The Island Schools' expedition in central Puget Sound. The studets chose their hypothesis which stated that there would be more Dissolved Oygen (in ppm)  at the surface than at depth in study areas south of Eagle Harbor  Bainbridge Island.

Day one of three (click to view cruise track image)
The wind watch took the helm first and  sailed Carlyn out of Eagle Harbor into Blakely Harbor, where they successfully stopped the boat by maneuvering  the sails (heaving to).  The water watch, having prepared for their science gear deployment, was ready to set the Ekman dredge and gather their water samples. They then adjusted sails after the scientific gear deployment and headed for Clam Bay, near the fish pens, on the south tip of Bainbridge Island, as a few ominious clouds began to blanket the sky. The students we able to conduct a second sampling station before they moored off on the backside of Blake Island and quickly made camp as the blanket of cloudsthat began to form earlier in the day was pulled tight and the sky began to rumble.

The students who were sleeping ashore quicky made a rain shelter, set up camp and began to prepare dinner. The entire watch group huddled together and cooked their hamburgers, singing about the rain and thunderstorm, under a small tarp as the rain rushed overhead and rolled off like a waterfall down the make-shift gutters. Everyone rejoiced as rain turned to hail, none of use had cooked hamburgers out in this type of weather before!  BBQ burgers and hail soon turned into a delicacy!

The group on the Carlyn was hunkered down in the main cabin, safely waiting out the storm. They reported on their cozy, warm cabin the next morning at watch meeting, as the group agreed that they were prepared for any adventure to face them in the future, they set out underway immediately for their next science samping station.

Day two of three (there is no image available for day two of three.)
Following an evening of extreme weather and a good nights rest, the group set out to deploy the Ponar grab, as they were interested in the bottom sediment, or benthos.  In these samples were small shells, fine sediment particles and  the occasional worm. One watch group was able to extract a delicate brittle star from their from Ponar grab sample. Not an easy task, as their name sake might suggest!

Day three of three (click to view cruise track image)
The night before the entire group had gathered on shore in the rain shadow of the day for a beautiful thank you circle, as this trip marked the remaining days of the students time at the Island School, where they would soon be leaving for not only summer break, but their new, and independant Junior High School experiences. The students shared thank yous and kind observations of accomplishments throughtout the trip, sang songs and played music to round out an evening together on the shore.

First thing, after the gear and breakfast was stowed, the Wind watch took the boat off the floating dock and set sail for Eagle Harbor. The students sampled one final time at Resptoration Pint off of Bainbridge Island, before heading past Blakely Rock and dropping sai to enter Eagle Harbor (Big Earls hideout).  The students also deployed the Neuston Net. This large net, that you may catch a glipse of on the Home page, is designed to capture surface plankton, and often requires the entire science watch to deploy. It is lowered to the surface with a boom, at the moment the sailing watch has brought Carlyn to the speed of 2 knts, the ideal towing speed for sampling. This groupd of Island School students worked better than a well oiled machine when it came to the teamwork involved in communicating about the speed of the vesel, the time of deployment and how to accomplish both while still at their sampling site.  It was as if the group had been deploying Neuston nets together for months, as they were in the groove of functioning as accomplished, knowledgable and driven field marine scientists!

About 'Big Earl': This local resident octopus who inhabits the cracked rock and caves under  Blakely Rock ( located just off the East side of Bainbridge Island), has been sighted by many divers vsiting this creatures underwater habitat, drawn by the hopes of seeing an octopus, and many of the other creatures that inhabit this area . His  tetacle span is guestimated to be somewhere around 10 ft. Pretty good for an eight limbed, slinky creature of the deep Puget Sound!