Departing Ecuador

The Galapagos Islands, a remote archipelago off the coast of Ecuador, may be the birthplace of our scientific understanding of evolution. Little did Darwin know waters surrounding the islands would reveal one of the most important discoveries ever made in ocean science. The discovery of life at hydrothermal vents on the seafloor revolutionized our understanding of life on our planet.

Deep hydrothermal vents were first found by scientists using cameras, and sonar, back in 1976 along the coast of the Galapagos Islands. One year later, scientists traveled over 2,900 meters below the surface of the ocean using the manned submersible, Alvin, for the first human observations of some newly found structures on the deep sea floor. The Galapagos Rift, between longitude 86 degrees W and 89 degrees W, is an area where the sea floor is formed in a rift valley by continent-sized geologic plates that are slowly moving apart. As the plates move, magma from deep inside the Earth is pushed upward and is met by the pressure of a mile and a half of Pacific Ocean bearing down upon it. This dynamic interchange between the earth and ocean creates an environment of extreme heat, pressure, and geologic, volcanic and chemical activity.

If you can imagine the inside of a super-huge furnace, at the bottom of the ocean, filled with toxic chemicals and the fury of volcanic heat, then you can begin to imagine the environment of hydrothermal vents. This environment is home to strange sea floor formations, bizarre and undocumented forms of life, and where superheated water jets out of the ocean floor bringing with it a soup of microbial life that flourishes in this extreme environment. Scientists were very surprised and excited to find plumes of aqua-colored shimmering water rising from the seafloor.

Scientists had just discovered the first hydrothermal vent. Near vents, water travels down through cracks in the seafloor and is heated by hot, molten rock far below the ocean crust. Temperatures can reach as high as 400degC. As the water heats up, it reacts with the rocks in the ocean crust. These chemical reactions remove all of the oxygen from the water making the water acidic. The hot water rises to the surface of the seafloor and spews out of the vent openings. The pH of this fluid varies from roughly 3 to 5 and temperatures, at their most extreme, can reach over 350 degrees Celsius. This hydrothermal fluid carries with it dissolved metals and other chemicals, like hydrogen sulfide, from deep beneath the ocean floor.

You might think that such a harsh environment would be devoid of life, yet the areas around hydrothermal vents are small 'oases' in the barely populated habitats of the deep sea. Scientists who discovered the first vent system back in 1977 were quite surprised to see this area teeming with a variety of different life forms. The secret was held in the bacteria that were able to harvest energy from the chemical fluid seeping from the vents! These bacteria use sulfur to create food. This process is called chemosynthesis allow organisms to make sugars from chemicals. These bacteria provide the base of the food chain for hydrothermal vent communities.

Since no light is available to organisms living along vent systems, photosynthesis cannot occur. The bacteria are heat loving. Some of the bacteria can survive temperatures over 100 degrees Celsius! Many animals living in vent communities live in a symbiotic relationship with these, sulfide-loving bacteria within their bodies; the bacteria provide sugar to their host while the host provides a safe refuge for the bacteria To learn more about the unusual organisms that live in hydrothermal vents read this fact sheet.

Try this activity to learn how explorers locate vent communities 

Learn about organisms that live in vent communities.

Captain's Blog 1/31/12

Where did January go? The classic question about time I suppose? The voyage to date has moved along faster than usual from my perspective, not only because of the two ports we have visited, but because of the Panama Canal passage.

From my seat, these ports basically just amount to a mountain of paperwork. One would not believe the vast amounts of paper we prepare to enter a foreign port - and it isn't any less for the USA ports when coming in from foreign. The weather continues to be cloudy and warm - 73 degrees this morning - with no wind whatsoever.

As we push up the coast of Ecuador and Columbia we are encountering hundreds of small fishing vessels - about 20 feet long - out here 12-15 miles off. More tomorrow...

Sa1l1ng Tem Headed to LA

After a great season the MMA sailing team has been invited to compete in the Los Angeles Harbor Club Regatta. On March 9-11 they will raise their sails against Cal Maritime, the Coast Guard Academy, the US Naval Academy, and the University of Michigan Sailing Team. The team is particularly proud of their performance when they competed against the Naval Academy, where they placed third in two of their events. Another accomplishment was taking 1st place in the Hyannis to Nantucket, Figawe race in Spring, 2011.

This year's team brought pride to the long tradition of sailing at MMA. The MMA offshore team sails from the prestigious Beverly Yacht Club out of Marion Mass on 37 foot sailboats with a crew of seven. The seniors went out with a good record for their last year, and maybe the last time they will compete as sailors of these beautiful off shore boats. The team is coached by Head Coach-Chuck Fontaine who is the Director of Boat Donations at MMA, he is assisted by Twice Tougas, who will accompany the team to California.

This year's team consisted of First Class Jeffrey Gawrys who is a Marine Engineering Major; he will remember his senior year sailing season as his best. Jeffrey was been sailing for over 15 years, and comes from Marblehead, Mass. Another senior, Graham Philpot of Laconia NH, is majoring in marine transportation, he has been sailing his since he can remember. He chose Mass Maritime because of the unique training offered by the Academy. Eric Pattison, a 1st class Marine Transportation cadet began sailing, 4 years ago as a freshman at MMA. He chose to attend MMA because he loves boating, and wants to work on water. He is from Woodbury CT, and attributes part of his success as a cadet to the structured instruction he received at the Academy.

Underclassmen team member include, Sean McLaughlin 4th class who has been sailing his whole life, comes from Fairhaven, MA. He chose MMA because of their marine engineering major, and the fact they had a great sailing program. Andrew Gregoire 3rd class Marine Transportation Major from North Carolina chose Mass Maritime in preparation for his life and work the on sea 4th class Marine Transportation Travis Thonus is from East Dennis. He chose Mass Maritime for its excellent reputation, location, and their sailing team.

 Third class Cadet Tim Dexter hails from Vermont where he has been sailing his whole life. Not pictured here is Mike Reney 2nd class marine engineer major, from Duxbury, as a 2nd class cadet he is spending his sea term as an intern on commercial ship. We wish the best to our Sailing team as they head to Los Angeles this March. We will all be cheering them on here at MMA.

Keeping your boat a float is based on a physics concept called bouyancy 

Guayaquil Hosptal

Before we left for the Sea Term Cruise, MMA cadets loaded on stacks of boxes of clothing and medical supplies on to the T.S. Kennedy. Among this cargo were 100 boxes of supplies donated by MMA Cadets and other Members of the Mass Maritime Community. This drive was arranged under group collaboration between the First Company Office Doug Page, the ship doctor Jeff Sukor, and over 100 Cadets who helped collect and pack the supplies.

Today they reached their destination, a children's hospital here in Guayaquil, Ecuador. This morning at 8:30 AM the boxes were reloaded along with two buses of about 40 volunteer cadets, who brought their work tools and work uniform to the Ycaza Bustamanate Children's Hospital, where they will use their ships maintenance training to undertake several work projects requested by the hospital.

The cadets were accompanied by Commander Page, Dr. Sukor, Nurse Sharon Sylvia, and Roger Souza, our ships barber, gave kids haircuts. Also on the trip was Captain Bill Tracy who played the fiddle and sang songs with the children, and Father Jim Houston. One cadet said it was a very rewarding experience to spend a day doing work for such needy and loving families they encountered at the hospital.

Congratulations to those Cadets who volunteered their liberty time to serve in this valuable humanitarian effort. One of the greatest concerns of hospitals and medical facilities face today is viral diseases, which can be spread through contact with a person infected with the disease. Some diseases, such as influenza, measles, and smallpox, spread rapidly and are of great concern to public health organizations.

Try this activity that creates a model of how viruses spread among a population.

FTV 1/28/12

We docked in Guayaquil, Ecuador's biggest city and the nation's main sea port. Guayaquil is on the west side of the Guayas River, which flows into the Gulf of Guayaquil in the Pacific Ocean. Guayaquil is at 2.21 degrees south of the equator, and 79.9 west. Guayaquil is the capital of the Guayas province of Ecuador.

Here the T. S. Kennedy cadets Adam Labranche and Libby Buck welcomed group of 25 students from an English speaking high school in Guayaquil. This outreach program is sponsored by the Consulate General of the United States of America, and is open to students who want to learn English so that they may attend colleges, and work in a Global economy. Some of these students have an interest in the shipping industry, because they have grown up in this large port city.

The students were given a tour of the ship from bow to stern, here they are visiting the bridge, to see the high level of technology that the MMA cadets are trained to use to navigate ships around the globe.

These students are going to 'Follow the Voyage' for the remainder of your sea term when they return to their classroom, and we hope that they enjoyed getting a taste of a Mass Maritime Sea term experience. We enjoyed meeting them, and wish them well as they plan their futures after completing their last year of high school in Guayaquil. You can learn about the layout of the T.S. Kennedy, and learn about the names given to the parts of a ship by doing the following activities.

Captain's Blog 1/28/12

Day one in Guayaquil was uneventful- we sent about 450 cadets ashore for liberty, and 449 were back aboard by 0200. The one person missing was an employee that often grabs a hotel ashore one or two times a cruise, so we don't worry too much about him. One of a few problems we have encountered is currency.

The Ecuadorian economy runs on the US dollars- literally. (Funny anecdote, Captain Rozak had just explained to the cadets in the pre-port brief that the use of the US dollar was prevalent, when not two minutes later a cadet asks 'What's the exchange rate?' I think Captain Rozak's cute response was drowned out by cadet laughter.)

Anyway, there is a counterfeiting problem here too- so restaurants and taxi are very reluctant to take anything over a 20 dollar bill. I don't carry enough 20's to help that cause, as matter of fact, I cause the problem for some because when they get money 'wired' to them aboard, I tend to give only $100 worth of 20s to each payment- even if it is $1,000.

So, I awaken at 0300 this morning and say 'hey, you've got all the money from the pre-paid email cards'. So I get up and count out over $6K in twenties- and the ship's clerk is down in ship's office right now breaking large bills on a first come, first served basis. I hope that alleviates the problem for some.

Another problem is the distance from the dock to the down town center- although it measures about 5 kilometres on the map, but it takes about 40 minutes by bus, and maybe 35 in a taxi. But this problem persists in many ports we go to- it's all part of the seagoing experience I suppose. More tomorrow...

The Equator

Here we are crossing the equator it is about 9AM, January 26, but without street signs, highway, markers, buoys, or land to determine our position, you might wonder how we even knew we were there. For sailors throughout time, finding their way through the ocean has been a challenge.

In the early 1800's Midshipmen's education on board a vessel like the Constitution included navigation; how to determine the ship's location at sea. How do you determine your location if there is no land in sight? Each day at noon, Midshipmen measured the sun's position above the horizon using a sextant. Then the ship's position was calculated using the measurement taken with the sextant and mathematical equations. The sextant was a tool that was used consistently for navigation.

Today, it is still being used to navigate the most difficult conditions. Thanks to modern technology, the current tool used for finding ships location is a GPS. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a constellation of navigation satellites that orbit the Earth at an altitude of about 12,000 miles (20,000 kilometers). At this altitude, the satellites complete two orbits in a little less than a day. Though originally designed by the U.S. Department of Defense for military applications, the federal government made the system available for civilian uses and lifted security measures designed to restrict accuracy to 10 meters. This made the GPS the ideal tool for the marine shipping industry, and boat captons of pleasure boats as well. The optimal constellation consists of 21satellites with 3 operational 'spares.'

The system is designed to ensure that at least four satellites are visible at least 15deg above the horizon at any given time, anywhere in the world. Engineers and scientists are always coming up with new applications for established technologies such as GPS! For example, during the recent H1N1 FluOutbreak, the GPS system was used to create immediate mapping of cases of the flu as they were reported.

Try this activity to make and use your own sextant 

Try this one to learn more about GPS

Captain's Blog 1/27/12

DATE 1/27 FRI
TIME 0224 LT (ZD +5), 0724 GMT ARRIVAL
LAT 2-46S
LON 80-30W
C 078
S 15 K
RPM 60
DEPTH 17.8 METERS
WIND LT AIRS
SKY 7/8
PRES 1012
AIR 75/73
SEA 79
12 NM WEST OF DATA DE POSORJA

FWE 0742 LT, 1242 GMT

Guayaquil is 50 miles up the Chaga River - low lying marshes and shrimp farms all along the way. Of course the pilot was telling us how beautiful it was, but you don't see too much when it's 3:00 in the morning.

We made it to Guayaquil shortly after seven, were granted free pratique at 0800, but did not get the cadets off until nearly 1030 as we needed to give them a lecture on the unique safety and security concerns of the port.

We had the privilege of having a representative from NCIS out of Quito, and an Associate Counsel for the US Consulate in Guayaquil. The words were foreboding, but the risks are no greater than when we call at places like Piraeus, Greece. The weather is hot, but there has been an overcast cloud layer that made it bearable.

We chartered a bus, but as we send so many cadets ashore on the first day of liberty, there was a backup. But we expanded choices for the cadets with a reputable cab company, and before you knew it the dock was clear of cadets. I hope they all have a safe and enjoyable port visit in this port. More tomorrow

Fresh Water at Sea

This is the Kennedy’s evaporator; it makes fresh water out of salt water. The process of making fresh water out of saltwater is called desalination. We need fresh water for our boiler and to drink. We only make fresh water to drink at sea because the water in port is too dirty to make drinking water, but we can make boiler water at either sea or in port

Desalination/Distillation is one of man's earliest forms of water treatment, and it is still a popular treatment solution throughout the world today. In ancient times, many civilizations used this process on their ships to convert sea water into drinking water. Today, desalination plants are used to convert sea water to drinking water on ships and in many arid regions of the world, and to treat water in other areas that is fouled by natural and unnatural contaminants. Distillation is perhaps the one water treatment technology that most completely
reduces the widest range of drinking water contaminants.

Solar desalination is used by nature to produce rain which is the main source of fresh water on earth. All available man-made distillation systems are duplication on a small scale of this natural process.

In nature, this basic process is responsible for the hydrologic cycle. The sun causes water to evaporate from surface sources such as lakes, oceans, and streams. The water vapor eventually comes in contact with cooler air, where it re-condenses to form dew or rain. This process can be imitated artificially, and more rapidly than in nature, using alternative sources of heating and cooling.

Although desalination is a simple process, extracting fresh water from seawater on a large scale is very costly; however the scarcity of fresh water resources and the need for additional water supplies is already critical in many arid regions of the world. New technologies will have to be developed for  desalination if we are to meet the growing need for fresh water worldwide.

In this activity your will make a simple model of a desalinator.

Here is desalinization lab experiment

Captain's Blog 1/26/12

DATE 1/26 THUR
TIME 0700 LT (ZD +5), 1200 GMT
LAT 0-10N
LON 83-13W
C 180
S 7.5 K
RPM 30
DEPTH 3474 METERS
WIND S FORCE 4
SKY 1/8
PRES 1011
AIR 76/74
SEA 79
158NM NW OF CABO SN LORENZO, ECUADOR

Shellbacking Day - The Pollywogs and Tadpoles were awoken at 0600 and served a sumptuous breakfast from the sea; all with names that were nastier than the real food such as fried kelp, fish eggs and Octopus Juice. Then off to their quarters where, while sequestered, the loyal Shellbacks set the stage for the grand initiation into the Deep.

King Neptune's Royal Court, with the Queen and Royal Baby, lead the entourage to the Helo Deck. 630 Pollywogs were initiated and I believe that every single one of them did so with the biggest smile on their faces even when standing in torrents of saltwater flowing over their heads, crawling to meet King Neptune himself, and to swim with the creatures of the sea. King Neptune was so pleased with the response by the Pollywogs that he asked me to give them a special privilege so I have suspended Captain's Inspection tonight.

Hundreds of cadets are now lined up to start chowing down on the cook-out on the Helo Deck. Meanwhile a small army of Cadets and crew are hard at work bringing the ship back into a presentable condition before we enter port tomorrow morning. Next port is Guayaquil, Ecuador, which MMA has not visited in over 40 years. That’s the sea term - one adventure after another. More tomorrow….