On the cold and rainy day of January 30, 2006,10 girls began the semester-long adventure of Tall Ships Semester for Girls. Many people did not know each other and we had girls from all over the place but nevertheless, on the first day, we were learning the core skills of friendship building, teamwork, and communication.

By Tuesday and Wednesday, we had already grown so much as a group that it felt like we had known each other for months, even years. On the day of our "funeral of fears," we discovered the darker side of one another's lives and gained a deeper insight on each others feelings and opinions.

Thursday, we worked as a support team for one another at the Fort Miley Ropes/Recreation Area and proved ourselves to be strong and capable girls. We speak with each other and communicate our needs so expressively already, it is intriguing to think of how we will continue to grow over the next 17 weeks of the program to come.

Written by Mercedes Scott-Fowler 

The second week of TSSG brought more comfort and friendship among all the girls, but didn’t quell all of our fears and anxiety about the upcoming experience. Monday and Tuesday we continued to chart out courses and directions in navigation, completely sprawled out on the floors and tables of our classroom. As we struggled through the problem sets, we all apologized to each other ahead of time for getting each other lost on Spirit. In English, we discussed the importance and relevance in Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, realizing for the first time the huge impact we would make on the islands as tourists.

Wednesday we had our first lesson in using video cameras with Alana. We were taught the logistics of how to use a camera, the different shots we could use, and interviewing techniques. My video group harassed people around campus asking them questions about the personal affects of tourism and tourists in the city. Thursday brought our second class with Vincent on communicating effectively; it was an insightful and powerful class and just made all of us love Vincent even more. He stressed the importance of distinguishing the difference between casual communication and inter-personal communication. He will continue to give us lessons on how we can learn to communicate in the most productive ways, keeping in mind these two types of communication.

Friday, the highlight of the week, brought extreme excitement and reality to us, as we realized what we were actually going to embark on! We visited the ruins of a ship called the Candace that was buried 30 feet below a construction site in San Francisco. We all gaped in awe, as Jim Allan, our historian friend pulled the plastic covers away to reveal a beautiful piece of history. He told us of the history of the boat, and gave us insight into a time period where many more like the Candace existed in our very own San Francisco Bay. We grabbed lunch, and then headed off to the Academy of Sciences. There we observed many forms of marine life, from a huge, five-foot fish, to miniature lobsters. Ashley Conrad-Sadayah, a professional from the museum, guided us over to the snakes just in time to see an anaconda snatch a huge rat from the man feeding it and spring back into the water, all in about half a second. We were all flinching at the thought for the rest of the day.

Our last and probably most powerful stop was visiting the Balclutha on Hyde Street Pier. While some of us experienced Claustrophobia or anxiety, we were all mostly excited as we explored this huge ship. As soon as we stepped on the ship, we smelled an unusual scent that Marcos described as the smell of the Spirit” While it made some of us nauseas, the smell made me smile because I knew that in the six weeks of our voyage, I would grow to love and become this smell. We were so excited as we mimicked gestures seen in the movie Titanic while the wind was blowing through our hair. Tasting salt on my tongue, I wanted to set sail, right then and there.

The ending of our week with this field trip left me very aware of the experience that I am so close to living.

Written by Christine Fong

This week was really fun, but the highlight of the week was the Friday fieldtrip. We went to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve to look at the invertebrates we have been studying in class in their natural habitat. While doing our assignment, we saw this one big crab that, after accidentally dropping my water bottle in the water, tried to attack me when I tried to get it back. There was a group of us screaming Nettie's name so she could see the crab, but she couldn't hear us. So we were screaming and laughing at the same time. We also saw. My partner, Jane, and I were looking at sea anemones that look like a clump of sand on a rock. Jane decided to touch one and it squirted water at us. We also saw a bunch of hermit crabs, 2 different species of sponges, purple sea urchins, nudibranchs, chitons, shrimp, an eel, some mussels, a dead jellyfish, tunicates, and a BUNCH of barnacles. It was a great field trip full of sunshine and observations!

Jamilyah Assad