This was the last full week of school. Stress and excitement filled the air and everyone’s nerves were on edge. We were closer to our departure and everyone still had shopping to do as well as work to do in the class and outside.

Our biggest challenge this week was boot camp which we had we had double time on Monday and Wednesday. It left our bodies sore because we do a series of exercises focusing on our upper body and arm strength. This is all so we can have big muscles to haul on the lines on the voyage.

On Friday we also had the woman’s breakfast, a big event for which we had a great turn out. We had planned for this event for weeks and I was very excited to have it actually happen. At the breakfast we had many women from all different fields of jobs in the bay area. We were spilt up into smaller groups and interviewed the woman. This event was a great benefit to us in so many ways. I would like to thank all the woman that took the time to come that morning.

The breakfast was a great start to the day, but no one expected the Friday afternoon to turn out like it did. After the breakfast we cleaned up and headed straight to the Hyde street pier for our regular sailing in small boats. Today’s sailing was not regular at all. Let’s just say that some of the girls went home unusually wet. I think you can imagine what happened. One of the small boats was doing a turn called a jibe, one of the most dangerous turns you can make in a sailboat. It happens very quickly!. A big heavy puff of wind hit the sail causing the boat to tip over and with all the weight on one side of the boat it tipped over and all the girls fell into the 50 degree water. They tried to climb on the boat on the high side but it didn’t work. All you could hear were screams but the safety boat was there in a quickly to help the swimmers back into the boat. They climbed aboard and rode to safety back to the dock. Overall this week was filled with lots of excitement and we are looking forward to more to come on our voyage.

Ife Cook

This week, being the last week before we leave, all of us are stricken with immense amounts of crazed feelings and thoughts. From anxiousness to eagerness and from fear to empowerment, we've got all of 'em pushing to overcome us like a duffle bag that is readily bursting at the seams. The vicissitudes of the mood as a whole and the various moods of the individual are, at times, perplexing in regards to keeping them tightly knit in seemless harmony. We are experiencing understandable chaos, in our minds and in our hearts. No one knows what to expect, except to expect the unexpected.

Ryan Marks

Well, the time has finally arrived!! Today we will be leaving for Puerto Rico. I think there is some confusion as to what to feel. Should we be excited or nervous? I think the overall feeling is, EXCITED!!! We have been preparing for this trip for 6 weeks now by fundraising, taking classes, bonding and sailing. However, I still have a hard time believing that the time has come, that I will be in the Caribbean tomorrow. I suppose time will solve this reality. Yesterday, we cleaned out the classroom of all our work at S.F. State and gave it a kiss good-bye. Last night, we brought our families to ChevyÕs to celebrate our departure and as a last minute fundraiser. All the families got to meet each other and it was a successful evening. I look forward to the weeks to come and bon voyage!

Journal: San Juan,  22 March 2006

Around ten o’clock last night we stood at the entrance to gate 90 at the SFO airport and said our good byes to our families and the familiarities of San Francisco. After what had seemed to be a long and challenging first six weeks, it was finally time for us to face the real challenge, the ship.

We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico around noon, eight a.m. for all of you in the Bay Area, and so our journey began. Upon checking into our hostel for the night, right in the port of San Juan, we were given a couple of hours to explore our new home in the Caribbean Sea. Though we did not get to board the ship we were able to gather a sense of how we would be living for the next six weeks just by looking at the crew. The ship is amazing, all one hundred and twenty five feet of it. Although it may have looked like an ant compared to all of the cruise ships that surrounded the piers in San Juan, most of us agreed that “we’d rather be sailing” than cruising.

During our time spent exploring the port we were stunned to see the amount of urbanization that existed in San Juan. A lot of us were disappointed to see businesses like Target and Walgreen’s, because it felt as if we had never left San Francisco. On the other hand Mia, Ife and I had taken advantage of the day and visited a small fish market at the edge of the pier. We had stumbled upon this one man fish market while looking for a place to dip our feet in the water. We were greeted by a sweet black and white sheep dog mix and sign that said “beware of dog” in red writing. We saw two men at the end of a small dock ahead of us, and heard two other Spanish speaking voices coming from a room further to the left. When we asked if we could sit on their dock they kindly invited us in to the market, so that we wouldn’t have to walk through the mud that separated the store from the dock. The two men had been in the middle of gutting and scaling their fish and were more than happy to introduce us to their way of living. They told us about the different types of fish they had caught and what they were doing g to prepare them. They told us about how and when they went fishing and showed us their dock. At the same time they were really interested in our lives and our purpose for being in San Juan. They asked us questions and let us take pictures of them preparing the fish. My experience in San Juan was amazing. It was refreshing to see the little cultural aspects of Puerto Rico that lay beneath the cement surface. I can’t believe how much more there is in store for us. Today was truly wonderful.

Christina Marquez

Journal: March 23, 2006

I’m stretched out in my bunk with my arms spread out and I’m not squished or uncomfortable at all. In the beginning of the program one of our biggest worries was about how small the bunks would be. We thought they would be coffin sized just like the bunks on the Balclutha because the girls from last year had told us stories. I assumed that the bigger the ship, the bigger the bunks, but I guess I was wrong. Everyone, for the most part, is comfortable in their bunks, with enough room for their feet and shoulders.

Today we finally boarded the Spirit of Massachusetts and everyone was excited. Before boarding the ship, we had to interview 3 people per group as practice for our country research project and we had to find 10 interesting facts about the Fort El Morro. The view was so beautiful. All you saw was beautiful translucent bluish-greenish water and coastline. After Fort El Morro and lunch, we headed over to the Spirit. We were excited to finally start our adventure. We were also excited because we knew that the Spirit would be our home for the next 6 weeks. We got acquainted with the crew and went over some basic rules then we had an orientation. We also got numbers for counting off and found out what our watches were. Afterwards, we put up an awning, a large sail looking piece of fabric shaped like the top of the tent to keep some of the sun out. Then we had to tie it down. After all of that, we had dinner! Spaghetti with salad and garlic bread. We got to eat on deck and watch the sun set on the beautiful coast of Puerto Rico. Then some people went on watch, cleaned dishes, while the others chilled out on deck. Marcos, Mesha, and I were on deck singing and having a ball while others were still setting up their bunks, putting up their gear hammocks, and unpacking their clothes. Then we had an “All hands on deck” muster and talked about the watch schedule for the night. We all have anchor shifts for an hour, so people began to rush and hurry up and finish anything we had to do before lights out at 2200 or 10:00pm.

Jamilyah Assad

Journal: 24 March 2006

Waking up on the deck of the ship in the middle of San Juan harbor, I realized that I had a big day ahead of me. I had 0600 watch. Watch is when each of us at had one hour shifts and had to plot out three visual bearings every 30 minutes using a compass to figure out if we drifted or if the anchor moved. If our bearings were off by more than 10 degrees, we had to alert Ms. Falby, the 2nd Mate, because that much change might mean the boat was dragging anchor.

Throughout the day we each had different chores to do, such as cleaning the head, swabbing the deck, cleaning the soles, and cleaning bulkheads. We also had to set up an area to wash dishes after each meal and then clean the galley. Though it may not seem like much, it is a lot of work. Gratefully after the chores are finished, we have a short break to drink water and catch our breath. After chores, we have breakfast and then it’s back to work. Today our work was to learn how to man the sails and tie knots. We also learned the names of each line and what exactly is its purpose.

Although the day ended with Spirit still anchored in San Juan harbor, it was a smooth ending with dinner, class, and either free time or naps for those who were getting ready for the next anchor watch tonight.

Mesha Drew

Journal: 25 March 2006

Today we set sail for Culebra at around 6 am. We had to raise the anchor using the windless, which is what helps get the 700 pound anchor on deck. Four people have to crank it, and it took us about three or four turns per person. We then set the sails, and at that very moment, we, as a harmonious team of rookie sailors, embarked upon the journey we had been anticipating for months.

Roughly two hours after parting with the Old San Juan harbor, a plague of sea sickness hit most of us like a bat hits a homerun ball. Many of us still haven’t recovered. Later, Sarah, a deckhand, spotted three bottle nose dolphins swimming along the side of the boat. Nearly all of us ran, both sick and well alike, to the starboard side of the ship and watched as the dorsal fins teased us, poking gently through swells, but never fully divulging the beauty of what we hoped to see.

Later in the afternoon, I stood at midships and looked at the full 360 horizon. I saw the magnificence of nothing, which I had never seen prior to the trip, and left me in a speechless, jaw-dropped daze.

As night began to swallow the horizon, the stars poked through the blanket of blackness as if they were drops of water permeating the sky. Tonight marks the first full day of sailing, which leaves us with vast horizons, both literally and figuratively, ahead.

Ryan Marks

Journal: 26 March 2006

Our third full day aboard Spirit was a day of sunburn, tropical guppies, and scrubbing. We arrived at our anchorage near the island of Culebra (off the east coast of Puerto Rico) late last night. Our morning consisted of the usual: haul water on board for dishes, eat, then scrub the dishes, followed by brass scrubbing, sole (the floor below deck) scrubbing, deck scrubbing, and using the bow and stern falls to lower our two smaller boats that would take us to the snorkeling spot. Once these were safely in the water and we had carefully furled all the sails, we hauled water aboard for lunch, eat, and scrub dishes again.

A few of us elected to swim from Spirit to a small, sandy spit that juts out from Culebra. The rest of the students, and our day packs, traveled across the short stretch of water on the Gordita, a small inflatable that runs us to shore. From there it’s a five minute walk across the spit to a snorkeling reef, only recently recovered from bombing. It was here that we saw innumerable amounts of small, tropical guppies running to and fro amongst the coral.

We returned ‘home’ around five o’clock in the afternoon or 1700 as we call it here. Immediately after we hauled ourselves out of the boat, more scrubbing began. Any and all sand that had followed us back (and a lot had) from the beach had to be washed away and scrubbed away before dinner. Once again, the amazing Mr. Hunter, filled us with delicious food. Not enough good things can be said about him.

As I write this, its 2144, or 9:44pm. My watch is in 15 minutes and I’m nauseous from being below decks to write this. A few minutes ago, I had to ask a fellow student how to spell ‘beach.’ Turns out its b-e-a-c-h, not b-e-e-c-h. Anyway, turns out I can’t really think coherently so I’m gonna lie down for five before the responsibility of the boat falls to my hands on my next watch.

Mia Robertson
 

Journal: March 27, 2006

Today we set our sails and went underway, good bye Culebra and soon hello Montserrat. The estimated time of arrival is 36-40 hours with around 195 nautical miles to sail.

The day started out with our regular morning clean up before breakfast. My watch which is B watch had to do brasso which means we had to brass and buff the helm, compass and other things that are brass. Once Spirit looked good, we set sail, hauled back the anchor and sailed away.

Everyday we have two classes during the day. This morning, we had a short history class and later on in the day we had a seamanship class where we learned basic knots like the half hitch, slippery hitch, bowline and many more. Today we also had our first safety drill which was a man over board drill. In this drill the 2nd Mate threw a buoy over the side to represent a person going overboard and whoever saw it happen yells man over board and a LOUD horn blows 3 times. On the first day on Spirit, we learned that each watch has a different job in this drill and within your watch you have a specific job to do. In my watch I do sail handling. With everyone working together, we were able to retrieve our man overboard. Once the drill was over we all mustered up and talked about the drill. The caption said it took us 13min which was pretty good for our first time. The only problem was that some people forgot their jobs which is not good at all. So now in our watches that’s what were working on to memorize. The Captain says we will be doing different safety drills at least once a week.

Ife Cook

Journal: March 28, 2006

At sea in between Montserrat and Vieques

I was awoken by someone tapping my shoulder telling me to wake up. It was 2340 (or 11:40pm) and time for another night watch. I rolled out of my bunk and grabbed an apple on my way up on deck. We were on our way to Montserrat, trying to sail in very little wind. I started the watch off by putting on a harness and going to Bow Watch. I looked out for lights, boats, or any change of weather. I looked over the side of Spirit every now and then and stared at the bioluminescent plankton that seemed to play by our side. After the hour was up, our watch rotated and I became in charge of boat checks. In between checking water levels, heads, and everything else, we found time to walk through and practice our lines. We went through each part of Spirit and named each line that was hung on a pin and named its purpose. I then went to the helm where I was ordered to steer a course of 130 degrees. The four hours passed quickly enough, and before I knew it I was back in my bunk for a quick nap before someone was shaking me awake for breakfast.

Breakfast was the beginning of another long and tiring day. Our first class of the day was directed by Captain Smith. She told us some of the recent weather conditions and told us that there would be some serious swells coming from the North. This would mean that we could get to Montserrat, and may not be able to stay anchored there in the harbor. Captain Smith set us to work plotting a new course, where we would back track, and go back to Vieques. Each watch had their charts and we discussed which way we should sail to Vieques given the current weather, wind direction, swells and points of sail. For the most part, each watch came up with the same plan – to sail south of St. Croix and then head northwest toward Vieques. We reported our plans back to the Captain at the end of class and immediately after our navigation class, we changed our course and steered back toward Puerto Rico and Vieques. After lunch, we had our first official English class with Marcos. We went back to discussing Annie John and the importance of growing into a young woman. We talked about body-image, pressure to be popular, and the overall difficulties of growing up. We listened, and tried to mimic a classroom setting under the scorching sun and blowing wind. By the end of class, most of us were ready to fall into a deep sleep. And most of us did just that.

But I was back on Bow Watch.

Christine Fong

Journal: March 29, 2006

Circumnavigating Saint Croix on the way to Vieques

We have changed course. Now on our way to Vieques, I awake at midnight (0000) to a surprisingly calm sea. When I arrive on deck for my watch which runs to 0400, I soon realize that we are not moving very fast because the wind has died down considerably since I went to sleep a few hours ago. The sky is hazy, so I can’t even stare at the stars while idle; I have to be content with my world narrowed down to a small cup of hot chocolate.

Whilst on bow watch, I can scarcely stay awake for I am exhausted; finally the harrowing four hours are over and my watch is relieved. It seemed only seconds since I had fallen asleep when I was woken up for breakfast at 0800. Soon afterward, it was time for history class at 1000, and in regards to our country research projects we established that we had to learn about Vieques before we went ashore there. When I got back on watch at 1200, we had to clean up after everyone ate lunch, set the jib sail (the foremost sail) and prepare to gibe, or turn the stern through the wind. Gibing is an extremely technical thing to do, especially on a tall ship and there are many, many lines to pull or ease all at the same time. Right around class time at 1400, as if in purposeful distraction, we spotted a marine mammal, a gorgeous small sperm whale which we believed to be female because of its some what small size. After the sperm whale left us, we commenced to our navigation/weather/factoid reports and discovered that we were only about 9 nautical miles away from our anchorage at Vieques. The weather reports had not been very accurate for they predicted showers and strong winds, neither of which were physically present, and a few useful Spanish phrases to use whilst on the islands.

We arrive!!! Finally after 3 days at sea, we get to Vieques and the crew tells us that if we strike and furl sail fast enough before dinner we can go for a quick swim right off of our ship before dinner. Let me tell you, the water was great and relaxing even if we were only in it for about 15 minutes. After getting out of the warm, salty swell of the ocean, we had to rush to clean up our bunks and living area because an English teacher form the high school here in Vieques was coming to board our ship and check it out. In the end, she never went down below so our frantic attempts to clean up our bunks were in vain. I came up on deck one last time for anchor watch with Christina for one hour, which is probably the most relaxed I’ve felt so far on this trip. As we were taking our bearings to make sure we weren’t drifting on our anchorage, the boat rocked gently, and there was music playing in the background. Christina said that she would request to hear the Redemption song by Bob Marley if she were where the music was and lo and behold the powers that be granted her requested and soon we were listening to one of reggaes most known and talented artists, Bob Marley, which just put everything in perspective for me. Even if the going gets rough, you should just go with the ebb and flow of the tides and be cool with change and hardship, because they are just a part of life. Reggae induces this feeling of utter relaxation and now I know that I can go to bed content, thinking about reggae and the relaxing rhythms and beats of reggae wafting from the island to settle into my ears on the Spirit of Massachusetts.

Mercedes Letitia Scott-Fowler

Journal: March 30, 2006
Anchored in Vieques

Our first day in Vieques! From the ship the coast looks beautiful. It is covered in white, sandy beaches, and foresty hills. For the past couple days I have been fighting off a fever and I am now nearly recovered. It took me awhile to adjust to the climate and motion sickness, but I think my body is finally accepting these changes and I am excited to explore this island.

This morning we woke at 0700 to do our morning chores. After chores, we had a highly competitive pin chase. This was a test among the three watches to see who knew all of the lines on the boat the best. A watch won (that’s okay B watch, third times the charm, right?) and then we hurried off to explore the island and do some interviews for our country project.

I fell in love with Vieques. It had cultural spice and real world atmosphere. Unlike Old San Juan with Wendy’s and Walgreens at every corner, Vieques didn’t even have an internet café. Horror! There was reggae music playing all around and lots of people our age. I tried conch for the first time, it was delicious. Conch pastillos have a red seafood curry, they are breaded and then fried. Many of the people I talked to were back from New York and they made some interesting comparisons between America and Vieques. All of them said that there just weren’t many opportunities in Vieques.

After a day’s adventures in Vieques we returned to the ship to await a group of high school students who wanted a tour of our ship. This ended up not happening and we were disappointed, however quickly relieved when we got word of the bioluminescent bays that we would be visiting in the evening. The bioluminescent bay was AMAZING! They were other worldly. For those who don’t know, bioluminescent plankton are single celled organisms called dinoflagellates. They glow when they are irritated by motion in the water. The bioluminescent bay in Vieques, called Puerto Mosquito, is one of only a few such bays in the world where the concentration of the dinoflagellates is so high that the water appears to glow with blue-green light. Tonight was a new moon so the darkness of the night made the glowing more intense as we kayaked and swam in the Bay. If you can imagine, every movement you made would shimmer clouds of light green. It was like swimming in stars.

Jane Marque

Journal: March 31, 2006
Anchored in Vieques.

A two hour walk around the air-conditioned Vieques Conservation and Historical Trust of Esperanza, sipping ice cold water -- that has now become an extreme luxury – marked the beginning of our second day ashore in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Mark, the biologist at the conservatory was kind enough to give us a free tour, telling us about all of the different types of aquatic life such as birds, sharks, fish, dolphins, crabs, lobsters, freshwater shrimp, bioluminescent plankton and many other marine animals that can be found in the Caribbean Sea.

When Mark was finished with his generous tour, a biologist named Dr. Barbara Baker came to talk to us about the bioluminescent bays. She is a retired school teacher who moved to Vieques with her husband sometime in the 1960’s from New England and has been studying the bioluminescent bays ever since. Our little chat with Barbara lasted for about an hour, throughout which we received a lot of useful information. Thanks Barbara!!!

After our tour and talk, we broke for lunch, soaking up as many cold beverages and fried plantains as we possibly could, and then proceeded to find an internet café. For many of us, this was the first time since our airport-goodbyes more than a week ago, that we were able to contact our friends and family. Once we were all done with that, we then headed to “study hall” on the beach…there was a little more swimming than studying but, that’s understandable given our surroundings.

Now for the best part of our trip, after the beach we discovered freshwater, high-pressure SHOWERS!!! We must have scrubbed for hours. Mid shower we had a little incidents…please see the picture!!! A night on the town followed our first shower since San Francisco with dinner at Bananas, sipping virgin pina coladas and munching on pastelillitos. We ended the night with about an hour of dancing upstairs to a live DJ…we have footage to prove!!! At the end of a fabulous evening, we boarded our little wooden, 7-seater boat “Armin” and headed back to the boat for a long night of anchor watch. Between the dancing and the showers, it’s safe to say that today was by far the best day of our voyage.

Angel Thackeray

Journal: April 1, 2006
Vieques

We are in our second week here at sea and I’m learning tons of new things and how to adapt to life on the water. Aside from cleaning and learning all of our lines, living on a ship is harder then I had ever expected. Some of the hardest things about living on a ship are not even the chores, or the constant lack of sleep, but rather the fact of being away from my loved ones in an isolated world. I realize that I took many things for granted, big and small. You never realize just what you take for granted in your life until you are completely away from it all. The little things that I took for granted are simply the comfort of my home and the faces of the people that mean so much to me. Then I realize that there is nothing too small in life that you can take for granted. Now my world is condensed in to a one hundred twenty five foot ship with 23 people on board, this is where my experience takes place.

For the past four days I have had a really bad cough, cold, and fever which resulted in me going to the hospital in Vieques. The hospital in Vieques was nice and quick, I told them my symptoms and they gave me three prescriptions that seem to be working. Today we leave Vieques and we are on our way to Montserrat, it is expected that we will be there in 3 days. The winds have been really low during our voyage and I hope that it will pick up during our sail to Montserrat.

Melanie Sherbula