As I stepped off the plane in Puerto Rico I was filled with a feeling of excitement. This journey that we are about to take has finally begun. I was anxious as we headed to the old San Juan Pier to see the boat and our home for the next six weeks. As I approached the boat I thought to myself, “What did I get myself into…six weeks!” Then we all got onto the boat with the crew waiting. We settled into our bunks which were much bigger then expected (YES!). I no longer had a feeling of uneasiness about the trip. We were introduced to the captain and to the cook (Molly) and gathered around for some sandwiches. Then we split into groups to begin learning some basic sailing skills, I started to see that my fear of having a military style crew was not reality and the crew was there to teach us skills we needed. They love to sail and that has rubbed off on us. What do you do on a ship besides eat, sleep, have fun, and work the sails? Well, we discovered that you CLEAN. Dishes on board are done on deck, in plastic dish pans so all of the dishes from cooking the meal and eating it have to be carried on deck, scrubbed and brought back down. Late that evening, we took a walk in the city to see beautiful Old San Juan. We walked through some beautiful neighborhoods and noticed the style of housing, with many windows with balconies looking over stone streets. We made our way to the Old San Juan Fort and walked along a path near the water. I had some mango ice cream and we all headed back to the ship. The night sky was clear and some of us decided to sleep on deck under the stars.

March 6
This morning we had additional training in our shipboard duties. First, we had breakfast, completed our first deck wash, soles and bowls and brass cleaning. Once that was done, we got down to serious safety concerns, reviewing what we would do if someone went overboard, we had a fire on board or had to abandon ship. We were told that we would practice these possible situations in drills throughout the voyage and all of us play important roles in keeping the vessel safe. At 11am, we left the dock and set our first sails! Headed for Vieques, we broke into our watches and took turns being in charge of the ship. Wow! There is alot to learn! We had a man over board drill and a fire drill in the course of the afternoon. We had only a light breeze to begin the sail east but it picked up as the afternoon continued. In the late afternoon, a few rain squalls past through and we were all drenched in tropical fresh water. How refreshing! Since we hadn't met Vieques yet, our watches ran into the night...

Journal Entry by Rocio Cisneros on March 6:

San Juan, Puerto Rico is an amazing place. Today we set sail towards Vieques I was really exited. It’s a lot of work setting the sail in a tall ship. All of us had to haul on lines to set the four sails that we began with the trip. We were set up on different lines and given commands in words that we had never heard before like “Haul the halyard!”. All the girls worked hard to set the sails. As we went into open ocean my stomach felt weird. That was the first sign of my sea sickness. We were put into teams of four to take charge of the ship at selected hours. In other words watches. Our watch was on and my stomach was super sick. I had to wash the dishes and I was doing a horrible job because of my sickness. I vomited about seven times throughout the journey. I felt horrible. I wanted to leave the ship and go home. I was crying. The cool thing about vomiting is that in the night I was able to see glow in the dark plankton. We arrived in Vieques at about 0300 in the morning. I was so happy to see land.

March 7
We reached Vieques about midnight. Since it was an unfamiliar anchorage and there were several vessels anchored, we decided to wait out the night hove to outside the bay. The watches continued and our crew is picking up the vernacular of boat terms quickly. Early in the morning, A watch sailed into the anchorage and we started the day. We ashore right now, interviewing local people for our history projects. This afternoon, we'll take our first bath by swimming at the beach and tonight, we are going kayaking in the bioluminescent bay!

We have had some technical problems with our satellite phone, with which we planned to send daily updates to post on our website. We'll get them up as we can, but they may not come everyday! We are all safe and will keep you posted!

Journal Entry by Gabriela Bazan on March 7

Today we arrived in Vieques. After taking care of the boat (furling sails and stowing things we don’t need) we went on the island to explore the town of Isabella Segunda and to interview people for our project. Because I speak Spanish, I had to help out my crewmates and do some translating. I thought I should charge for this service because it is a lot of work! From our interviews, we learned what local people thought about the US Navy using Vieques as a bomb target. Their responses were mixed. Some were sorry that it no longer happened since it brought money into the economy and others were relieved because the bombing destroyed the environment, increased health risks for people and was noisy.

At night, we went kayaking in the Bio Bay. It was so amazing I never thought I would experience this in my whole life. The bay has a very high concentration of dinoflagellates that release light when they are disturbed. As we paddled and later swam in the water, we were surrounded by clouds of glowing water. It was so beautiful I can’t even describe the feeling I felt, it was amazing.

It was so fun today I’ll never forget it. And the boys in Vieques were hecka cute so for sure I’m going back in the future!

Journal Entry by Luciana on March 8

Today was our second day anchored in Vieques. We woke up early this morning to eat breakfast and get the boat cleaned in time for our visit to the local high school. At around 8:30 AM we arrived at German Hicksomethingsomething High School. There we got to meet a class of juniors, and a class of sophomores. We introduced ourselves to them and then we got to ask them questions, and they also got to do the same. But that’s not all we did, we actually ended up dancing and talking to them in groups of three. It was a pretty fun experience, and we got to learn about what life on the island actually is like for teenagers like ourselves. After the visit to the school we got some free time to walk around, get something to eat and look around Vieques a little bit more. Some of the girls had sea food, while others just wandered around looking at the stores and going online. When we got back to the boat, the captain let us go swimming for a little bit. Jumping from the boat to the water was super fun. We also used the opportunity to “shower”, by using dishwashing soap and jumping in the water. When we were done swimming we pulled up the anchor and set sail! Now we are on our way to St. Eustatius, and we will most likely be there in about 2 days.

Journal Entry by Jessica Ramos on March 9

A day underway can be exhausting! As a long day of classes, hauling lines, scrubbing soles and much more goes by, even a glimpse of sleep in the comfort of your bunk or a quick cat nap up above in the sun doesn’t stave off tiredness. By the time night watches approach you wonder if you’ll ever make it through the night. Someone nudges you awake, you crawl out of your bunk, and sleepwalk your way to crew muster. As you gaze into the darkness worrying if you’ll ever get all your lines right or ever be able to comprehend celestial navigation at four in the morning, brilliant diamonds shine across the horizons and you suddenly know everything will be fine. As if that’s not enough to boost your night, sparkling around the ship’s every bold cut through the midnight Caribbean are glittering dinoflagellates creating a path of bioluminescence every which way, altogether illuminating the whole night in the most phenomenal fashion.

As for the dinoflagellates, back at SF State we’d learned all about those. We saw them in full glory at the bio bay in Vieques and now can truly picture their rare ability to spark up a smile. On the other hand, the stars are a whole new world. We’ve all seen specks here and there, maybe the big dipper once or twice, (after all the bay area isn’t exactly the best place to see stars), nothing can compare to the magnificence of being out in the middle of the ocean surrounded by light years of glistening constellations, each with a new story of myth to tell. Although I don’t know the story’s yet, I love learning the new constellations on the crystal clear nights, and my favorite so far is Orion’s belt and Taurus. In this constellation it is easy to spot the three stars that make up Orion’s belt is made up of and his shoulders arched behind his bow, and just to the right the intimidating horns of the bull himself.

One thing that being up during the night under the stars that I have learned is how the stars rotate around the night sky. On a mid-watch, I have gotten up to see Orion high up in the sky. By four in the morning when I am going below decks to sleep, Orion has slid down in the sky and is about to set. I have learned that these constellations full of stars are rotating around the North Star, which I can find low on the horizon to the north. Each new night, we are up at different hours and I am constantly observing the rotations of my favorite stars.

Journal Entry by Roxy on March 10

Who has swum in the middle of the ocean, with no land around, and the clear dark blue water being a whole MILE deep below you? I have! But, before I get into that I am proud to say that we had our second man over board drill today and everything went perfect and smoothly. In fact, there was not one single complaint from the captain. So what did we receive as a reward on this hot day of sailing through the Caribbean? “SWIM CALL!” Right when we heard that everyone rushed below to put on their swim suits and gather their bathing supplies. The feeling of jumping into the cool ocean water was so refreshing! Elicha, who had been feeling sick the whole time, was finally alive again! We were all happy to see a smile on her face. After our ocean baths Nettie, Mr. Mosley, Marcos, Molly (our amazing cook), and Blanca threw a football around for awhile until swim call came to a sad yet satisfying end and my watch went back to work.
The moral to this story is… Whoever said that sailing full and by sucks was definitely wrong. Sure we might be taking forever to see ANY land and more importantly seeing our destination, Statia, but on the bright side, if we were traveling faster there wouldn’t have been a swim call and none of us would have had the opportunity to swim in such an amazing place. A place which seemed like the middle of nowhere.

Journal Entry by Katie Shea on March 10

After sailing for 3 days we finally made it. The distance to St. Eustatia from Vieques is directly 140 miles. Because we wanted to sail in the same direction the wind was coming from, we had to tack back and forth and actually traveled a long journey of 300 miles. I woke up early this morning because I had watch.. uhh…. It lasted FOREVER!! Probably, since I was so tired from watch the night before. I was sort of in a bad mood this morning, I think it was just because I was sleep deprived or maybe just the time without land was starting to get to me. Once we hit the island that all went away. Before we could get off the boat and go to shore we had to anchor. The crew yelled all hands on deck and we all came together to do the needed tasks on the boat. My job was to furl the sails which means to stow them and make them neat. We anchored at St. Eustatius at about 1300. It was beautiful. Most of the island is surrounded by the “Quill” a huge dormant volcano. When we finally stepped onto the island, we were greeted by students from the high school, who then took us to their school. The people of St. Eustatia were extremely nice and went out of their way to welcome us. They gave us a tour around their school and parts of the island. They talked about how it is to live on such a small island, and they seemed eager to know about our lives. We found out that we had a lot of similarities like liking the same music. I was surprised when we got to see their school, it was a lot nicer than I expected and even nicer then my school at home. During the tour around town we went to a few markets and shops, a library and the some of the hangouts stops that the students like to chill at. We were all invited to a party but sadly we couldn’t go because we had homework to do and had to get our rest for the action packed day ahead of us.

Journal Entry by Luciana on March 12

Statia is AMAZING!! Today everyone had a really good day. We woke up super early so we could meet some of the teens that live on the island because they were nice enough to take us on a hike… to the inside of a volcano! Ahhh! It was so cool. Some of the girls decided to just hang out at the top and not actually go in, but I went in, and I got to hold a snake and climb a tree... it was awesome. The name of the volcano is Mount Mazinga, but it is better known as “The Quill”. (And parents: don’t worry, the volcano is asleep) After the hike we walked down to the beach and hung out with the teenagers for a while. After a little bit everyone kind of took their own paths and went to different places. We all made a ton of friends on the island today. The people here are very, very welcoming, and everyone just completely opened their arms to us. The whole island overall is super nice. We love how everyone says hi to us everywhere, and how friendly the people have been. At around 6:30 we all met a restaurant to have a “family dinner”, which was a lot of fun, we got to talk, and be outside of the boat routine of eating fast and doing dishes/cleaning up all the time. After that we officially adopted the dog that had followed us around the island the past two days, and decided that her name is “TING”. We enjoy her a lot despite the fact that he is the island’s stray garbage dog. I think that everyone enjoyed themselves a lot today, we all love this island, and (at least I) want to come back! Tomorrow is our last day here. We’re definitely going to miss this laid back lifestyle we’ve had this weekend, but soon we will be in the Dominican Republic! Yessss!!!!!

Journal Entry by Blanca Garcia on March 13

Today was a very weird day. On my way to the church in Statia it started to rain I was kind of mad because I was wearing some nice clothes for church. On top of it I was already late for church, so when I got there I was dripping (although the fans where on so I dried up really quickly). The church that they have is really nice. After the mass I went to go see where the rest of my fellow classmates were because they didn’t come to church with me. As I was walking towards them I saw that they were also dripping a lot from their clothes. Everyone was telling me that I looked really nice because they are used to seeing me in dome shorts, converse and a tee- shirt on the boat. We waited for a cab to take us to the other side of the Island to this beach where we were going to clean up the beach as part of Roxy’s and Luci’s Oceanography project. A local guy named Paris that some of us had met the day before arranged a ride to the other side of the island for us.

When we got to the beach Luci and Roxy explained how the project was going to function at the beach. So Wren, Rocio, Erin, and I were in a group and we had to tally up how many plastics, metal, paper and misc. trash was washed up on shore. The group that I was in found that there was more plastic than anything washed up on shore. After that we had a little crew muster because Roxy and Luci felt like no one was putting an effort into helping them with the project. The discussion went pretty long and the rain that had drenched all of us earlier in the morning returned to drench us as we sat on the beach. Nettie took us down to the rocky part of the beach and taught us about the sea creatures that live in the tide zones. Afterwards we went back to the other side of the island and got three hours on “solo” – time where we are required to be alone with just our thoughts and our journal. It was pretty relaxing for me because you don’t get a lot of a lone time on the boat. Over all today was a very chill and mellow day.

Journal Entry by Janet Leung on March 14

As we set sail from Statia, there was so much work to do. We needed “all hands on deck”, so everybody stopped what they were doing and started to help. A lot of ships now use the boat motor to start sailing, but our captain likes doing things the old fashion way, without using the ship’s motor. There are sails that need to be set, which means there are lines that need to be pulled and some of the sails need a lot of hands to pull it up. What I really like about pulling the lines are something we do called sweating. Sweating means that we are using our bodies to get more advantage to pull these heavy sails up. We do this by pushing the line in front of us, then pull the line back towards us and then bring it to the pin. The pin is where the line is belayed or tied off to. As the sail starts to raise some of the girls start to bring up the anchor. But after all the sails are up and the anchor is in the ship you would think it all over. Nope we still need to coil the lines, meaning we go clock wise making the line go in a circle and hang it up. In the end it’s worth it, sailing into the beautiful blue water.

It was pretty sad leaving Statia. Everybody there was so nice; it makes me want to give back. I really like how I can walk around and say “Hi” to people without looking like I’m crazy. While on the ship it was Ms. Daly’s birthday. Ms. Daly is a mate on the boat and she leads a watch. There were balloons and other decorations in the main salon. Molly our wonderful cook made a delicious carrot cake. The rest of the night we were back in our watch rotation working the ship.

Journal Entry by Wren Robb on March 15

As my watch hit midnight I was greeted with hugs from everyone getting off watch as well as my own. I woke up early to find a room full of balloons with my name on them and the main salon decorated fiesta style. March 15th was finally here…my birthday. I was so happy to be able to be on the boat in the Caribbean, with all these wonderful people. As we sailed towards the Dominican Republic at a fast pace, the day was filled with many exciting and beautiful things. While on bow watch looking at a beautiful sky and clear water I saw three dolphins swimming along side the boat with us. As they round the waves they peaked there heads above the water and they looked close enough to reach. I found out later that they like to ride the waves of big boats like ours. Later in the day we gathered on deck for class.

Journal Entry by Ibukun on March 15

Today was another day on the sea. I woke up to the beautiful blue waters crashing against the hull (that makes up one wall of my bunk). At the end of my four hour watch, which was 12am to 4am, everyone in my watch sang happy birthday to Wren. Today is her 18th birthday.

For the rest of the day I caught up with my sleep, homework and worked on my navigation project with my English and History teacher Marcos. I was teaching him dead reckoning. While we were working on our project, Ms. Falby and Ms. Daly caught three fish. The first fish Mr. Mosley quickly killed with a few mild thumps to the head and the second one the Captain killed with a larger and more dramatic thump on the head. The third one was thrown back because it was too small.

The Captain killed the second fish right in front of me. As it died, the fish changed colors. Out of the sea, it was dark blue on the top and silver on the bottom. As the life left it, the fish turned light blue and green. The fish is a medium size fish and the type was a Skip Jack Tuna.

The Captain and Ms. Falby filleted the first fish and put it on a plate for all to eat. The second was stored in a zip lock bag for lunch tomorrow. I thought that first fish was immediately cooked by Molly, the ships cook, because it quickly appeared on a plate for all to try. It had a green dip with it. I dipped a piece in it. After tasting it, I found out it was not cooked and it tasted like rubber. I also learned that the dip turned out to be wasabi sauce. This was really hot! The Captain told me to swallow it and I will be fine. I did and I was. I have never had raw fish until today.

Everyday in TSSG I am able to do so many fun things that I would never be able to do in San Francisco.

Journal Entry by Erin Carter on March 16

Today we spent a full day at sea. It was spent in our watch rotation doing all of our usual things like sailing, steering, bow watch, dishes, cleaning, homework, and for the lucky ones who didn’t have anything to do, lying around in the sun.

In the afternoon we had our first pin chase. A pin chase is a kind of like a relay race that tests each team member’s knowledge of all the lines on the boat. Lines are the ropes that are found on a ship. It was supposed to be a surprise to everyone but there were some heavy hints given out by the crew. All three of our watches competed against each other for the ultimate prize; a day without dish duty! All of the watches lined up and one after another, each person was handed a card with the name of a line on it. That person had to correctly find the line and then return to the team so the next member could look for the line on the next card. We had thirty lines we had to know. The winning team went through the cards the fastest. Of course it came as no surprise that C Watch was the winner by far. C Watch is comprised of Jessica, Blanca, Gaby, Katie, and me. We would like to thank Nettie, Ms. Daly, and Diane for all of those midnight study sessions! The evening of this successful day at sea concluded after everyone ate dinner up on deck while watching the sunset and listening to Molly sing and play guitar.

Journal Entry by Katie Shea on March 17

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!!! Today is one of my favorite days of the year. I was a little upset at first that I couldn’t be with my family and friends but I had an amazing day overall. I woke up this morning and as I was putting on some green I started to feel extra tired. It was probably due to last night when the throat of the main gaff broke. The gaff is the piece of wood at the top of the main sail which holds the mainsail up. We had to strike the mainsail and with out it, we lost more than half our speed. My bunk is very near the mast against which the broken gaff was rubbing. It was so loud, for a while I was sure the ship was splitting in two. I couldn’t help but scream, I was so tired!!! Why is it so loud!!? When the sun came up the captain and his crew was working hard to fix the gaff so we could continue our journey to the Dominican Republic. We have been sailing a lot faster lately (approximately 8 knots) so Nettie and the Captain decided we would take a side trip and sail through the Silver Bank. The Silver Bank is shallow water about 70 miles NE of the Dominican Republic There are no words I can say that would express how amazing that experience was. “Thar she blows” the captain repeated over and over again. There were humpback whales everywhere, sometimes a mile away from us other times 25 feet away from us. We saw about 30 throughout the day. Creatures as big as busses were jumping up into the air, and blasting out water from their blow holes - the feeling was so intense.

That will defiantly be something I will never forget. After the whale watching, Molly (the cook) made us a semi Irish meal in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. I ate my potatoes and Irish soda bread and I was a happy little sailor. After that I had watch and we had plenty of dishes to do. Towards the end of the watch I was asked to go aloft (climb the. rigging) and Furl the Fore Topsail I was the first girl to go aloft since we got here and now I was the first girl my watch officer has ever seen to go aloft at night. It’s such a rush being 100 feet from the water line, standing on a piece of wood no bigger than my leg. It gets a little scary at times as the boat is rocking but nothing else can compare to looking out and seeing 360 degrees of horizon. I hope some of the other girls get to try it, but if not I will be more than happy to do it again.

Even though today wasn’t my normal St. Patrick’s Day it will still be a day I’ll never forget.

Journal Entry by Brett Collins on March 18

With pilot whales by our side, we cautiously approached Luperon this morning. The captain and the first mate had to take extra care for two reasons. First, there is no chart of Luperon. (A chart is a map used on boats to show depth and any obstacles in the water.) Second, the boat has run aground on every previous trip to Luperon. The draft of a boat is the length from the waterline to the keel (very bottom). Spirit’s draft is 11 feet and so we prepared to run aground as the depth meter approached 12 feet. Running aground is not as exciting as it may sound. Because of the mangrove environment, the shoreline and bottom is very soft and we got wedged in a bank, which did not damage the boat at all. Basically, Spirit gave her hull a mud bath.

So, how does a boat get out of the mud? Well, we swung the boom off one side of the boat and everyone climbed out to the end to use their weight as a lever (see the photos). With all the weight on one side, the many small boats that came to help pushed against Spirit to help free us. As we started to move off the bank, the boom started swing and we had a little Luperon rodeo. Even though we were all following the golden rule of the sailing (one hand for the ship and one hand for yourself), someone lost their balance, which had a domino effect, and several of us fell 10 feet into the drink. As one of the fallen, I can tell you that it was the most comical part of our voyage so far. Especially funny was watching everyone onboard try to hold in their laughter until they knew everyone was safe.

After we were free, we were the head of a parade of dinghies as we threaded through the maze of boats in the harbor and eventually dropped our anchor 200 yards from the shore. We are all very excited to see what the Dominican Republic is like and to make calls and emails home. We are hoping to visit the site where Christopher Columbus first landed and to hike to the island’s waterfalls.

Journal Entry by Elicha Green on March 19 

This morning started in our usual routine at anchor.  We got up and started our morning chores – B watch had soles and bowls, the daily cleaning of the heads (bathrooms), C watch had Brasso (shining all of the brass on deck) and A watch had breakfast dishes.  On top of the regular chores, there were a bunch of people who hadn’t finished their work and so still had to get “checked off”.  These people were scambling to get checked off so that we could all go on the planned adventure to swim in waterfalls.  Although we were a bit late to meet the taxis at 9:30am, all of the students got checked off and were able to join in the fun.

In the taxis, we took a 45 minute drive through the country.  We were all studying the countryside as we drove through it.  We realized that this country was really poor.  The houses were small and some were just a roof with posts – no walls.  We learned that hurricanes hit this area hard and that is why some of the houses looked so rough.  This made us feel grateful for all that we have had home.

When we got near the waterfalls, the taxi drivers pulled over and we talked to the guides for the waterfalls.  We thought we were just going to walk along the river and look at the waterfalls, so the initial price of $200 seemed really high. Gaby and Marcos talked the guides down to $100 and we started the adventure.  We hiked across and in rivers to reach the river with the waterfalls.  Then we started swimming in the river and climbing up the waterfalls.  Here the guides started to earn their money!  They pushed, pulled and actually tossed some of us up and over rocks.  There were 28 waterfalls in all and we only made it up seven!  On the trip back down, the waterfalls were like natural waterslides and we slid, leapt and swam the rest of the way down.  It was exciting, scary, beautiful and a great adventure that I’m having trouble describing in words!

During lunch afterwards, we talked about the experience and how perhaps we should have paid the guides more.  We hadn’t realized how much work they were going to do and that they were going to entertain us along the way.  At home, we pay $10 to go see a movie and here we had just paid about $5 per person for an amazing adventure that lasted the whole morning. 

Back in Luperon, we ate some local food (that was nasty!) and got to use the phones to call home.  We talked to Eve Gordon, our teacher at home and got to catch her up on our activities.  I also talked to my mom, aunt and cousin.  It was a great day in Luperon!