Round the Girdled Earth

Floating Classrooms

The sun rose over the Makulu II as she lay at anchor in the Galapagos, and crewmates Heather Halstead '97 and Todd Parment '95 woke to study the latest stop in their floating classroom. The Makulu II is the 43-foot flagship of the Reach the World Project, a program designed to bring the crew's adventures into U.S. classrooms via the internet.

After its trans-Pacific crossing, the Makulu II will make landfall in Australia, South Africa, South America, and the Caribbean before heading home in June 1999. Halstead— who has taught in inner-city New Orleans, the backwoods of Colorado, and on the kenva savanna—came up with the idea while in her final terms on the Hanover plain.

The website is packed with photos and log entries describing the cultures the crew visited during its 16 month journey.

Another Dartmouth ship circling the globe in the cause of education is the sloop First Light. crewed by Michael Wexler '95 and '94s Mike Litter, Damone Tassone. and Jason Stern. During an 18-month circumnavigation this team, dubbed The Ledvard Group, is volunteering environmental educational services to seaside communities.

In this, the International Year of the Oceans, the First Light will organize beach and harbor clean-ups and sponsor appreciations for the world's threatened oceans. At last sighting the crew was at the Panama Canal Yacht Club awaiting clearance to transit the Panama Canal.

To check in with the First Light and its crew, surf to for log entries and photos.

Halstead, left and Parment, second from left, circumnavigate the globe.