This Week Aboard Inland Seas...

This week aboard Inland Seas we hosted the Lake Superior State Univesity Oceanography classs taught by Prof. Derek Wright.  We sailed from St. Ignace on Monday and after trawling and doing a limnology station off St. Ignace,we headed under the Mackinac Bridge for Beaver Island.  We spent two days a St. James, sampling on the east side of the island and at the harbor mouth. 

We waited out a blow (as usual) and left on Wednesday afternoon. We had smooth downwind sailing until we got out of the lee of the island.  Then big swells refracting around the island met us on the beam, producing a lot of rolling.  This lasted about an hour until we got clear of the island's effects and the waves were coming up on our quarter, which made life aboard much easier.  We arrived at Northport at sunset.  Everyone was ready for a shower and a walk ashore.

Today was our big sampling day, with trawls at Hall Bay and Omena, and limnoloy stations at Northport Point, Omeana,  and Lee Point (405 ft.).  We arrived at Power Island in time for a cook out ashore, followed by a hike up to the Eagle's Nest overlook. 

We are anchored tonight at Bowers Harbor.  On my 4 - 5 am watch I heard owls hooting, saw several meteors, satellites, the moons of Jupiter, and millions of stars.

Gray's Reef Light

Eric and Tom Kastle at the helm

Alex and PONAR Dredge

Dr. Wright

Anchored at Power Island

Titrations continued late into the evening

Comment from Prof. Wright: "My students learned more in the first morning aboard than in a semester of class work".

-Capt. Tom