He takes after his Dad

Just like his bonnie sister, me boy be a salty chip of the ol' block:

Pirates = Shrewd Businessmen

See, pirates aren't barbaric, bloodthirsty villains, they're rational folks trying to make a living, just like everyone else. Now, if you want to talk about bloodthirsty, let's talk about the medical insurance industry.

Pirate-wear

Here be a few things to add to ye plunderin' list...

from Pirate Shellfish, a Wellfleet-based shellfish farm and catering company:
Get this great t-shirt and more from 826 Valencia:

Get this one and much more from Cafe Press:

Friday Dial Stopper - Talk Like a Pirate Day Edition

What would "Talk Like a Pirate Day" be without a little Captain Jack?

200 years too late?

What type of Pirate am I? You tell me...

What kind of pirate am I? You decide!
You can also view a breakdown of results or put one of these on your own page!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

(a bottle of rum raised to Kate/Dorid for this)

I thought pirates did everything...

I'm not entirely sure about the validity of the title, but I'm thinking this children's book should be added to our home library.

Oh ye! who have your eye-balls vexed and tired, Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;

Sea Education Association's SEA Semester is a program that I fully support and am happy to promote. Beyond a top-notch, hands-on education in marine science, I learned more about leadership, teamwork and self-confidence while working and living on one of their sailing vessels than with any other experience I've had. I suggest all undergraduates with even a remote interest in the ocean look into SEA and strongly encourage any that are able to participate in SEA Semester to sign on tout de suite. As it so happens, there is still room on board their Fall "Oceans & Climates" cruise. So all you undergraduates, go check it out. And all the rest of you, spread the word.

Sea Education Association is pleased to announce our

Fall 2008 SEA Semester: Oceans & Climate Distinguished visiting lecturers & student-research advisors

Joining us for this year's semester program will be:

Dr. Cynthia Pilskaln, University of Massachusetts, SMAST
Dr. Christopher Sabine, NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Dr. Jorge Sarmiento, Princeton University

SEA Semester: Oceans & Climate is a specialized program for advanced science majors that focuses on the marine carbon cycle and global climate change and takes advantage of a repeated equatorial Pacific transect (Mexico - Tahiti) to observe regional and temporal phenomena. For detailed information (pdf)

NOTE: Some spaces are still available for undergraduates to enroll in this special fall program. We encourage you to talk to interested students as soon as possible, as admission is on a rolling basis.

(PS: the title of this post is from On the Sea by John Keats)

There Be Pirates Here

If ye can't talk the talk, don't even think about walkin' the walk ye snivelin' landlubbers. It be "International Talk Like a Pirate Day"! So avast there me hearties, grab ye bottle o rum and belt out a mighty "ARRRRRRR!"

Listen to Talk Like a Pirate Day by Tom Smith:

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

SEA Photos; part 1

Finally, as promised, some photos from my brief, but oh so wonderful, trip aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer. Four days of sailing and oceanographic adventure with Sea Education Association. This wasn't so much a scientific cruise as a chance to relive my days weeks months with SEA as an undergraduate and reconnect with a great organization. We sailed. We scienced. We kept a 24 hour watch. We even set the fisherman (sorry, can't find a link to help you with this one). If you ever get a chance to do this, you must. Encourage all your undergrads to look into SEA Semester as well - from a life experience point of view, its one of the best things they could do. Beyond hands-on, practical oceanographic research, SEA Semester builds leadership, self-confidence, teamwork, responsibility, problem solving, physical endurance, and plundering. Well, maybe not plundering. Anyways, on to the photos...be sure to check out Part 2 and Part 3.

The Corwith Cramer awaits


My bunk...and my hairy legs.

Couldn't find A through D

Ship's compass

"Steer a course for others to follow"

Just in case

Topside

Just in case, take 2
(AKA Gumby suits)

What good is a ship without her bell?

Had to (re)learn the ropes


How better to end the day?

Part 2 and Part 3

SEA Photos; part 2

Shipek sediment grab waiting to be deployed
(one of my favorite no-frills, old-school, bruiser of a scientific instrument)

the Shipek coming back onboard

Mmmm...mud from Menemsha Bight

I've been over this bridge about a billion times.
First time going under it.

Any guesses where we are?

Aloft

Sailing through the night.
Red over Green; Sailing Machine

Sunset via porthole

Peeking in the doghouse.

Night lab work.

Not a bad office view, eh?

Part 1 and Part 3

SEA Photos; part 3

Furling the jib out on the bowsprit

Compass by night

Even Associate Deans have to swab the deck

This is what happens when you don't help swab the deck

Furling the tops'l

The carousel waiting to be deployed

12 Niskin bottles and a CTD headed down 50 fathoms

Anti-scurvy agents

Don't know who Louie is, but he's probably a bosun if I had to guess

Ship's lab

Coming home to the Hub

Part 1 and Part 2

Down to the sea

Avast ye landlubbers. If ye be needin' me, ye be out o' luck for I be ridin' on the se'en seas. In the meantime, keep your scurvy hands off me treasure. I be countin' it when I return.

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking.

the SSV Westward

So wrote John Masefield around the turn of the 19th 20th century. And to me (and countless others I am sure) it still rings true to this day.

It's hard to put into words, but the ocean has a power over me. I've always enjoyed the ocean in all its mystery and power and wondrous life. I grew up spending summers exploring the beaches and jetties of Cape Cod, collecting "mermaid's purses", whelk egg cases, scallop shells, and sea glass, searching for hermit and sand crabs, picking helpless periwinkles and dog whelks off the rocks, and shining flashlights into the night waters looking for blue crab and comb jellies and pipefish. I tried fishing for blues and stripers, but was never very good at that (apparently my brother, Carl, got all the fish-catching genes). Though I did catch my fair share of spider crabs.

For all that though, most of my connection to the sea was shore-based. Sure, I went out on my uncle's Boston Whaler on occasion (the best was going out to Monomoy), but really never spent that much time on the water and never more than a few miles from shore. All that changed however in my junior year at Bowdoin when I had the opportunity to take part in Sea Education Association's SEA Semester. It was during that experience that I contracted Masefield's sea fever.

Instead of going into all the salty details here, I'll send you over to the website I designed to celebrate my and my shipmates' experience. (don't laugh when you click over there - it was the first website I ever put together - 10 or so years ago - no digital cameras, no CSS, no Photoshop - and though I keep saying I am going to redo or delete it, I can't bring myself to do it).

On top of the science of the ocean and of sailing, SEA Semester teaches you more about teamwork, leadership, and your strengths and weaknesses than any other experience I've encountered - you deal with real problems in real weather in real seas. Torn mains'l in the middle of a squall in the middle of the night? Work together and deal with it. Seasick in twenty-foot seas? Help each other out and deal with it. One of your watch members not pulling their weight? Figure out how to motivate them, teach them, encourage them or deal with the fact that you're just going to have to move forward without their help.

Ever since my SEA experience, I've jumped at any feasible opportunity to get back on a sailing ship - afternoon sails at SEA alumni events, my wife's and my honeymoon on the Grace Bailey, our Galapagos adventure on the Sea Cloud. Why am I posting about all this now? Because in a couple of weeks, I'll be rejoining SEA for a 4-day cruise on the SSV Corwith Cramer and that sea fever is flaring up again.

I imagine it won't be nearly the experience my original trip was - it's only a four day "Colleagues Cruise" - but I'm counting the days till I climb aboard (even if it's not on the Westward, which was retired a few years back). I plan on bringing my camera (digital now!) and will share my photos when I get back.

Yes, I am a pirate. Born 200 years too late.

She takes after her dad

Today is "Pirate Day" at my daughter's daycare.

I think this is the Book of the Day.

(BTW she does a great "Arrrrrrrr". It brings tears to this old salt's eyes.)