Day 1 S/V Denis Sullivan – Bruce’s View August 13,2017
North Point Water Tower stands near Lake Michigan (Credit: Melinda Larson-Horne)
The sunrise was beautiful with blue skies and a slight breeze! At least that was the view from my dorm room in Milwaukee early this morning:) We are still on shore and I am bursting with excitement to board the S/V Denis Sullivan which happens in 11 hours and 47 minutes if we are on schedule! A short bike ride this morning gave me a view of Lake Michigan and the “Old North Point Water Tower” that helped provide water to residents of Milwaukee in 1873.
Now over 140 years later we spent most of our day taking a careful look at how important that water is, the ways that it impacts our lives and how we make an impact on it.
We spent time today learning basics about how lakes function as well as how those basic principles can be influenced by the introduction of new organisms like Quagga Mussels or the addition of phosphates that were supposed to be growing corn or helping us wash our clothes. Science often starts simple and gets messy fast but we can use simple equipment to collect data that helps us better understand the Great Lakes and make wise decisions on how we live! So like those NASA scientists trying to save Apollo 13 we grabbed panty hose, coat hangers, and a bit of duct tape and proceeded to build plankton nets to sample tiny organisms during our trip. Well, time to sleep fast as we begin our day about 6:30 AM tomorrow morning.
Great minds at work! Kris, Jessica and Eric building a plankton net.