Crossing Classroom 2007

My Friends,

We are away, having departed Newport today on a cold and sunny day at 7am, with a nice 10 knot wind pushing the Marlow along at 6 knots.

Here is a picture of Zach (who is 22 and is going off shore sailing for the first time) in the foreground, and a big ship, the Torn Gunhild, passing us in the Newport channel as we depart. Zach is always hungry so I hope we have enough food. Luckily, we just caught a 10 pound blue fish, so I will feed him that. We caught this blue at 41 degrees and 17 minutes North latitude, and 70 degrees 59 minutes West longitude, at 10:30am on the 21st. Plot that as your first point, and I'll send another tomorrow.

Your pal,

Michael

We need your help. We saw a pod of whales as we entered Oceangrapher's Canyon, which is where all the fish and whales and dolphins hang out to eat. The currents in the shallow waters around the canyon spill down into the deeper waters of the canyon and in the process bring a flow of food for easy pickens, if you are a hungry whale.

Anyway, we don't have any whale books on board and we were hoping you could tell us which species of whale these are. We saw them at 40 degrees, 27 minutes North Latitude, and 68 degrees 09 minutes west longitude, and that is the point of the day.

Captain Paolucci out

Thank you gang-bet here was between humpbacks and sperm, and looks the humpbacks were the winners.

Here is the pic of the night–reflection of me and zach in ocean glass hanging over bow taking a picture of a dolphin swimming under the water at sunset.

Captain Paolucci Out

Hi Friends of the land,

We are 450 miles from where we left Newport, which is about as far as driving in a car for 8 hours. Last night I had to be up from 10pm to 2am to steer the boat with Sham, so I made fresh bread, because all the bread we bought was gone or stale, and that made the crew happy.

We are making our way in calm weather, after a few days of rough seas and heavy winds. There is a minor storm coming in 24 to 48hrs, which you can see the movement of as red circles on the chart attached (we are the green boat). It is a low pressure system, and images the red circles as the picture of where the storm is right now, the lowest, where the storm will be in 24hrs, the middle circle, and where the storm will be in 48 hrs, the highest circle. Low pressure systems are what you have when you get could weather and rain, on land or at sea. Image the circle as a great big clock, with the winds blowing in a circle–in low pressure systems the wind blows counter clockwise, or the opposite the direction of a clock. In high pressure systems, which bring sun and nice weather, the winds blow in a clockwise direction. So imagine you are looking at that middle circle and pretend it is a clock and pretend the hands on that clock are going in the opposite direction (pretend it is opposite day), and so tell me, which direction will the winds be blowing when we cross the circle? (Teacher edition answer key: they will be blowing from the north or northeast, from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen. Thus, a classic noreasterner)

Hope you all are having a great day and learning a lot.

Captain Paolucci

Friends,

Big day today aboard the Marlow–550 nautical miles off shore, just in time for lunch, we welcomed a new passenger aboard the Marlow, a whopping 60 pound Yellow Fin Tuna, the largest fish ever caught by any of us, and the first fish ever caught by rookie crew member Zach. It took 20 minutes to land, and 2 hours to cut up into meals by fish monger Mark. The Yellow Fin was probably swimming with a pack of fish, and it is pretty rare to catch a fish so far off shore. Any bigger and we wouldn't have been able to land it! You wouldn't believe how strong it was–they swim 30 miles per hour, as fast as a car. If you can learn anything more about Yellow Fin Tuna, please tell us. Exact coordinates of the catch for the chart:

39.42N
59.50W

Captain Paolucci Out

Land Crew of the Marlow,

Did you send this barn swallow out to sea to deliver a message to us? He come aboard at 39.10N, 50.14W, over 950 miles from land, which is unheard of for a bird of this type. He was tired so he rested and drank some water and then he was on his way back to you–keep a look out for him.

Did you know that fish can fly? While they can in the Atlantic Ocean–this one flew aboard late in the night and we found him on deck in the morning, so we grilled it up for breakfast.

I opened the sweet artwork and signed messages of goodwill today, and I was feeling a little homesick before, but not any more—thank you so much.

Captain Paolucci Out

i am so happy to hear that I am making a contribution to the class…i will keep sending updates, and would love to hear from the kids, missing mine as much as I do

mp

Hi Guys,

Yesterday we saw three very large sea turtles swimming along the surface, each at a different time of the day, always alone. I guess they prefer to be alone than to swim in groups, but that might be worth researching. I am afraid I don't have a picture because they are very shy, and by the time we had turned the boat around to see them, they disappeared under the water. Oh well, maybe I'll see another.

So instead a send a picture of Sham (he is the one who likes to eat flying fish–yuk!), at 3am this morning, in the dark on a windy night driving the boat while wearing his safety harness, at 39.00N 44.48W, now just 750 miles from the Azores.

And tonight it will be a full moon and very bright all night, so listen carefully and you will hear us howling!!!

Yours truly,

Captain Paolucci

Hi Maverick,

Right now it is blowing 25kts, with seas about 8 feet; here is a picture, i took it 5 minutes ago–note; it is sometimes hard in pictures to see how big waves actually are.

As far as being scared, i feel at home on my boat, even in rough seas like now, though if there were 20 foot waves, i would probably be a little nervous, although i am sure we would be ok.

Be good…say hi to anna for me.

Captain Paolucci out

got it–no riding on turtle backs! I'll make it an order to the crew.

captain paolucci

Hi Alex,

We will get to the azores in 3 days, and then it will take a week at sea to get to the Med after that. We are 5 men on board, with a few joining us when we get to the Med, but that will be easier sailing and just more fun. Here is another pic of a dolphin I thought you would like–look at the dolphin swimming upside down.

Give Anna big smooch for me.

Best,

Captain Paolucci

Hi Nellie–I think we have now seen probably 20 whales, 50 dolphin, 3 sea turtles, many different kinds of sea birds, 1 tune, 1 bluefish, many flying fish and 1 barn swallow.

That is interesting about the sea turtles–they did seem to be going someplace–where do they end up?

I have been scubbing diving, but not much, although we do have snorkle gear on board. Have you gone scuba diving?

Take care,

Captain Paolucci

Land Crew,

We are doing great riding through a storm, the boat is going very fast–8 to 10 knots for the past 36hrs, and the storm is supposed to break today, so we will welcome seeing the sun again. Last night at 11pm, when you were all cozy in bed, we got hit by a squall–a squall is a pocket of intense wind and rain that blows very very hard for a short time–for about 20 minutes it got totally pitch dark as the cloud passed over head and it blew 35 knots and rained so hard that the seas went from 10 foot waves to no waves because the rain knocked them down. And then right after the squall passed it was really weird–the wind completely died, it was calm for about 5 minutes, and then it went back to what it was doing before the squall, that is blowing 25 knots and 10 foot waves. This is kind of similar to when thunderstorms pass by in Connecticut–notice next time when one blows–how it gets dark and windy and then how it is a little calm after.

Anyway, that is the tale of the day; we are at 38.53N, 40.29W, and 550 miles from the Azores. Here is a pic of me this am–I hope it stops raining soon.

Captain Paolucci Out

Hi Gang,

I thought you'd like to see a short video of the Marlow at the start of the storm. I would send you a video of the boat when the storm was at its worst, but I think you would never want to go sailing, so I will not. But the storm is past now, all is well, we are sailing on a sunny day.

We have a bet on board, exactly what time will we see land? Perhaps it will be fun if you play along (i am guessing Sunday night at 8pm EST). Let me know your guesses and I will tell you who won next week.

Captain Paolucci Out

Land lovers,

We finally found a sea turtle who wasn't shy–he let us pull right up to him to take his picture–very handsome don't you think? Again, we aren't sure of the species, so you guys had better do some homework for us.

Captain Paolucci out

Crew,

Land Ho! We have reached the Azores, at 2am on the 4th of June, 13 days, 11 hours and 40 minutes after we left. We are going to stay here until the 7th at 5am, and then depart for the coast of Europe, which take 7 or 8 days, and is usually and nice and easy sail, but we shall see. For now, make a mark on the chart in the Azores, and I'll send another line when we depart.

Here is a picture of the cute little town–Horta, where we are docked. I'll send more land pics as we depart.

Captain Paolucci

Hi Crew,

We are back at sea, after waiting out a period of very heavy weather in the Azores, which brought 20 ft seas and 40 kt winds to the area around the island–better to wait for it to pass, than try to start off in it.

As we departed Horta two days ago we crossed a very interesting mark on the chart, which I have attached. You can see that there is an area that we passed very close by that is an extremely shallow peak, only 40 or so feet below the water line, and then it immediately plunges to 3000 and even 8000 feet right next to it–it is called Banco D. Joao de Castro, and it is an underwater volcano, which is still active, and if you read the note on the chart, it warns boats that the depth of 40 feet is not very accurate, because the volcano is always adding lava to the top, making it more and more shallow. Soon it grow high enough to come out of the water–this is how an island is born.

Mark it on the chart, 38.06N, 26.37W.

Captain Paolucci out

My Friends,

Yesterday we got a call on the radio from a man sailing alone in the opposite direction to us, heading to the Azores, and he had been at sea for 10 days already and needed to speak to someone–he was feeling lonely. So I talked to him on the radio, and he ended up telling me that his wife was pregnant, and he asked if I wouldn't mind calling her and telling her that he missed her and that he was OK, since we have a telephone on board and he did not. So I called Gina, who lives in Norway, and told her that her husband had asked us to tell her he was doing OK and that he would be on land soon. It is typical for sailors who come upon each other at sea to help each other, because otherwise it is so lonely out here. The old whaling ships of long ago would actually stop to talk to each and exchange mail and gifts–they called this a 'gam'.

So the word of the day is 'gam', and we were at position 37.54N, 20.14W when we spoke the lonely French man and his lovely wife Gina. –mark it on the chart.

Captain Paolucci Out

Mates,

Nothing of event to report, except that we are 1 day crossing the Atlantic Ocean and arriving in Portugal. Here is our position, doing 8.5 knots, at 37.17N, 14.06W.

We should be in late tomorrow night.

Captain Paolucci

Hi Crew,

I understand today is the last day of school–congratulations! I hope you all have a great summer, and I look forward to seeing you next year.

Our current waypoint is 97 nm from Vilamoura, Portugal and the other side of the Atlantic Ocean–it is 37.06N, and 10.19W. And the final waypoint in Vilamoura, which we will reach tonight, is 37.04N, 08.07W.

Thank you so much for following along with the adventure of the Marlow

Captain Paolucci, over and out