Student Claudia Ramirez (centre) poses on the aft deck of “Sørlandet” with Dean of Students Gabriela Delgado (right) and Spanish and Visual Arts teacher Daniella Rigual (left). (Robert Luckock photo)
MARIGOT--The tall ship sail-training vessel Sørlandet departs today, Thursday, after enjoying a stopover in St. Martin since February 2. Her itinerary will take her to Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Horta in the Azores and Dublin, Ireland, before ending the current voyage at the ship’s home base in Kristiansand, Norway.
Sørlandet, docked at the Galisbay pier, is one of 70 non-profit association Caribbean Sail Training (CST) member vessels. She was last in St. Martin in 2020 and arrived last week by way of Las Palmas, Cabo Verde Islands, Guyana, and Bequia in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Tall ship “Sørlandet” photographed by Jean Jarreau.
Commonly referred to as the “Pearl of Norway”, Sørlandet is the world’s oldest fully-rigged tall ship in active service. For more than 90 years she has served as a proving ground for young people to pursue their education to grow and develop their potential.
Effectively, Sørlandet is a constantly-moving boarding school at sea, at the high school level. The ship is under the command of Captain Marcus Post from the Netherlands who was previously captain on the three-masted Christian Radich and Dutch ship Eendracht.
This voyage is accommodating 60 students, 14 professional maritime crew, a doctor and six teachers. The latter stay on board all year long. Languages spoken include Spanish, French, Portuguese, Norwegian and English. However, the community default language spoken is English.
“We are truly international, a Swiss school on a Norwegian tall ship with an American curriculum from the A Plus World Academy,” says Dean of Students Gabriela Delgado, who is from Venezuela and on her fourth year with Sørlandet, rotating with another dean.
“We offer classes in natural sciences, social sciences, maths, world languages, art, English, research, and more. Usually it’s a rigorous one-year programme – a few remain with us for two years – so we try to offer a wide variety of classes for their junior or senior year of high school, and they can choose the credits they need to finish their high school at home or to finish with us,” she explains.
The class schedules go hand-in-hand with the sailing schedule. Day and night watches are required of all students. Remember, the students are also sailing the ship along with the professional crew, in between classes.
Combining schoolwork and sailing on a tall ship may not be for everyone, but the programme fosters camaraderie, social interaction, team-building and life skills for personal development while providing a unique opportunity to learn maritime history, safety and the practical skills of sailing a fully-rigged tall ship.
For many, the lure of the ocean wave, the romantic image of sailing and living on a traditional tall ship while visiting many foreign ports of call is irresistible to students who pass the selection process. Another plus: no previous sailing experience is required.
“We don’t have any classes in the first three weeks, as that time is devoted to sail training, building community, learning all the rules and getting accustomed to living on the ship,” Delgado explains. “All the students sleep in hammocks or bunks, eat together, and take classes all in the same dormitory space called the ‘banjer’ below the main deck.”
Dropouts from the programme are very rare, thanks to thorough interviews with the students as well as meetings with parents to be sure the student knows what he or she is getting into.
“It can be a very abstract concept, especially for someone who has not been sailing before, but we have ways of providing as much information as possible through various media and also sessions with former alumni who give an independent account of their experience on Sørlandet, and from that perspective it has been working very well.”
Claudia Ramirez (16) from Puerto Rico is one student who came into the programme with sailing experience. She is looking forward to being reunited with her parents at the first stopover. It has been three months since she last saw them.
Ramirez joined Sørlandet in February 2020 with another girl, Cécilia Pivin from St. Martin who is now studying in France and who also had sailing experience. Then 14 years old, Ramirez was the youngest student on board. Claudia and Cécilia met each other when both were taking courses with Maritime School of the West Indies (MSWI) in St. Martin.
Thanks to sponsorship from CST and MSWI the two girls were accepted for a six-week voyage from St. Martin to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and New York. But the trip was aborted after Jamaica due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ship diverted to Bermuda and then returned to Norway with all students remaining on board.
Now Ramirez is back on board Sørlandet, having joined the programme late in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, on December 5, 2021, after receiving a four-month scholarship. She is due to graduate when the ship arrives in Norway.
“Because I already had six years of sailing experience on Optimists and Lasers in Puerto Rico, the sailing aspect is what attracted me to join Sørlandet,” said Claudia who thanked CST for the opportunity given to her. “The best part for me was the sailing and building a family community and making friends who I’m sure I will keep up with when this is over. The not-so-fun part was the night watches.
“It was scary to begin with but everyone was so amazing and supportive. It was definitely hard to adapt to life on board, sleeping in hammocks, showering every other day, learning the names of the sails, the ropes, but I got a lot of help. I can say now that I love it. It’s been great. And I wouldn’t be here without my parents who were so supportive.”
Asked what has been the main benefit of the experience, she replied: “I’ve gained a lot of knowledge, it’s made me more independent, able to make decisions faster, and you learn to live with other people which can be difficult, and to take care of others.”
Cape Verde was her favourite stopover for the cultural experience she had there. Ramirez plans to go to New York University (NYU) which has a sailing team. Her goal is to become a marine biologist and a sailing coach.
CST expressed its appreciation to the Port of Marigot for hosting its member vessels on the Galisbay pier.
For more information about sail training opportunities visit
www.caribbeansailtraining.com .
