Ending their summer with a bang, a group of island teenagers boarded the schooner SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS on Aug. 14, departing from Islesboro’s Grindle Point for a nine-day trip that would circumnavigate Cape Cod. Students adapted quickly, hardening up to life at sea with a nonstop passage through the night to Gloucester, Massachusetts.
The educational itinerary also included a transit of the Cape Cod Canal and a stop at oceanographic and fisheries research facilities in Woods Hole, before crossing the whale habitat of the open water of the Gulf of Maine in a direct passage back to Rockland. By the end of the trip. all on board could steer the 125′ vessel, and set, strike, and control the eight-sail topsail schooner rig.
These 20 students were from five island communities, including Long Island in Casco Bay, Vinalhaven, North Haven, Islesboro and Deer Isle. For many of these eighth graders, boats are a part of their daily lives, but few had been on a traditional sailing schooner before, and none on an offshore trip of this type, where the students are expected to play an integral role in the operation of the vessel. (Indeed, the crew alone would be unable to provide the muscle needed to raise and set the large mainsail.)
Each student could count on standing watch for at least eight hours each day while underway, often including the midnight to 4 AM stint, generally regarded as the toughest. For private space, each student had a bunk and a mug assigned, and they soon fell into the regular routine of watch musters, deck washes, sail tending, environmental and historical classes, and other duties. Not all work, the trip also included beach stops, swimming from the boat, shoreside trips for ice cream, and down time on deck for socializing.
The Maine Island Youth Program has been run by The Ocean Classrooms Foundation for almost ten years, beginning in 1994 with an overnight trip from Islesboro to Portland, and growing into a nine or ten day voyage with up to 20 participants from many islands. The vision for the program, according to Alix Thorne, president of the Ocean Classrooms Foundation, “was twofold, first to introduce island students to their maritime heritage and to the ocean, and second, to allow them to get to know their contemporaries on other islands so that they would all be able to relate to each other as they grew older and were faced with issues that concern all the islands.” The naturally maritime lifestyle of this group was apparent on the final day, when quite a few parents showed up in lobster boats to recover their children.
The Ocean Classroom Foundation supports a number of other programs with similar ocean education goals, running a total of three traditional vessels on expeditions year-round, serving a diverse group of participants. High school students can participate in the full semester Ocean Classroom program, traveling on the schooner over the winter as far south as Venezuela, visiting numerous ports in between, and having regular classes on board. The Foundation also supports a special program for Maine youth in state care, designed to be a program for potentially at-risk youth transitioning to self-sufficiency. College research trips, summer sea camp, and shorter trips for younger students are also part of the diverse educational schedule. All of the Ocean Classroom programs are based on three core principles: full participation of students in the operation of the ship, seamanship training in the arts and sciences of traditional seafaring, and an environmental appreciation of the sea.
More information on The Ocean Classroom Foundation, including descriptions of the open enrollment high-school and college programs, can be found at its website, www.oceanclassromms.org, or by calling 1-800-724-SAIL(7245). Principal Jon Kerr of the Islesboro School coordinates the Maine Island Youth program in conjunction with Ocean Classrooms.
(Ben Neal is Marine Resources Associate at the Island Institute and was one of the instructors aboard SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS for this trip.)