Schooner Bowdoin

...deep, but it'll spin, it'll push out of the way once we make contact.

Slow ahead.

Part of continuing the legacy of going to the Arctic with the Bowdoin and education in these regions is we have the boat that can do it. She was designed to go into this climate. Having Bowdoin really speaks to our range of ability and uniqueness that we can provide to our students.

One thing that I quickly learned is just wear more and then take it off later if you need it. But also what I found really cool was every time I came on deck there was something different. Whether there was an iceberg in the distance or when we actually got close to land, being able to see how the landscape would change.

I definitely killed two birds with one stone by not only getting a lot of time with sailing and learning how to tie knots, how to steer at the helm, how to chart and plot through a course, how to maintain a log, and how to keep your eye on the weather, but I also got perfect opportunities to collect data off Greenland and prime opportunities to work in a scientific field in such a way as I might do in a real oceanographic career.

Don't do anything, it's gonna spin out of the way.

You ready to come ahead?

I'll start. (I'll stop)

Two, six... Two, six!

We're sailing for the first time, which seems like ages. Engine's off, full sail plan set. Beautiful snow-covered cliffs in front of us. Ready about!

Keep pushing, it'll spin right out of the way.

So we're in the ice, so we're gonna send somebody up to the ice bucket. So just as MacMillan did, we'll have someone aloft sitting in the ice bucket up there. Getting into Disko Bay and seeing just a pure wall of ice...

Man, it was mind-blowing. It was mind-blowing just the amount of ice that there was. Navigation, that was something that we just kind of rolled into. I mean, we just get up for a watch one day and there's ice out there.

I became like an actual part. I wasn't just a bystander on the vessel. I was actually a cog that had a part to play, and it felt nice to be important, to be needed. And it felt like I was learning. I wasn't just working to do work, I was gaining experience.

Being resilient is like one of the hardest things you can do, but it's also one of the biggest lessons I learned, and it'll probably be one of the biggest takeaways that I'll have from this.

Yes sir.

I don't think there's any better platform for hands-on maritime training than a tall ship. You get to do all the different parts of running a ship, but also maneuvering with sails and having to work out a voyage plan based on wind rather than just currents and your fuel supply. It just enhances all those skills that they learn at school. If you want to have a tall ship experience that actually goes somewhere cool, it's one of the very few options.

It was awesome. I came to the school thinking that I wouldn't go on cruise with the reg kids, but here I was going to the Arctic as a freshman, and I couldn't think of any other school that I could go to that could provide such an experience.

It was a trial by fire for a lot of us. A lot of us were really green, and it made sailors out of us, you know, we made it.