Harbor Current, Vol. 2 (2012-13), No. 2 (December) by Billion Oyster Project

Vol. 2, Issue 2

December 18, 2012

The

Harbor

Current

Sanguinem cæruleum portus effundimus Late Island Final

Founded 2011

Sandy Pummels NYC, NYHS Storm Highlights Harbor Concerns by Joy Junious

Regatta benefits New York Harbor Foundation by Joy Junious New York Harbor-- On September 27th, 2012, students and alumni from the New York Harbor School competed in the Second Annual Harbor School Regatta along with 175 other sailors, including former Olympians, World Champions and financial and maritime industry leaders. Notable among the winners was Team Swett. Captained by America’s Cup sailor Hannah Swett, this team, which won in the 12 Metre class, also included Swett’s godmother, Martha Stewart. During the Regatta, hundreds of spectators watched from aboard the Hornblower Hybrid, a luxury power yacht. Willie Geist, of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, provided commentary. Spectators shared drinks and a light buffet, and also got the opportunity to talk to the students from the Harbor School whom the Regatta will benefit. The Regatta was a benefit for the New York Harbor Foundation, which is the nonprofit that acts as a support system for the school. In particular, the Regatta benefitted Harbor School’s CTE program; it continued on page 5

Inside: Oysters and the Storm Surge page 2

Tall ship Bounty, two crew lost at sea Casualty of Sandy by Paul Blatt In the days leading up to the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, people all over the East Coast were preparing for the arrival of the hurricane. Mariners were hauling their boats out of the water and tying down loose gear. But for the crew of HMS Bounty this was not the case. Instead, Captain Robin Walbridge decided to try and duck the storm by sailing around it and heading south. This would prove to be a fatal decision. On October 25, Bounty set sail from New London, Connecticut, heading for Saint Petersburg, Florida. Bounty kept up constant communications with the national hurricane center. On Saturday, October 27, she reported mechanical failures. With heavy rain pouring down, her pumps were in trouble: they could not handle that amount of rain. The

“Like Chess With Boats” page 3

After the Storm: page 4

New York City-- Hurricane Sandy passed through New York City on Monday October 29, 2012 and the devastation has come and not left. So many people have been evacuated from their homes and have lost everything. People who live on or near the water especially were devastated by the storm. That Monday, as the storm’s landfall time drew nearer, wind gusts picked up. Roofs went flying in the wind, trees came down and power lines snapped. Across the city, and especially in the evacuation zones, many if not all stores were closed. Shortages were apparent in the stores that remained open, because New Yorkers were stocking up on food. Said junior Justin Rivera, “I went to the store to get bread and there was no more bread:” all the bread was gone! Bread however was the least of worries for those who lived in Far Rockaway, Broad Channel, Howard Beach, Battery Park City and Jamaica Bay. These neighborhoods, and several others, were evacuated as a result of their closeness to the bodies of water surrounding NYC. Their worries and troubles came in with the tide. Once the tide began to rise and water began to wash down the blocks of many people the losses began. Cars were lost; basements and even first floors were flooded. By the end of the surge, many people’s life belongings were all gone. In addition to the flooding and devastation

in the evacuation zone, there were many power outages. The storm caused an explosion at a major power station on East 14th street, plunging almost all of lower Manhattan into the dark for nearly a week. Some buildings still have no power. Most stores closed, and people who lived in the area ate dinner by candlelight, and showered at the houses of uptown friends, if they were lucky.

Martha Stewart’s Shout-out to NYHS page 5

“The Water Wakes You Up” page 6

Sports at Harbor

Garden Weathers the Storm

by Modesty Encarnacion by Jasmine Hernandez order to have teams that can compete with teams from other NYC high schools, we’ll have put our existing sports clubs on what’s called a PSAL (Public School Athletic League) track. This is a public organization where we’d have to-- well, first develop a team. They would have to play for one year to show they’ve got a consistent roster. We’d have to have regular practices, NYHS Girls Soccer: meet ups, uniforms, etc. -basically everything a real Participation via Bushwick Campus PSAL Team team has. Then PSAL will grant the team official status. So we all know that New York Harbor We do have a lot of clubs and sports School has after school programs and sports programs, but they aren’t official teams. This equipment, but why have sports equipment if we kind of upsets some kids, because (for example) can’t play on real teams? To get that to happen the guys love to play basketball. They are we as a school-- which means staff members and dedicated to it, but it’s kind of a letdown to them students-- have to work together. If we work that they can’t compete against teams from other together we will be able to get the different teams schools. If we had a PSAL basketball team, that up and going which not just guys will like, but would allow the kids to actually work together as girls as well. a team and share the success. We can’t do We do have one official team --cross anything with lot of the after school programs country-- but not everyone wants to just run. In and clubs without this team work. But why have kids from NYHS compete against each other, when they could be working together to compete

Beneficial Bivalves The Importance of Oysters in the Wake of the Storm by Joy Junious

New York Harbor-- In the wake of the storm, who’s going to come to the rescue of New York City? Oysters, of course. Oysters will be part of the team that may help protect the city from a repeat of the damage that it was faced with during hurricane Sandy the next time around. Oysters are the answer to several of the problems that we face in New York City. For one thing, oysters are filter feeders who filter water all day long. One adult oyster can filter 24 gallons of water a day. Thus they help to clean the water that New Yorkers want to fish and swim in. Put in simplest terms, the way it works is that they suck in water on one side, filter it inside their bodies, and send the filtered water out the other side. The fact that oysters act as natural filters is one of several reasons to bring them back into our estuary.

Editor-in-Chief: Joy Junious News Editor: Amy Mahon Features Editor: Jasmine Hernandez Contributing Writers and Collaborators: Paul Blatt, Ameena Peters, Kennington Hall, Modesty Encarnacion, Naquan Sanders, Quentin Crandle, Martha Stewart, Jasmine Hernandez, Cate Hagarty. Special thanks to Matthew Haiken, Murray Fisher and Cate Hagarty.

As a bonus, oysters populate in colonies that take the form of reefs. That means that when oysters are in the larval stage and they are looking for other oysters to live with, they attach themselves to other oyster shells. So, if we have oysters who have formed reefs in the Harbor, then there will be more and more protection for the city against such storm surges as we experienced with hurricane Sandy. Harbor School especially, along with a few other organizations, works hard to restore these wonderful creatures to the Harbor. Harbor School has planted huge numbers of oysters in the Harbor, through the Career and Technical Education (CTE) aquaculture program. Aquaculture’s main focus is the restoration project. The goal of the project is to restore a billion oysters to the Harbor by the year 2030, so that years from now there will be a Harbor full of oysters and so that New Yorkers can swim and fish in the estuary. Even though Aquaculture is the CTE focused most on the restoration project, several of the

Adviser: Susannah Black Acting Principal: Edward Biedermann New York Harbor School Battery Maritime Building 10 South Street, Slip 7 New York City, NY 10004

Governors Island-- New York Harbor School has many plans that it hopes to achieve for the school garden. When this reporter visited the garden recently to check on it following Hurricane Sandy, members of the club were to be found caring for cover crops for the winter, one of which is hairy vetch. Cover crops are plants that help prevent the erosion of the soil, and preserve the soil’s nutrients. In order to help these plants germinate, members of the club were spreading out the soil beds to make them even. Hurricane Sandy did not affect the garden in any way, because the plants has not started growing yet. Kimberly Morales, a garden club member, explained that now that it is winter time, crops are not growing. There are still living organisms in the soil, though, which they are hoping to keep for the spring. These organisms are preparing themselves for the spring to help grow the crops. The garden club has many advocates who are helping the garden to be successful and grow many crops for New York Harbor School. These promoters and helpers include members of the A.P. Environmental Science class. When visiting the garden, this reporter found members of that class doing hard work alongside the club members, in order for them to put in to practice the principles they were learning in the classroom.

CTE programs help. SCUBA, for example, both helps plant oyster reefs and also goes diving for samples while Aquaculture students measure and record organisms pulled in from the samples. And how would SCUBA and Aquaculture get to the oysters if not for Vessel Operations? Vessel Ops transports the SCUBA and Aquaculture students over to the different sites to gather information about oysters involved in the restoration project. Hurricane Sandy has left a devastating and long lasting effect on the city, but luckily Harbor School’s oyster restoration locations escaped damage. Pete Malinowski, in charge of Harbor School’s oyster restoration efforts, went to visit the Wallabout Basin location, a major part of the restoration project, following the storm to check on the floating docks. He reported that “because we prepared in advance, there was minimal damage, which we easily repaired.” The Harbor School community prepared its oysters for the storm; they in turn can help the city be more prepared for a storm. Oyster reefs act as natural wave barriers to slow and break wave action. Continued on page 7

We always welcome opinions, feedback, letters to the editor, and news tips. Reach us at harborcurrentnews@gmail.com The Harbor Current is an open forum for the expression of student views. The opinions expressed herein should not be taken to represent those of the administration or faculty, or of the student body as a whole.

3 Public Affairs

NYHS Student Speaks to EPA Foundation Receives Environmental Protection Agency Grant by Ameena Peters Manhattan-- In a speech delivered before the New York branch of the Environmental Protection Agency on September 27, 2012, NYHS student Ameena Peters explained the importance of the oyster restoration work that the students engage in. The EPA is providing the Harbor Foundation with a $25,000 “citizen science” grant, which will be used to fund students’ work as citizen scientists as they monitor water quality in the Harbor and air quality in the same area. The data that students collect will be available online, and in their roles as citizen scientists, NYHS students will create a series ofoutreach events to inform New Yorkers about their work. People on land need clean air to breathe. But bad air quality leads to bad water quality as well. If the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is increasing, much of the extra CO2 will be dissolved into the ocean, and it can damage the ecosystems of the fish. The more CO2, the more acidic the water would be.

Clean water is important for me because I’m made up of 70% water. It is important for other people and me to drink water that is good enough and safe enough. If people are contaminated with polluted water they are putting themselves in danger, even risking death. The resources we need to survive are the same ones that fish need. All healthy ecosystems need clean water. Fishing and other kinds of recreation are limited in the Hudson River, but it is our natural heritage. Mainly, everyone should have the right to eat from the river; we should be able to eat things like fish and crabs instead of packaged foods. If we eat fish from the market, these fish might be contaminated, and then those contaminants would get into our bodies. The main idea is to limit unnecessary waste, and to protect the land, water and air.

Kennington Hall on match racing-- and his NYHS experience.

HC: What’s your sailing background?

”Harbor School really works.”

HC: What would you most want readers to understand about sailing?

“Like Chess With Boats:” The Harbor Current ran into Kennington Hall, a junior, in the boatbuilding shop, deep in conference with Captain Aaron Singh, Vessel Operations instructor, and Brendan Malone, Marine Technology instructor and CTE Department Co-chair. Following the discussion, he sat down with our reporter to describe the plans the three of them had been cooking up. Kenn Hall, whose ambitions including winning the America’s Cup, has more local and short term plans as well.

we were that day. We showed up at the place-Nautica sponsored us, so we got a bunch of Nautica clothes and a Nautica spinnaker. We rigged our boat-- we took a long time at it, to do it perfectly. We finally finished , got out to the racecourse-- and there was no wind. Usually when you say no wind, there’s a little bit of wind. But no: it was dead wind. We had no idea where the wind was going to come from. So we tried putting up our sails...nothing. And the race is getting postponed, till the wind picks up a bit. The course isn’t set till five minutes before the race. [Then, finally, the wind picked up.] We were cut off a couple of times-- we weren’t as quick off the line as we could’ve been. We raced the race as best we could at that time. It was a high-stress situation. We ended up fifth out of 12. The ones who beat us, most of them were professional sailors. And we really competed, we gave ‘em a run. What looked like a couple of kids sitting around at the dock at the beginning of the race, ended up being a fighting force towards the end.

the water. Over the last three years I’ve worked in Aquatics Summer Camp and I’ve taught summer sailing-- it’s my favorite thing. But whenever I’ve taught sailing it’s kinda been on the fly. Now, he explains, with the incentive of this new program for the school, he’s trying to develop curriculum in a more systematic way. Although there is already a sailing club, of which Hall is a member, dinghy sailing in particular is, he believes, what will give him the background that he needs for his future plans.

KH: I’ve been doing it my whole life. My grandpa owned a yacht club membership since forever, and I have pictures of me sailing with him when I was little. When I was eleven, I went to a sailing club out in San Diego. I was a camper there for three years. That was adrenaline sailing, and I got to be advanced-- learned how to sail catamarans, too. So that was middle school years. Then right before freshman year of high school, I started working there. And this next summer I’ll be the head sailing instructor of the entire camp. Ever since I was eleven years old I’ve told people I was going to go to the Coast Guard Academy and be a navigator. That’s definitely something I still want to do. But maybe instead of doing a 30 year career, I’ll serve a five-year career, keep racing during that, and then [afterwards] start racing as a navigator on the big Puma ocean races. I’m interested in two kinds of racing, mainly: match racing, as opposed to fleet racing, and then long, ocean navigation racing. In match racing [where two boats compete head-to-head, as opposed to fleet racing, which includes at least three competitors --Ed.] there’s more strategy. It’s one-onone. At that point, it’s not about sailing skill, because everyone’s the best of the best. Instead, it’s about tactics. It’s mental, like chess with boats.

HC: Is your family involved in sailing?

HC: Describe what you’ve been discussing with Aaron and Brendan.

HC: How did you prepare for the Regatta? And what was the day itself like?

KH: Basically, the plan is to start a dinghy sailing club for the Harbor School. That would start with what I’m doing now, which is designing a dinghy sailing program. You’d have to take a class, so that you’d know the basics of sailing before you got on

KH: We trained [as a crew] for about two months before hand, around eight hours a week. The day itself, we showed up, did breakfast before school. We were all tense, excited, talking, strategizing. But we were ready. The best we could’ve been that day,

KH: My uncle’s a big sailor, did trans-Pacific stuff, and my grandpa of course. My parents support me, but they don’t sail themselves.

KH: People don’t always consider sailing as much of a sport as it is. It’s super physically demanding, super mentally demanding-- as much as if not more than any of the classic high school sports. HC: Tell me about your experience at Harbor School. KH: Harbor School is everything to me. It really gives me drive, being in all of this. I get to do what I love every day, I get to do what I’m made for. I never considered myself anything else but a sailor. Being trained for this in high school-- it’s amazing. To kids who are coming here: Come if you’re ready to be dedicated. Harbor School doesn’t need kids who aren’t all-in. If you’re willing to dedicate your life to maritime studies, come. Harbor School really works. People need to know that. Our teachers are incredible... I’ve seen so many [maritime] programs-- this is the best one. Best in the country, best in the world. It deserves every bit of support people can give it. We’re really training the next generation of mariners, on the water.

HC: You participated in the Harbor Foundation’s benefit regatta in September. Can you tell the readers about that? KH: It was fun-- I’d done it the year before, too. There were two student-run boats. My boat was me at the helm, then Paul Blatt trimming the foresheets. Gina Brown was our tactician-- she was in the pit, helped with some spinnaker handling, but mostly with hoists and drops. At the mast was Brennan Malone, as the coach. Mostly he was just coaching-but he did some halyard handling when we needed him. In front of him, at the bow, was Elliot Loving. He was perfect for that. He was raised in a sailing family also, really trained-- also he’s small, kind of light weight. He did a great job. On the other student-run boat, there were three students and one Olympic sailor, and Harold Butler, who was their coach. We did a couple of match races against them, beforehand. That was fun. Our boat won, all three times.

Hiking Out: Kenn Hall at the tiller

continued from Page 1 You might say, “Oh well, if the power is out, just get a generator.” A good idea-- if there wasn’t a gas shortage because oil tankers were not being allowed into the harbor. No gas meant that the city was on freeze for days. Gas lines on Long Island were 80-100 cars long, and got very crazy, and in some cases violent, because people were willing to do anything and everything for gas. Stores were unable to receive deliveries, and there were shortages of goods. Also contributing to the handicap of the city was the fact that the day before the storm, at 7 p.m., the MTA shut down both its bus and train service-- a good thing, since the subway tunnels were massively flooded. There was no way to get to any borough other than the one you were in unless you walked, which was also very unlikely since bridges were closed. In an attempt to solve the gas problem Governor Cuomo began gas rationing by license plate number as people had began heading up to Connecticut for gas. FEMA and the National Guard were providing gas to city workers who were emergency responders, and they also went out to evacuated neighborhoods to offer food to those who had stayed, or who were coming back to survey the damage to their lives. Staten Island and the Rockaways were the hardest hit; in some cases neighborhoods were left to fend for themselves for

days with no power or water and little access to food. Those areas are still devastated. Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath highlight the extreme vulnerability of New York City, its Harbor, and its supply chain to natural disaster. NYHS is perfectly positioned, however, to be part of the creative thinking and action that, over the next decades, will have to begin to address these vulnerabilities. The city is slowly getting back on its feet; two days after the storm select busses were running from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and the subways followed three days after. All trains are running again except for the R and 1 line as they suffered the most damage at the stations in downtown Manhattan. Despite all the devastation, however, New Yorkers have a way of coming together, un-mindful of recent misfortunes to make the best of each situation. Neighbors helped each other, and volunteer networks sprang up quickly in the days following the storm. New York Harbor School was closed for longer than most schools, as Governors Island was without power for more than a week; as of this writing there is still no internet service. Astonishingly, though, the storm surge on the Island itself-- despite the fact that it was a record 13-plus feet at the Battery-- stopped just inches from NYHS’ doors. After a brief time of holding classes at Stuyvesant High, the Harbor School returned to its amazingly preserved space on Friday, November 9.

The Aftermath NYHS Staff Respond to Sandy by Cate Hagarty The Rockaways-- On the Saturday following the hurricane, several Harbor School staff biked out to the Far Rockaways to do some work at distribution centers and at individuals' homes pulling out wet sheetrock and drywall that was ruined by Hurricane Sandy. Sandy left her namesake everywhere: sand was piled in parking lots, ravaging roadways and blocking sidewalks. The contents of waterlogged basements needed to be dumped onto the streets; enormous amounts of work needed to be done. People have been permanently displaced, and are largely in need of warmth, both physical and emotional. The place is a wreck. Our first stop was at Beach/138th Street. The sand on the roads alone spoke to the power of the surge that came with Sandy. Major excavation equipment was everywhere, but people were also using snow shovels to help clear out the sand. Roads were totally impassable, and biking was a special challenge. The teacher at whose house at 138th street we were gathering had damage and needed help. He'd grown up in the house. The long-held ties people have to their communities is impressive - people connect with space and attach memories to rooms and buildings and pieces of furniture. How terrible it can be to throw those things out of the garage and start over. Hours of basement work was well spent. Neighbors told us that if we wanted to help more, we should look for houses without mountains of basement stuff in the front yard -- these houses likely belonged to older individuals who had had no help getting the wet and muck out. There was a hum of generators as people were getting their basements pumped out -- just as the city was pumping out the subways, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, and all the other underground passageways we rely so heavily upon.

Then, We Checked Up on a Friend ...at Beach/86th Street. While we waited for her to walk from the shelter to her home, we looked around a little bit. Sandy had lifted the boardwalk; it was now curved around like something out of a Shel Silverstein poem. This Bridge Will Only Take You Halfway There. We took some pictures and, and then our colleague arrived, a woman who lives there and had been evacuated. In order to enter her freezing cold apartment, we had to climb the flights to the 11th floor with flashlights. Although she met us in tears, she happily accepted hugs and high humor and higher hopes: her home was unharmed. Still, she lost her car and they are waiting for FEMA to come do their thing so that they can get back into their apartment building. The ground level is not in such great shape. The parking lot is filled with Sand(y). Next, We Biked ... to a nearby location where a distribution center was being set up... Distribution of food, cleaning supplies, batteries, baby food, simple bars of soap and big plastic trash bags. Hard to fathom how people were making do in this cold weather. With no electricity. Or hot water. Or public transit. Or ... well, let's be honest. Some neighborhoods of the Rockaways are largely ignored by New Yorkers and tourists alike. I’m hoping this disaster has some impact in getting more attention for this community. Tons of Clothes ...were being dumped by the carload, coming in from Manhattan and the more fortunate parts of Queens and Brooklyn. Dozens of volunteers in one place were emptying box after box of dry goods, detergent and rubber gloves, black plastic bags, and oodles of supplies from Target. It was kind of incredible... these were all placed into the hands of people who had had no access to a grocery store for

Ways to Escape Normality by Joy Junious 1. Don’t accept things people tell you at face value. Always look for a deeper meaning. 2. Question authority. 3. Go to college because you want to learn stuff. 4. Don’t sit at a desk to complete a 40 hour work week. Go mix stuff up. 5. Go overseas to other countries a lot, and actually interact instead of staying in some fancy hotel ghetto. Know how people are really living. 6. Don’t buy things you’ll keep paying for for the next 30 years of your life. 7. Learn another language. Everyone won’t learn English. 8. Write an incredible book. 9. Start a business. 10.Do something weird. Draw attention to your sassy self. 11.Don’t jump through hoops and check off boxes. Be impulsive-- go out on a limb! 12.Don’t live the way other people tell you to or expect you to. Defy the odds. Make some people angry. 13.Just be yourself. God made us all for something. Go find your purpose, please, and have fun doing it!

days. Soap, baby diapers, baby food and formula, sandwiches and prepared food on plates for families. We Pulled Up On Bikes ...and somebody joked, "You giving bikes away?" Another woman asked, "You giving that phone away?" as I took a picture. And then she laughed. After a while at the chaotic distribution table, I took a shift inside the church we were working out of and met two women from a Park Slope church: Sandy and Winter. I started calling Sandy "The Good Sandy." They were old school, exhippy, died-in-the-wool volunteer types who knew exactly what they were doing in spite of not being able to turn the oven on to reheat prepared food (the flood waters had come up into the oven but not the stove). We plated rice and beans and chicken onto hundreds of plates for families looking for right-now food as we talked about the oil pipe line that had just been approved to run under our lovely National Gateway Recreation Area. They belonged to an organization called CARP: the Coalition Against the Rockaway Pipeline. Amazing. They were volunteers with an agenda. I can't help but think about the connection between New York's future fracking plans and the energyrelated decisions that might have contributed to this kind of natural disaster.... (By the way, the gas lines are no joke - and I do mean the proposed pipeline, but it's appropriate to mention the blocks and blocks of cars lined up to get gas at every station in Brooklyn.) I Learned a Recipe ...for cooking chicken for big crowds: it will apparently stay good without refrigeration for two days: they key ingredients are vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and sugar. We heated water for cleaning the place on a stove a la girl scout campout days. I was reminded about how good people can be and, finally, how good a plate of salad (which wasn't going as fast) can taste. And So ..this bridge will only take you half way there. There is still so much to do.

Regatta Benefits Harbor Foundation

MSNBC’s Willie Geist on NYHS and the Joys of Morning Joe

continued from Page 1

also benefitted Harbor School’s many after school programs, such as the rowing team and the sailing team. As well, the money raised will aid in building the Marine Sciences and Technology (MAST) Center. This will be the future home of Harbor School’s oyster hatchery and will be a home base for its SCUBA work. Built on the water, the MAST center will also feature docks for Harbor School boats.

Together with the Foundation and its many supporters, the students, staff, and alumni have, over the past decade, been forged into a truly unique part of the New York maritime community. The Harbor School is laying a strong foundation for the next generation of mariners by giving them the tools they will need to be successful in the maritime field. With teachers and involved alumni who have worked or still work in the field, and a rigorous and hands-on educational experience, Harbor School is unique. Boats competed in several classes. The boats with the winners in order for each category were as follows:

by Jasmine Hernandez and Susannah Black During the Harbor Foundation’s Regatta (see p. 1 for reporting), Willie Geist of MSNBC’s Morning Joe show served as the commentator for the race. Geist and the Harbor School’s own Murray Fisher were college classmates at __, and it was through Fisher that he learned about the school and decided to lend his voice and commentary to the regatta.

12 Metre Class: 1. Intrepid - Team Swett included America's Cup sailors Hannah Swett, Melissa Purdy, Dawn Riley - plus Martha Stewart and top sailors from NYYC and beyond. 2. Weatherly - Team BIMI, led by Rob and Gen Lynch. 3. American Eagle - Fishers Island Yacht Club, led by Harbor Foundation Board President Brad Burnham.

Photograph: Lori Hawkins

Hannah Swett, Murray Fisher and Martha Stewart on board winning boat: America’s Cup 12-metre Intrepid

Martha Sails in NY Harbor Foundation Regatta ...and Blogs About It

JH: How would you advise someone who’s interested in broadcast journalism to focus their time in college? Should they do a communications major? WG: I’d say worry less about the technical aspects of communication, and just get smart, do the liberal arts thing, learn about history, learn about politics.

J/24 Spinnaker Class 1. Team Beagle - First-time HSR sailors, led by F. Scott Reed 2. Fifty Shades of Fast - Former Harbor Foundation Board President John Deermount and a team of Lake Hopatcong YC Thistle Fleet Sailors 3. Three Men & A Sailor - A team of lifelong sailors passionate about sharing the life experience of being on the water with others, led by MSC club members.

JH: What’s the best part of your job? WG: The show we do, Morning Joe, you know, I’m sitting around the table with senators, prime ministers, and then we go to a commercial break and that’s when the real story comes out. JH: How did you get interested in the Harbor School? WG: I’d been hearing for fifteen years about how Murray wanted to start a school, something to do with boats, in New York, where there’s all this water, but students aren’t connected with it, and he wanted to change that.

J/24 non-Spinnaker Class 1. Old Dads and the Sea - Jay Markley and his team of "dads" 2. Schooner Trash - Three salty schooner ladies and one ex-merchant marine, led by Harbor

Senior aquaculture class to present at conference Will be staying at Malinowski Oyster Farm

I have become very interested in The Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, a wonderful small public high school located on Governors Island, founded by Murray Fisher. The school partners with New York City’s maritime community and uses New York Harbor’s marine resources to create an extraordinary public high school experience that instills in its students the skills and ethic of environmental stewardship. Harbor School’s mission is to graduate students prepared for success in college and who have earned a technical credential in one of the six marine fields: Aquaculture, Marine Biology Research, Marine Systems Technology, Ocean Engineering, Professional SCUBA diving, and Vessel Operations. Last Thursday I had the thrilling opportunity of sailing in the second annual Harbor School Regatta to benefit the Harbor School. Hannah Swett, one of my Godchildren, who comes from a very famous sailing family, invited me to sail with her and her mother, Ellie Burgess, upon the historic America’s Cup 12-meter boat, Intrepid. I first met Ellie many years ago when were neighbors in New York City. I had many exciting sails with her and her family and learned what I know about sailing from them. Hannah’s sailing credentials include Collegiate all American, multiple world and national champion, Rolex Yachts Woman of the Year, America's Cup Sailor, and was nominated for Rolex World Sailor of the Year. --www.themarthablog.com

by Joy Junious One of the many reasons that I’m excited to be in the Aquaculture program of study is that the Senior Aquaculture class is taking a trip up to Connecticut to go to the National Aquaculture Conference and Exposition both to learn and to share. The conference, which is a combined meeting of the Northeast Aquaculture Conference and Exposition; the Milford Aquaculture Seminar; and the International Conference on Shellfish Restoration, will take place from December 12 to December 15, at the Mystic Mariott in Groton, Connecticut. We will be listening to scientists, aquaculturists, and people interested in shellfish talk about the different things involved in a shellfish science and any projects they may be working on. The students will also be presenting to these same people about the Harbor School’s oyster restoration project, a presentation which students have been preparing for the past few classes. The PowerPoint includes some of the hard facts about Harbor School and a lot of information about oysters and how they impact the Harbor.

The expected plan for the trip is as follows: students will travel by train from Grand Central Station after school on Thursday the 13th to New London, Connecticut. We will then travel by ferry to Fisher’s Island. Thursday night will be presentation practice and preparation, and then breaking off into houses (a boy’s house and a girl’s house). Accommodations are courtesy of Pete and Sofie Malinowski’s parents Sarah and Steve Malinowski. The Malinowski household also includes the oyster farm that Pete and Sofie and their siblings grew up on, which is still open for business. Friday morning the aquaculturists will go over by ferry to mainland Connecticut, and then by taxi to the conference and stay there almost all day. We will come home (yes, home to the Malinowski Oyster Farm) and rest up because Saturday is the day that students get up and make presentations. After presentations on Saturday we will have to wave goodbye to the oyster farm until the Spring.

Students’ Voices

Princeton Mentors for Seniors by Joy Junious

Photograph by Susannah Black

Quentin Crandle (L) and Naquan Sanders

The Water Wakes You Up: Seniors Reflect on their Harbor School Experience When the Harbor Current came across Quentin Crandle and Naquan Sanders, Crandle was practicing heaving a line, trying to get a heavy rope up over the balcony railing near the school garden. Harbor Current: Tell me about your New York Harbor School experience. Quentin Crandle (senior): I’m in the Marine Systems and Technology CTE, but I want to change to Vessel Ops. That hasn’t happened yet, though. I love Vessel Ops, and I get as much experience as I can-- when we’re driving the Indy 7 [NYHS’ school power boat], I help out. I like driving the boats, handling the lines, that kind of thing. Naquan Sanders (senior): I’m in the Vessel Ops CTE, and If I have anything I need done with Vessel Ops, the first thing in my mind is “Ask Q.” We work together. Crandle: We’re like brothers. HC: What do you learn about in Vessel Ops and its programs? Sanders: Operating the boats safely... Crandle [with relish]: Man overboard drills. Sanders: We get a lot of experience. I’ve had my turn at driving the Staten Island Ferry, the Water Taxi, and the NY Waterways boats. Crandle: I get experience, even though I’m not in the CTE. Aaron [Singh, who is in charge of the Vessel Ops CTE and its associated programs], me and him, we drive the Indy 7 a lot; so when he needed people to take the fishing club out today after school, he asked Naquan and me.

Sanders: We’ve taken them out before, too: Last week, we had an overnight-- just for the seniors. We pulled an all-nighter-- I didn’t get any sleep.

Governors Island-- An important part of being a senior and applying to college is (and you guessed it) writing your personal statement or personal essay. That can be, and often is, a very hard part of the process, and help is always greatly appreciated. Well, lucky for a few seniors the Princeton mentorship program was started up to --and I quote-- “mentor and assist seniors through the college essay writing process.” “It’s a program where Harbor School students, seniors, are paired with a Princeton mentor,” said college advisor Emily Rotando. The program has several benefits, Rotando continues. It offers students who participate “the opportunity to have a on-going conversation about the college conversation, about the college essay writing process, with a student who has recently done it . It provides a mentor in the Princeton student. They also have workshops and [Harbor School students get] exposure to college and campus life.” Who can participate in the program? Who are the Princetonians who are mentoring the NYHS students? Rotando explained that “it’s mostly sophomores and juniors mentoring, but it’s all college levels. The founders are two sophomores.” From a student point of view the program is an eye opener. Ameena Peters, a senior, said “it has helped me, opened up new ideas and a whole new world of the writing process.”

Crandle: We studied a lot, we were writing, typing essays-- it was to finish up our college applications-but we had fun, too. It was meant to simulate a college night. That was Thursday night, and on Friday, the seniors were allowed to leave on the noon ferry, but we decided to stay-Sanders [scrupulously]: Well, Aaron said we had to stay. Crandle: Well, yeah... to help take the kids out. Sanders: I was so tired. But when I got out on the water I woke up. Crandle: That’s one thing about the water. It wakes you up. HC: You’re seniors-Sanders: Unfortunately. HC: What do you think about the school? Sanders: This is an amazing place to be. Compared to how it was when I was in Junior High... this is a different lifestyle. I talk to my friends in other schools, their day is boring. I do all these different things in my day... Crandle: Honestly, how many schools have a SCUBA program? Sanders: How many schools have an island? HC: What are your plans for after graduation? Sanders: For me, the Coast Guard. Crandle: I’m considering the Navy. But engineering or vessel operations... I’m still not sure.

Photograph: Susannah Black

Quentin Crandle Heaves a Line

Sandy’s Ongoing Impact

NYHS Community Members Respond to Sandy by Joy Junious Soon after the student body returned to Governors Island, the Harbor Current asked students and staff to describe their thoughts and experiences surrounding the storm.

Tiffani Ortoneda: "I felt like we were not prepared enough because the magnitude was so huge and unexpected, [and] also because of [the false alarm that occurred last year with tropical storm] Irene."

Marc Rivera: "I feel that the hurricane had a strong impact to our economy, friends and family. My special feelings involve a huge amount of sympathy for those affected."

Joseph Murphy

( College Adviser):

"What happened to me was I lost power for a few days but that was nothing compared to everything else. I've donated clothes and supplies and helped family members that were trapped."

Justin Rivera: Photograph: Public Domain/Inverclyde Views

Bounty leaving Greenock, Scotland, on the River Clyde

Bounty, 2 crew lost at sea --Continued from page 1 following day, Sunday, ninety miles off the coast of North Carolina, Bounty’s distress beacon went off. At that point she had no propulsion and no pumps. She went down in 18-foot seas. The journey was hard for the crew. The whole time, the ship was being hit with waves and heavy rain. Soon she had several feet of water in her. Even then, owner Bob Hansen told CNN, “it wasn’t considered an emergency, even though they had several feet of water inside the boat.” That amount of water in the boat normally would not cause a problem but somehow power was lost on the boat. All the engines went and without power there was no way to pump water out of the ship. After a while, as water accumulated, “they just couldn’t stay afloat any more,” said Hansen. Bounty’s last reported position was 33°54′ N 73°50′ W. Captain Robert Waldridge (63) contacted the Coast Guard for rescue on the afternoon of October 29, indicating that the crew was preparing to abandon ship. He employed a radio-based email service, as satellite phones and the Maritime Mobile Net had by that point failed due to the storm. Coast Guard rescue helicopters were in the area within the hour. Fourteen crew-members made it to the lifeboats, one of them after being swept overboard. But there was originally sixteen people on board. Captain Robin Waldridge (63), and Claudene Christian (42), deckhand never made it to the life boats. They were swept away by a wave over the side. Christian, who according to some sources was a direct descendent of Fletcher Christian, the original Bounty mutineer, had just joined the crew. Her body

was found quickly, but Coast Guard cutters searched for the captain for another three days before the search was suspended on November 1. Built in 1960 as a replica of the famous 1787 Royal Navy ship, Bounty’s home port was Greenport, Long Island. She was the first such replica built, and inspired the building of others such as the HMS Rose. She had made appearances in several Hollywood movies, including the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty, for which she was commissioned, and two of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. She was also used for sail training and excursions. It was estimated that the boat was valued at 4.3 million dollars. Her owner had been attempting to sell her since 2010, with multiple interested parties but no committed buyers. She was scheduled for a public display in Florida on November 10, and possibly this was a major factor in the decision whether to stay in port or go out to sea.

Photograph: Public Domain/Invernock Views

Lookout on board Bounty, Scotland

"I went to the supermarket to get bread and there wasn't anything there."

Oysters lend a shell to Harbor resilience -- Continued from page 2 There is a wrong assumption that oysters are supposed to stop the waves, which won’t happen, because nothing (at least no bivalve) can stop a 13 ft storm surge. However oysters will slow down the waves and break off some of the wave energy. Instead of trying to use concrete and bulk heads to stop the waves we should use oysters to slow down waves and lessen the impact that they will have. Following the storm, Governor Andrew Cuomo gave several speeches in which he talked about the need to increase the city’s resiliency, to prepare for more such events in the future. It seems like, said Cuomo, “we have a 100-year flood every two years now...These are extreme weather patterns. The frequency has been increasing.” Discussing the possibility of building protections like levees in the Harbor, he said that “It is something we’re going to have to start thinking about... The construction of this city did not anticipate these kinds of situations. We are only a few feet above sea level.” The hunt is on for solutions. Governor Cuomo needs not to fret, because oysters are here to save the day. Two shells are all that they need!

NYHS/New York Maritime Community Events Winter, 2013 Sunday

December 16

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Christmas Eve School Closed

Christmas Day School Closed

School Closed

January 1

4 Greenmarket @SI

1957: NY Giants Win NFL Championship

School Closed

New Year’s Day School Closed 1874: NYC annexes the Bronx

Greenmarket @Bowling Green

Ferry Terminal 1865: NYSE opens perm location at Broad Street nr Wall

1861: 250 Federal Troops sent from NYC to Fort Sumter

BG Greenmarket

SIF Greenmarket

On the Road to Resilience: Municipal Art Soc. Post-Sandy Conference 9a-4p

BG Greenmarket

SIF Greenmarket

Post-Sandy Redux: MWA conversation at Newtown Creek

Bowling G/SI Ferry Greenmarkets

Bowling G/SI Ferry Greenmarkets 2009: USAir Flight 1546 lands in Hudson

Martin Luther King Day/School Closed

Bowling G/SI Ferry Greenmarkets

BG Greenmarket

Regents

Regents 1943: Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall

SIF Greenmarket Regents 1925: 1st issue of “New Yorker” pub.

Full Moon

Fall Term Ends No School Chancellor’s Conference Day

Bowling G/SI Ferry Greenmarkets Spring Term Begins

2 1979: -52 F (record state low temp)

BG Greenmarket

Bowling G/SI Ferry Greenmarkets

February 1

BG Greenmarket

Bowling G/SI Ferry Greenmarkets

Regents

9 1942: SS Normandie burns in NY Harbor

BG Greenmarket

SIF Greenmarket

Midwinter Recess Schools Closed

Schools Closed Bowling G/SI Ferry Greenmarkets

Schools Closed

Schools Closed BG Greenmarket

Schools Closed SIF Greenmarket

March 1

Full Moon

Working Harbor Committee Gala Bowling G/SI Ferry Greenmarkets

1860: Lincoln delivers Cooper Union Address

BG Greenmarket

SIF Greenmarket