The experience is thrilling, enriching, humbling and really fun. Twenty-three students from St. Dominic High School, youth with an interest in boating, spent Thursday from dawn to dusk (well, almost) as invited guests and apprentice sailors aboard a 203-foot traditionally-rigged top sail schooner. WEEKender came along to see how the students rose to the challenge. Watching the crew perform complex operations with the myriad of ropes and lines used to sail a tall ship was certainly a unique experience for the youths, but many of them jumped at the chance to get their hands on the halyards, sheets and rigging lines. They stared in fascination as a crew member swiftly climbed the rigging to the top of the foremast, adjusted the top sail and gracefully descended; she even earned applause from the students.
Wylde Swan is, in fact, the world’s largest top-sail schooner. Rebuilt in 2011 from a 1920s hull, the ship is a unique adventure-based educational platform, outfitted with four teachers, a coach, a researcher, a medical doctor and a full sailing crew of 12 seamen and women. Among their programs is the Masterskip Course, which has brought them to St. Maarten waters for a 10-day hiatus in their set schedule of four legs.
The first leg travels from the Netherlands to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The second leg travels to the Caribbean. The fourth leg visits islands up and down the Caribbean archipelago from Tobago to the British Virgin Islands. The last leg takes the ship back to Rotterdam in the Netherlands to begin all over again. Groups of 30 students between 15 and 17 years of age join for each leg. Occasionally, students stay for multiple legs. While on board, they must do homework set by their home school, following a science and mathematics curriculum that has been pre-approved. Each leg runs approximately €6,000 per student, and some families must fund-raise in their communities to meet those costs, but the feeling is that the youth will gain an invaluable experience that they could never have with a normal land-based education.
ONE TRAINEE was keen to share his thoughts with me, 16-year-old Bodhi Vermeulen. He flew down to St. Maarten from the Netherlands in January to join in the Caribbean leg. That has just ended and most of his fellow students have flown home, but he is staying for the fourth leg, and is very excited about the prospect of crossing the ocean. Bodhi had high praise for the entire experience, “It’s just been awesome,” he said. “That’s really the only way to describe it.” The young man had never sailed before and says he really loves it, “I love the cool wind filling the sails and the way the ship goes through the waves. I have been to the BVIs, Guadeloupe, Grenada, St. Lucia, Dominica. Next week, we go back to the BVIs and then head across the Atlantic to the Azores and back to the Netherlands. I can’t wait to have three weeks on the open ocean,” he said with passion, “to have only the sea around you.”
Bodhi’s mom and a friend flew into The Friendly Island to see him and were amazed at his nautical skills and new found confidence. As we sailed around the coast on Thursday, she beamed with pride. “He’s grown up so much!” She told me how she and her friends organized fundraising dinners and asked businesses for sponsorships to raise the fees to have Bodhi sail two legs of the Wylde Swan Masterskip course. Bodhi had to take on the role of key fundraiser from the start. “This way he sees the value of it,” she said. Indeed, that plan seems to have paid off. Bodhi told me, “I was quick to learn, some of the others held back, but I just threw myself into everything, and it’s made a big difference.” Bodhi says for him and most of the other students the best part has been learning teamwork and developing confidence. “There are 29 other trainees besides me and you really need each other; it’s like a social experiment.”
WHEN ASKED about his responsibilities on board, he said, “We have made sure everything is clean, that is very important. We rise early for breakfast, then we break into small groups to help clean up, but that’s fun; we put on music and everyone helps. Then we have to do self-study from 8:00 to 11:00am. I have biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. During that time, we can’t talk or listen to music, but the focus is so intense I have actually done five weeks of homework in just one week. Later, we have lessons about the ship or we do a shore excursion. We hiked to the Boiling Lake in Dominica; that was so cool.”
Also on board for the day sail was the team coach for the boat, Pim Harder. He focuses on helping everyone on the boat work together, elevate their game to the highest levels, and feel good about themselves and the experience. As an expert on organization and relationships, I queried his role, “Are you a psychologist, then?” He smiled back, perhaps anticipating my confusion: “No, I am a coach.” He went on to elaborate that each person is on a path of personal development; it’s his role to help them achieve that goal, and to become part of a team that helps each other with alacrity.
The coach then introduced me to another interesting crew member, Jan Joris Midavaine. This gentleman researches marine litter for The Ocean Cleanup, volunteering his time to collect data about the tiny bits of plastic that float around in the sea. “We use a very fine net to ‘fish’ for plastic in the Atlantic Gyre. We collect it, sort it, and record the type, the size and the amount; it’s then taken back to Delft for more analysis. It’s all land-based, of course,” he told me, “I mean about 20% is from shipping and 80% is from the land, but ultimately, it’s all from the land.” This interesting discussion and Midavaine’s research merit a follow-up article which will be available in a coming WEEKender, so stay tuned for good news about cleaning up ocean pollution!
MEANWHILE, THE students from St. Dominic High were laughing, singing, napping and yes, helping with the work of sailing the tall ship in fine style. A few succumbed to seasickness and fed the fish over the leeward rail, but the overall mood was festive. Keeshaun Hodge, 16, said he had only power-boated before and Jordan Halley, 17, had sailed with his dad and done some trawling for tuna.
Both said they would like to sail again, and learn to do it themselves after this experience. They agreed that the crew was very kind when they explained what needed to be done. “These guys are really nice,” said Keeshaun. Their friend Matteo Piscione, 13, said he had sailed before and he likes the adventure aspect of it, but, he said, “It’s too small for me, I need to get out and play football or volleyball. I couldn’t take being on a boat for too long.”
As the afternoon flew by, we eventually joined up with three other traditionally rigged ships to parade past the action of the Heineken Regatta’s Thursday race known as the Commodore’s Cup. At one point, the passengers began to call out with excitement; a pod of dolphins was spotted just to the starboard side of the ship. As we strained to see the lovely shapes arc through the waves, I saw the trainee Bodhi watching with a peaceful expression. “Have you seen dolphins before?” I asked. “Oh yes,” Bodhi replied, “but you never get tired of it.”
WEEKender would like to thank the captain and crew of Wylde Swan and especially Jan Roosens at Caribbean Sail Training for the invitation to sail on this remarkable ship. For more information on Wylde Swan, check out their websitehttp://www.wyldeswan.com/ which is available with a language toggle for English or Dutch.
Text and Photos by Lisa Davis-Burnett
