Ask a co-worker to pass the crab at an after-hours gathering and it likely arrives on a cracker with a dusting of Old Bay Seasoning. Beginning this spring, such a request in Norwalk might lead to a pinch on the fingers.
Now undergoing sea trials, the 64-foot R/V Spirit of the Sound ”” R/V for research vessel ”” purchased in September by The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, will soon become available for business cruises. The boat begins with weekends in May and jumps to daily trips this summer with Friday night social cruises planned. Its capacity is 60, with a crew of 10.
- The Spirit of the Sound. Photo courtesy The Maritime Aquarium
The twin-hulled catamaran is built to accommodate educational and social outings, according to aquarium spokesman Dave Sigworth. He said a typical trip will run about 2 1/2 hours out into the Long Island Sound. The Spirit of the Sound”™s $2.7 million price tag was covered entirely by private and philanthropic donations.
The Spirit of the Sound replaces a 40-foot diesel trawler, R/V Oceanic, which could accommodate 29 passengers. Sigworth said the Oceanic was, by its diesel nature, a loud boat, but Spirit of the Sound is powered by a hybrid diesel-battery system where the batteries are charged by the engines. Sigworth said the hope is to complete the cruises entirely on battery power. Once dockside, the boat can be plugged in to recharge.
“By not making a lot of noise, we”™re practicing what we preach,” Sigworth said. “This is a much quieter boat. I think it demonstrates The Maritime Aquarium”™s leadership in this area and how to do it well.”
Among the species the boat will catch for study and then release are skates, squid, dogfish sharks and four kinds of crab: horseshoe, blue, spider and rock. “We sort them out,” Sigworth said. “Blue crabs are the ones you see swimming near piers. They pinch pretty hard.”
The Spirit of the Sound is also equipped with a robot with a camera to explore wrecks and octopuses”™ gardens. But the views will not be the ones TV viewers have come to expect from the Titanic. The Long Island Sound is rich with plankton, Sigworth said, which prevents crystal-clear, long-shot views such as are available 2 miles down.
The boat is now docked at the Cove Marina in Norwalk. It will move to the aquarium dock, which is undergoing renovations, this spring.
While it obscures, the plankton is also the basic nourishment at the bottom of the food chain. When plankton die, waters become so-called dead zones, victims of low oxygen levels: hypoxia. Sigworth said “just about the entire state” and all 11,260 square miles of the watershed of the Connecticut River between the sound and Quebec send rain and snow water to the sound. Thousands of acres of lawns, agriculture and golf courses add their fertilizers to the mix, feeding algae and helping to set the stage for dead zones.
Sigworth said a ride on the boat comes with the message that we are all stewards of the sound. “Anyone who is within the sound”™s watershed is responsible for its health, so no one feels responsible,” he said. He drew a line between a fertilizer-applying homeowner and a Chinese proverb wherein no single drop of water feels responsibility for a flood.
“This boat will double the business of the previous boat and double the awareness people gain by going out,” he said.
The number for business cruise inquiries is 203-852-0700, ext. 2206.
