Mount Baker Middle School – Day 3

After a blustery and rainy night, a warm breakfast helped to start the day. The students and crew loaded the boat in good spirits and cast off from Jones Island by mid-morning.

The captain and crew took advantage of their early proximity to Deer Harbor on Orcas Island and made a scheduled stop to resupply the water and empty holding tanks.
After a dark, cloudy start to the day, it turned into an awesome weather day.
The students now have experience setting the main sail, the mizzen and the jib.

Peering into microscopes turned into a somewhat magical experience for the students. There were plenty of oohs and aahs at the discovery of the multitude of microscopic critters in the marine water.

During previous nights the students have been divided into predetermined Watch Groups, but tonight the students were given the opportunity to self select their friend groups.

Tomorrow (Friday) is the famous Salish Challenge Day in which the students are challenged to self select as teams (Science team and Sailing team) to complete sailing, science, meals and creativity challenges. They have been given the skills, now they need to see if they can come together as a team.

Before they cast of the dock, there will be a science wrap-up in the morning in which they will discuss the data they have collected over the last 3 days and determine how the results fit with their prediction… busy day ahead.

Some Afternoon Report notes from Hayden and Lynaya;
“We are moored on a dock at James Island for the night. There is a wide span of trees from the sight of the boat. We are near a small beach and a path that leads from the beach through a narrow part of the forest. From the path you can see the other side of the island.
Early this morning the mate mentioned the forecast for the day looked to be a wet, sad day. It turned out only the first three of four hours were wet and dark. The blue sky started to show through the clouds like a Disney movie. Rain continued for awhile but the clouds were different colors, shapes, volumes, and types of cloud families like stratus and cumulonimbus.

At one point today we stopped at a dock in Deer Harbor to refill the gas and water supplies. We met some very nice people with a dog they let us pet.
After getting underway again, we set the main sail and the mizzen sail. We also deployed the niskin bottle to collect water samples from the deep water.”