cape Cod, Cape May, Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout and Cape Canaveral...

Crew Log 248 – One Last Nosebleed

June 13, 2010 – At Sea, 46º 27’N, 124º 16’W By Herb McCormick We’ve been thrown for a loop near Labrador, gobbled up by the Gulf Stream, roiled off Rio, pounded in Patagonia, and plastered in sight of Point Conception. At various times on the voyage Around the Americas, like an unlucky letter, we’ve been spindled, folded and mutilated by contrary currents, wicked winds and stupendous seas...

Crew Log 247 – Rolling Down the River

June 12, 2010 – Astoria, Oregon By Herb McCormick As it turned out, it was a lot easier getting out of Portland than getting in. At 0600 today, the crew of Ocean Watch untied the dock lines and set forth down the Willamette River en route to, in turn, the Columbia River, the town of Astoria, the Pacific Ocean, the Straits of Juan de Fuca and Port Townsend, Washington, the penultimate stop before returning to Seattle in the middle of next week. The Around the Americas voyage is almost around...

Crew Log 246 – Up the River

June 9, 2010 – Portland, Oregon By Herb McCormick My favorite sportswriter these days is a guy called Bill Simmons, who writes exclusively for ESPN.com. Think of him as the Dave Barry of ball games; if you like sports, and appreciate wry observations, you should check him out. Before he launched himself onto the national stage and became known as “The Sports Guy,” Simmons was based in Beantown and was referred to as “TBSG”: The Boston Sports Guy...