Open Window School – Day 1

The students arrived early at Cap Sante marina to a bright morning and calm, glassy waters.
Their excitement for the week-long adventure was evident as they loaded the two boats, S/V Orion and S/V Carlyn, and coordinated preparations to cast off.

The program got away from the marina a bit later than anticipated, the S/V Orion first, followed by the S/V Carlyn about 30 minutes later.

A couple students, Amy and Bailey, provided the Afternoon Report which summarised the rest of the day.

We are tied to a linear moorage which is very rare treat in the islands with limited dock space at the state parks. There are only 4 in Washington. We are next to the other OWS boat, S/V Orion. We are in a bay near the shore of Sucia Island. There were many sandstone rocks that have holes in them that we saw as we sailed into the bay. There are many trees on this island and currently it is very sunny. The water is reflecting images of the boat, sun, and trees.

Today’s weather became very windy although quite sunny. Near the beginning of the trip, the sun was shining and the wind was softly blowing. In the afternoon, it became very windy and cold, but there was no rain. The waves were very large due to the wind and our location.

Describe highlights from today’s science and sailing watches:
We beat the other ship, the Orion, to the bay at Sucia Island even though they had a 30 minute head start. We also had a very fun experience with the science and raising the sail. It was very funny when the other members of our group thought that the pH levels of the water samples had stopped raising but it continued to raise. Some of the group members also got to steer the boat such as Bailey and Olivia. They said that it was hard to see past the adults but overall very fun.

We hope we get to see some marine life tomorrow. We are also excited to have some smores around the campfire tonight. We are a bit worried that it may rain very hard. We are also worried about our science experiment because we think that there might be some errors in our pH results.

Tomorrow the plan is to continue sailing around Orcas Island and end the day at either Jones Island or Stuart Island. The weather and weather forecast will help to dictate much of that decision.