At sea

East Marlborough resident Stephanie Bernasconi is on her way across the Pacific as part of an intensive oceanography course organized by the Sea Education Association. Stephanie, a Tower Hill grad and now a junior at Dickinson College, spent the past six weeks studying at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts in the land component of the "Oceans and Climate" program. On Nov. 16 she departed from Honolulu harbor aboard the SSV Robert C. Seamans for a 3,000-mile voyage across the Pacific.
"As full, working members of the scientific team and sailing crew ... students deploy oceanographic sampling equipment, manage shipboard operations, navigate by the stars, and make port stops off the beaten path," according to the SEA Semester website. The trip will end at Papeete, Tahiti, on December 23.

Blog entries from the ship are posted daily at www.sea.edu/voyages. 
We hope Stephanie spots at least one mermaid, Dickinson's unofficial mascot.