Our Floating Classroom

Here Comes The Sun!

One of the best parts of visiting the Waterfront Center is, by far, getting the opportunity to sail on the Christeen. Lucky for me, I get the chance to go out every so often with the many school groups that choose it as part of their field trip experience. The oyster sloop is a great way to spend some time on the water while learning about the many diverse creatures that live in the bay, and admiring the beautiful scenery that surrounds us. Today I tagged along with the seventh graders from the Marie Regina school, who get the award for the friendliest group thus far!

Carlee shows the students one of the bays coolest and most popular sea critters, the horseshoe crab.

This enthusiastic group of middle schoolers was not at all shy about answering questions, volunteering on the boat, and sharing the cool sea creatures from the touch tank as we sailed along in the bay. They also shared their plentiful knowledge on marine science, and jumped at the chance to learn more from their instructor Carlee.

Left: Vince, Bryce, and Kyle take turns holding the horseshoe crab. Right: The students enjoyed helping get the sailboat underway, and all gasped the moment they saw the sails all the way up!

Whether helping to raise the sails or passing along the horseshoe crab to another student, these kids were an energetic and positively fun group to hang out with for the morning! When asked what she thought of the voyage, one student replied ever so simply, “It was awesome!”, and another, Vince, gave a big smile and said, “Amazing!” And it was a unanymous decision by all students that the horseshoe crab was their favorite sea creature (except for Kyle, who rebelliously answered that he preferred the welk).

Left: Passing around the mussel                         Right: The snail got a lot of attention!

It must have been the students’ bright smiles and big energy that brought the sun back out as well – after a morning of rain and cloudy skies, we hopped aboard the Christeen just as the sun was making its debut. Though the temperature remained a little chilly, especially as we sailed in some pretty good breeze, it was refreshing to see some blue skies!

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The kids were excited to answer questions about marine science, and paid close attention as Carlee shared cool facts about each animal.

Bryce helps take down the jib as we prepare to end the voyage.

Michael, James, and Phil all said that their favorite animal was the horseshoe crab - he seems to be pretty popular around here!