Today students woke up and had breakfast on the boat. We had a long and hot journey that lasted most of the day. Students got a lot of hands on experience with sailing and navigation in addition to learning about water salinity. We visited the waterman’s museum and learned about how people used to make a living on the Chesapeake bay and how that has changed over time. Afterwards we set up camp and ate a delicious pasta and garlic bread dinner.

Students had an early start today at 4 am! In two different shifts they got to learn about crabbing with a local waterman, Captain Clay. The students caught two blue crabs in the bay, one of which Clay described as a jumbo crab. After that the students got back on the boat to learn more about the biology of crabs while using the live specimens as models. The captain of the Sigsbee also spent today teaching students about navigation and how to use landforms to identify where the boat is located. The day ended with some well deserved swimming at the beach. At camp students completed the full circle of their crab education as the staff of LCF walked them through how to eat crab!

And away they go!

The CBay students were picked up by the LCF staff this morning. After saying goodbye to their phones they loaded their gear and themselves into the vans for the trip down to Sigsbee.  After doing some shuffling of luggage the campers boarded the boat, got their life jackets, had some introductions to life aboard and got under way.  Students jumped right into learning by doing as they handled dock lines and fenders and raised  the sail.  Today will be filled with lots of orientations to sailing, camping and life on the Bay.

Day 9!

Hello from the Sigsbee! Today has been another amazing day! We’re all so disappointed that the trip has to end. Today we woke up nice and early (at 4:30 am) and went crabbing! We all took turns trying to catch the crabs, and we were able to catch quite a few. Once we were finished, we had the crabs cooked, and then we ate them on the boat! Here’s some photos of us catching and eating the crabs.

We also participated in the Skipjack races, which are games about the boat and sailing. This is an awesome opportunity to demonstrate everything we’ve learned.

Overall, this trip was amazing! Everyone learned so much and had a ton of fun! Here we are in front of the Sigsbee!

Day 8!

Hello again! Yesterday was an amazing day! We can’t believe that the trip is starting to end! Today was another long transit as we traveled from St. Michaels to Rock Hall. On the way, we fished using a trawl net and worked on our final projects. Once we got to camp, we presented our final projects. Everyone shared information they learned about the health of the bay. It was an awesome way to finish out the trip. Here we are raising the sails.

Pulling the trawl net in

Examining our catch

Working on our projects

Here’s a bunch of awesome pictures of our presentations!