2009 September | World Ocean School

The Ship's Log

September 21: All Hauled Out and Nowhere to Go

Logged on Monday September 21, 2009

Annual haul-out is the sign of another year come and gone. It marks the end of our summer season and the preparation for a whole new year to come.

On the high tide this afternoon, Roseway inched her way out of the water at the Gloucester Marine Railway in Gloucester, Massachusetts (the oldest continually operating marine railway in the country by the way). It’s kind of a love story really–historic landmark ship meets historic railway and sparks fly (literally).

Anyway, Roseway now sits like a fish out of water waiting patiently for the numerous projects that will shape her up. If you think Roseway looks big in the water, you should drop by the yard and see what 260 tons looks like on land! Captain Dwight has put away the flip flops and donned the work boots: it’s yard time! In a couple of weeks she’ll slide back down that railway and set her sights on southern waters.

September 9: Distracted from Winning

Logged on Wednesday September 9, 2009

The truth is, we only just found out today who won the Fisherman’s Cup Race from Gloucester to Provincetown yesterday so clearly we aren’t committed racers (see September 5 Ship’s Log). We just got news that Alabama won–congrats guys! There was not a breath of wind which led to all boats motoring for the first 20 miles–not a good start to a schooner race. And the wind really didn’t improve so racing was a bit of a moot point. However, calm waters, sunny skies, and proximity to Stellwagon Bank lead to one great thing: WHALES! So many whales so close and so happy! There was a virtual frolicking of whales surrounding Roseway. To prove that racing was not the main priority, we actually altered course out of the race to follow our large marine friends.

We did arrive in Provincetown well after dark and today we are catching the wind back to Boston, blissfully prepared to be set off course again by our tantalizing friends.

September 5: It’s How You Play the Game

Logged on Monday September 7, 2009

So the answer is, no, we did not win the Gloucester Schooner Race. But it’s not winning that matters–it’s how you play the game! In fact, we have never won the race and as long as John Foss is sailing the American Eagle, we will most likely never win. American Eagle, as always, gave a stellar performance and we look to them in awe!

It’s fair to say, though, that in today’s race, we played a good game. Coming in fourth out of dozens of schooners large and small is not so shabby. Wind was 8-10 out of the northeast with huge rollers which made for a rocky ride. Roseway started behind and ended behind, but fun was had by all and the weather was just what you hope for in early September. And hey, we got to fly our topsail which we never gett ot do. On to the Fisherman’s Cup race on Tuesday where we have a chance to defend our first place title from last year!

September 1: Feeding the World

Logged on Tuesday September 1, 2009

We’re happy to announce that World Ocean School has finally joined the new millennium by now offering an RSS feed to our Ship’s Log! Our fearless and intrepid web designer, Doug (left), has catapulted us into the future. Never again will you be out of touch with World Ocean School news or Roseway’s latest port of call.

For those of you slightly behind the technological eight-ball, an RSS feed is defined as “Really Simple Syndication or a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works” (thank you Wikipedia), like the World Ocean School’s Ship’s Log. In order to make this work for you, simply set up an account for yourself in Google Reader and all your RSS feeds will come to you in one simple place whenever there is an update. If this makes no sense to you, don’t ask us for clarification–we’re only simple sailors and no know more than we’ve explained here. Visit your nearest web guru or geek squad for further information.

In the meantime, we hope we’ve just made it easier for you to keep in touch with us and we hope to hear from you!