For those of you who are continuing to see Bravo Team NOT go out due to posted Small Craft Advisories, below you’ll find a link to Townshend’s Certificate of Inspection which states (in second page, third paragraph down, “This vessel shall not get underway when… when a small craft advisory is posted.”
It was tempting to put off that requirement today as the weather was spring-like for the first time during class and Bravo Team members were frustrated during their weekly weather observations. Sticking to the requirements and also wanting to show consistency caused us to heed by the Small Craft Advisory and stay shore-side.
Only four classes remain before our Journey begins May 7th and we took advantage of that to put into motion Journey Planning. First was a slideshow from last year’s Journey featuring silly photos and many smiles. Second was a brainstorm to answer the question, “What planning goes into a trip?” Some of the answers can be seen in green dry-erase marker in the photo below… Food being at the top of the list led us into some beginning meal-planning in cooking teams. Dietary restrictions & allergies as well as prep time and lack of refrigeration were key factors. A rough meal plan will help us turn our trip into an eating extravaganza thanks to the Food Co-op and their generous donation of food for our school year!
Another important factor of trip planning involves GOING WITH THE FLOW, literally and metaphorically. “The Book of Arrows” as we call it – commonly known as Washburne’s Current Atlas (sample page below) as well as our “pickup and dropoff” dates in Anacortes were laid out as ‘book-ends’ of our trip as we began calculating ebbs, floods, slacks, and basic current trends in the Eastern San Juan Islands for route planning. A new awareness of place names like Guemes Island, Saddlebag Island, Cypress Island, and Lummi Island as well as bodies of water like Bellingham Channel, Guemes Channel and Rosario Strait will help us as we continue the planning process.
(A link to last year’s Journey Post is here: (Last year’s Journey! (2016))
After some head-down planning inside we were able to escape into the sunshine for our usual snack, pumping out of boats, naturalist report (on the bird: American Coot), and our moment of silence. Sometimes it’s easier to focus on the negatives instead of the positives — like not going boating today on a sunshine-filled day. High tides at the end of class were: being on the beach, pumping out the bilges, journey planning, moment of silence, and sunshine! Most low tides were predictably: not being able to go out on the water.
Next week is Spring Break and for the rest of April we’ll continue Journey Planning, we’ll have a donor tour, and get ourselves ready to be together aboard a longboat for five days! Our Environmental Project continues moving forward as well and stay tuned for updates and more information! A Bird Zine is coming together (Editor: Audrey Drake) and will be posted here when completed. We appreciate you continuing to follow our progress!