On January 18th, thirteen girls from throughout the Bay Area stepped into a classroom at SFSU and began the first leg of a 19-week journey. Each student entered as an individual with her own history and background and began the process of building a community within this group. In the course of a busy week, students worked on projects and engaged in activities where sharing, teamwork and communication were the ingredients for success. This included working with Dr. Eric Rosegard (SFSU Recreation and Leisure Studies Department) aka "Dr. Fun" who brought the group together with games which simulated students saving each other from falling overboard, getting caught in a ship's fire and finding cooperative ways to hop from island to island. The girls were challenged on Day 2 by working with the Pacific Leadership Institute on the Fort Miley Ropes Course. Director Drew McAdams and TSSG alums Jessie St. Clair and Helen Phay directed the new crew to zip through trees, walk on tightropes suspended 25 ft in the air and climb higher than many imagined they could. Even though many girls admitted to having a fear of heights or doubted their ability to balance and climb, the mutual encouragement of crew members allowed each girl to meet the physical and mental demands offered by the ropes course and the word "can't" was disappearing from this young crew’s vocabulary.

In the core classes the girls are already working with nautical charts and honing skills that will get us from the Caribbean to our final destination in Baltimore. They have begun the habit of keeping a journal, shared poetry with the class, produced artwork introducing themselves, and begun exploring what lies in the depth of the ocean.

Communication is a key piece to building the type of community that will successfully sail over 2,000 miles in six weeks.  To build a foundation of good communication, Vincent Chandler works with the crew each week.  This is Vincent’s second year working with TSSG students and his magic is once again building bonds among the crew.  This week’s class began with a welcome whisper or shout to each group member and then delved into methods of communicating through difficult issues. 

In oceanography, density currents were revealed, tidal forces experienced and we discover that identifying cloud types can help us predict a sudden shower.  Poetry and vocabulary are filling our classroom’s walls and the impact of tall ships on world exploration was uncovered in history class. To bring life to our classroom studies, we traveled to the San Francisco Maritime Museum and Park.  Captain Ken Neal-Boyd (Call of the Sea) joined us at the park to enrich our visit with his knowledge.  The voyage became more of a reality to the crew with a visit to the Balcutha, San Francisco’s own tall ship permanently docked at Aquatic Park. While our ship, The Spirit of Massachusetts, is a proud 120 feet, she is dwarfed by the 300 foot Balcutha, a fact that did not go unnoticed among the students. Other surprises included the rocking of the vessel even while at port, the smell of wet wood and the size of the bunks.