[Noah930]

I went to college in upstate New York. Everyone in a cold climate complains about the winter cold. I got sick of it, too, but figured I might as well do something about it. So I signed up for SEA Semester. (Not to be confused with Semester at Sea, aka Semester at Sex, where you "sail" the world in a converted cruise ship as your "classroom.")

Anyway, I picked the winter/spring semester to be away from campus. The first 6 weeks of the program (Jan-Feb) were held on Cape Cod. OK, bit of a mistake weatherwise there, as it was one of the snowiest Cape winters in recent memory. We kept food and beer out on the back porch, as it was colder than the refrigerator.

Then the next 6 weeks were spent sailing on a sailing research vessel. The cruise track just happened to be a loop around the Caribbean. There's a big difference between sailing for pleasure, and sailing a working ship. Pretty much, other than stopping for research experiments, the ship is moving at all times. So a schedule gets set up for watches, just like in the Navy or merchant marine. One of the duties for nighttime navigation was to be the lookout at the bow. It's quiet and peaceful. And always colder than you expect.