These are our final days aboard the Spirit!  We are docked in Baltimore’s inner harbor (Thank you to Living Classroom for their hospitality!) and are checking out the sights in Baltimore.  Our daily wanderings included:

Saturday (4/9)

We spent a day at the National Aquarium where we learned about the Chesapeake Bay estuary and its inhabitants.  Also, most of us watched the dolphin show and decided that the “shows” we saw at sea were much more beautiful than watching captive dolphins.

Sunday (4/10)

We were also adopted by the Daly family (Ms. Daly was the third mate on the trip and her family lives near Baltimore). Mr. Daly drove us all into Washington DC on Sunday (4/10) and we got to see some of the sights of our nation’s capital!  We split into groups and covered a lot of places – the Holocaust museum, the White House, Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument.  The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the whole area was packed with people.  It was a bit of a culture shock from just being around the same 24 people on our 120 foot boat.   

In the evening, the Daly’s hosted us for dinner at their house.  Mrs. Daly spoiled us with delicious lasagna, salad, ice cream, brownies and cookies.  A HUGE thank you to the Dalys for welcoming us so warmly to the area and their home!! 

Monday (4/11)

After we finished our morning chores, we were given an insiders tour of the Constellation, a historical vessel docked in the inner harbor.  The Constellation is the first boat that Ms. Daly worked on, so it was fun for all of us to see where she got her start in sailing.  After that, we returned to the boat to take our Navigation final and then had some final hours of free time to get prepared for the final night’s celebration Tuesday night.  There were awards to make, costumes to design and sea chanteys to practice.

 Tuesday (4/12)

Most of today was taken up by FIELD DAY!!  Field day is when you clean the boat from top to bottom.  We have all done a lot of cleaning along the way, but this was cleaning at a whole new level.  All of the dishes, pots and pans from the galley were taken up on deck and washed in fresh water.  The galley cupboards were emptied and cleaned.  Fang, the diesel stove, was scrubbed and cleaned.  Each one of us had to pack up our bunk, remove everything from the bunk and scrub it down.  Floor boards were pulled out and each crack and crevice was cleaned with mung knives and sponges.  As we finally wound down the process around 5pm, we were proud to be living aboard such a clean, shiny, happy vessel.

And now for the costumes!  We all donned our costumes and walked to Luigi Petti, a restaurant in Little Italy.  Ted led the parade dressed in a sleek velvet top, skirt and wig.  Ms. Daly and Ms. Falby were co-joined clowns, Katie a pirate, Marcos a big booty and Diane a crazy outer space woman.  There were lots of other clever costumes and the people driving along the streets in Baltimore showed their appreciate with honks and whistles.

From the captain, we learned a few vital statistics about our trip.  In our six weeks aboard Spirit, we had:

1.  Sailed 2,741 nautical miles
2.  Spent 552 hours underway, with an average speed of 4.9 knots
3.  We had eaten 112 meals prepared by Molly
4.  After each meal, the dishes were done by a particular watch.  For the whole trip, A and C watch did 39 sets of meal dishes; B watch did 38.
5.  We had used 775 gallons of water (a mere 32 gallons per person!)
6.  We had used 585 gallons of fuel (for the engine and generator)
7.  Ted estimated that we had used 800 band aids.

After dinner we returned to Spirit to eat ice cream sundaes (this was part of a bet that the students lost with Mr. Mosley.  They bet him that they all could go 24 hours without saying their favorite word, “Hella”.  They lost in 15 minutes) and sing the sea chanteys we had made up.  The crew added some great songs to the mix (Thank you Molly for great guitar playing!!) that got us all laughing, crying and hugging.  The students gave each crew member an award, and the teachers predicted the five year future of each crew member.  We all had a great time and will remember this final night forever!

Wednesday (4/13)

We are on our way home!  Everyone is excited to get home and see their family and friends but we are also sad to leave what had been our home and family for the last six weeks.  It was a tearful departure from Spirit and a quiet ride to the airport.

The Tall Ship Semester for Girls will be on vacation until April 25 when we return to SFSU and start decide on our internships!  Thank you for following our voyage!  We’ll continue to provide weekly summaries until the program ends!