Room 9 Journey Schools' students finished off their school year with an incredible expedition in central Puget Sound. One of the groups goals was to circumnavigate Bainbridge Island. As you can see in the cruisetrack below, the students were successful, and in addtion explored both of the east facing harbors on Bainbridge Island and sailed under Agate Pass bridge! More on the Agate Pass bridge sailing and the details of the expedition below!

Day one of five (click to view cruise track image)
As the Room 9 Journey students came to meet Carlyn they had chosen their Hypothesis, picked their camping sites and determined their general cruise track for the next five days. Once out on  the boat the students were able to re-evaluate their hypothesis and fine tune the focus of their study. They were interested to determine if the Secchi disk depth, which is used to measure turbitiy and indicate the depth at which visible light penetrates, affects the abundance of Zooplankton in the water column. Implementing their experimental design would prove to be a challenging and fun task.

The Zooplankton net would need to be rigged to capture the plankton both at the surface and at the Secchi depth within a small window of time,. This at that same time the Nautical team need to maneuver and keep the Carlyn positioned at the sampling site. The first deployments were successful, and we rested up at Fay Bainbridge anticipating the next days events!

Day two of five (click to view cruise track image)
One of the main goals for the trip was to circumnavigate Bainbridge Island in the Carlyn. Day two was the best opportunity we had to sail under Agate Pass bridge, the span that connects Bainbridge Island to the Kitsap Peninsula. The bridge is passable by most vessels, but only at  low tide yields enough 'head room' or clearance for Carlyn to gracefully sail under.The tide was low in the mid-afternoon, and the students determined they could conduct a morning sampling in Port Madison and then sail under the bridge to make it to Blake Island for the evening.

The group had a day and a half of sailing under their salty hats, and were able to tack  their way beautifully under the bridge. This bridge passing has been referred to as 'Shredding the Nar-Nar'.

During low tide this channel becomes quite narrow, so attention and prompt maneuvering is important. With a great sailing challenge conquered, the students were ready to collect their second set of data for the day. The Nautical watch was in constant motion as they navigated the boat  between the West side of Bainbridge Island and Port Orchard. As the boat rounded Pt. White the wind picked up quite a bit, and we were all donning raingear and setting up for the next deployment.

Day three of five (click to view cruise track image)
After this night each student had spent a night both aboard the Carlyn and in tents, and we had nearly filled our waste tank! It was time for a pic nic in the park and some pumping out of the waste. The group rounded the back side of Blake Island and made way for Blakely Harbor. As their hypothesis was studying the effect of visible light on the amound of plankton present, they chose a shallow sampling site in Blakely Harbor.

Sampling both at the surface and deep with the Zooplankton net became second nature for the savvy scientists. To be deployed for a depth sample the net acquires weights and a waist line, the former used to sink the net to its desired depth, the latter  to cinch up the net during its transition to the surface through the water column.

Collection of plankton at a desired depht is a valuable data gathering tool, and these students had developed a hypothesis that enabled them to not only explore Puget Sound but also explore their ability to work in concert with one another to design and implement sampling and data collection techniques, brining additional physical challenge to their Expedition.

Day four of five (click to view cruise track image)
Speaking of challenges...As the students made way for the Cockpit for the morning watch meeting (main meeting area in the boat, also where the helm is located), they discovered a scroll contianing a challenge for the group. As the Carlyn was docked at Blake Island, a tight spot between a man made breakwater and perpendicular finger pears, the students were to de-dock the boat and make it to their first sampling station, deploy gear and collect their samples.  Once this first challenge was complete, they were to regain controll of the boat after lunch and sail to the next sampling location, attend to data collection and then sail onto the mooring ball at Fay Bainbridge State Park! This is nt easy feat, and the sailing watch did a wonderful job! The helmsman was calm and firm, the bowline knots tying team was sharp and the the sail handlers were attentive to every command!

Coming in the mooring ball at Fay Bainbridge for the last task of the day, and the water became more shallow, the sailing team did their best to line up the moring buoy, coming withing feet of it, and finally getting a line to the boat and securing Carlyn for the evening. Once the group tidied up their gear, we made it to shore for Seining and beach exploration, capturing small founder and some interesting crabs. The last night for the group together, and the last night for the spring season with Carlyn.

Day five of five (click to view cruise track image)