Zu En's blog: Field Trip-Captain John's Whale Watch at Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Today, the whole 7th grade is going on a field trip to a whale watch off the coast of Plymouth MA. The last time I had been to this town is on a field trip to see the Mayflower II & the Plymouth plantation. It's a 2 and a half hour drive from the school to the dock. I am ready, with my mom's camera, binocular, Sea-Bands (wristbands that prevents motion sickness) By the time the 4 buses (I'm on the white one so it is easy to know which bus I am on) reached there it is already almost 10 a.m. It took another 10 minutes for the boat to go after we gone in there. The boat I am on is called Captain John & Son II.It took more than an hour to get to the Bank by boat. If you saw mt account picture, that was taken at the field trip by Molly. While I am on the way, I saw some islands, a couple of lighthouse, most of them I look with my binoculars to get a better view.

This is one of the islands.

I had thought it's getting better and better. 30 minutes later the boat is out to open sea. I try to see any further islands on the upper deck. No luck. So I asked the captain where we are. He has the coordinates, so me and my teacher figured out where we are with a map. Surprisingly, we

are still a long way there, at least another hour. The ship is starting to get a little bit shaky, I have to hold on the railings real tight as I was walking down the stairs. I made my way back to the bow. The galley has a long line of people waiting for food, and I feel weird in there, so I decided not to eat any lunch, even though I have $20 in my pocket. At the bow, I took pictures of the ocean, buoys, ships, and even my classmates.

Molly & Hannah

Then I decide to sit down on a chair because I couldn't hold my balance any longer. Finally, after a long wait, I finally saw Cape Cod in the horizon.

Cape Cod at the horizon, look close to see it

As we get further out into sea, the waves are increasing as well. The wind picked up earlier than the captains predict. I know I couldn't leave my seat because:

Anything could happen
I am feeling, not so well

It is getting worse, it drags on for a long time. Just as my homeroom teacher suspected, it doesn't work as it should be. Now we are very close to Stellwagen Bank, and people are starting to crowd in on the bow. Which makes it worse, considering that Claustrophobia might take over easier than any other situations. The waves had reach its maximum height of about 5-6 feet, seasickness type of waves. One of my classmates Jared is the 1st to notice the change in me. Most classmates start to suggest that I move into the galley. I didn't do it because I've been warned by my teachers that it will only want you to throw up more because of the confined space. I am personally angry at them because I can't believe they already forgot in over 1 day.Cape Cod never left my sights,which means we are pretty close. But, it is getting worse & worse. I was feeling so bad that I even prayed to God, twice. Finally, just as we are slowing down, I threw up. The Sea-Band failed. Well Hannah (considering that she hated me most), is like a talking newspaper, caused about 1/3 of the people on the boat to notice. The only thing I ate or drank is a bottle of Gatorade, and I threw that all up. After the boat stopped, I threw up the 2nd time. Everybody is a little shocked. Even in the midst of the sickness, I mange to see 2 pairs of whales. And one of my classmates took the pictures for me. Unfortunately, the whales didn't breech, so we only see their backs. One pair MIGHT be a whale & a calf, the other pair is CERTAINLY a whale & a calf.

My friend didn't zoom all the way in, so you have to zoom way in to see it

Later, I found out that the earlier Whale Watch groups are more lucky, by the time we came, they might have already gone down for lunch. Only the 2 pairs stayed because the calf couldn't dive very deep & hold its breath for long, so the mother whale look after it at the surface. Anyway, the 1st teacher on the scene was Mrs. Audet, my math teacher. The boat had to move further east because the whales are isolated, that is what I am worrying about. Finally, when we are turning around and heading back to shore. I feel tired so I fell asleep, in my chair, head down, only thing that keeps me from falling is my hand on the railings. Also, Mrs. Audet sat at my side just to make sure I'm OK at least until I can stand. But, it's a weird thing that my hand could still balanced on the railings even though I fell asleep. I snapped awake when a wave slammed my head against the railings. It hurts, I kept my head low though. While my head is down, I heard that several other classmates got sick. Then somebody noticed I'm awake, and people starts to ask me if I'm OK. I stay put, when I got my head up though, there's a surprising sight. It is rainstorms, scattered around the bay area. Looks like the weather forecasters were wrong again. Well, weather in New England could change quickly, and this is the quote that says it: "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a minute..." Anyway,we dodged most of them but finally got caught as we are very close to dock. Oh yeah, there's a small boat that is decorated to look like a PIRATE SHIP! With only one guy only, that make sense, since the boat is so small.

Now, thew best part, although I'm not getting into details. This trip could be the most romantic moment of the year. The moments:

As we are heading toward open sea from harbor.
When I recovered from the sickness to when we step back to dock.

These are the moments, because I get to hang out with Molly & her friends, it was really worth it. We ended up getting back an hour late because we have to travel further.