St. Catherine School's expedition begain at Elliot Bay marina in Seattle, setting out to study their hypothesis: There will be more plankton in shallow water (less than 100ft) than in deep water (more than 100ft). The fall season ushured in wonderful and crisp weather, as well as a healthily large population of plankton to sift through.

Day 1 of 4 (Click to view cruise track image)

The St. Catherine students set out from Elliot BayMarina, and quickly began to raise the sails to take advantage of the force  3 winds (on the Beaufort scale) that had been picking up throughout the morning. The first sampling site was chosen for its shallow depth  and the close proximity to the marina. This sampling at West Point included the use of the Secchi disk and the hand-held fluorometer , and settling of the zooplankton tow. The first two samping techniques were used  to help qualititatively measure plankton abundance, the last being a quantitative measurement of the volume of zooplankton in the water. Following is the data summary of the first day, and initial conclusions.

Secchi Disk      @ Shallow Site - 8.0 m
                           @ Deep Site     - 11.5 m
Flurometer
(chlorophyll a) @ Shallow Site - 63.96 fluor units
                           @ Deep Site     - 11.7  fluor units
Zooplankton    @ Shallow Site - 1 ml
                           @ Deep Site      - 28 ml

Students took to the task of analyzing their data before the first evening watch meeting, and concluded that so far the phytoplankton data was in support of their hypothesis, while the zooplankton data indicated the opposite might be the case (zooplankton being their primary focus for the expedition). 

The students were quickly turning into scientists, and the scientis into soggy scientists as they headed to drop the water watch off at Fay Bainbridge State Park on their way to anchor the wind watch in Pt. Madison. To be sure that they were able to keep their wits about them for the next day, the group ashore prepared for their rest with roast chocolate and banannas over the warm camp fire, a delicious way to end a full day of field reserch on  blustery Puget Sound.

Day 2 of 4 (Click to view cruise track image)

98% cloud cover today, with sun peaking through, a marine science forecasters dream. The days cruise began with the wind watch picking up the water watch from Fay Bainbrdge and toghether heading south along the East side of Bainbrige Island after sampling in Port Madison towards Blake Island. The day had turned really soggy by the early afternoon, and everyone aboard had donned fashionable yellow rain gear, fowlies to the savvy sailor.

The sampling sites and data collections had already been set, as had the evenings camping site, but as the students considered the current weather conditions (soggy throug the night), they decided to re-assess and camp on the front side of Blake Island, as opposed the south side that faces the Kitsap Peninsula and genrally feels more secluded. This would be the destination for the next evening.

Day 3 of 4 (Click to view cruise track image)

This next morning, the entire group met ashore to start the day. They  limbered up with some group games and then prepared for a land based challenge. They had started to come together, and were begining to put to practice the skills they had learned on the boat: group communication. Raising sails, navigating (getting the vessel to the chosen sample site or destintion) and deploying gear, these all need to be accomplished for a successful science sampling expedtion. This was the test of their combined challenges and skill at navigating them...the group was faced with an 'electric snake', resembling a large jump rope. The entire group neede to  get to from one side of the rope to the other, without getting 'electrocuted'. They did it, with 36 turns of the rope. Could they do it again with fewer...24 turns...10 turns...5 turns...TWO TURNS!!!!

Spending the night on the back side of Blake Island after sampling  in Rich Passage, near the fish pens on the south side of Bainbridge Island, the group was familiar with the water territory of the area. They had sampled for nutrients, plankton and numerous physical data (temperature, salinity etc) and came ashore ready to look for stars in a hopefully clear sky. The prevouse two nights had not leant themsleves to star gazing, but this one would be great. We hiked to a sandy point on the beach, and found two dead seals. A large seal that had been in the intertidal for a time, and a small pup that was near the drift wood line. It was not clear what had happened, as they were completely in tact, so we gave them some thoughts, and walked on in silence to our stargazing spot.

Day 4 of 4 (Click to view cruise track image)

The last day on the Expedition brought the final set of data! After some careful analyzing on the boat and in the classroom, the group, who had all by this time acquired very salty nicknames, had determined that the data rejected their hypothesis. As far as the data is concerned, the trend favored more plankton in deep areas than shallow.