Piers Park Future Leaders

Boston, MA

August 16th, 2023

I got to spend two days on the Denis Sullivan with the future leaders of Piers Park. So far, we have sailed around the Boston Harbor Islands and learned how to operate tall ships for the first time. We also learned about all the safety features of the ship and practiced some drills in case of emergency. Then, we anchored at Peddocks Island and everyone was allowed to jump off the boat and swim, even though the water was pretty cold.

We've been eating on deck together and doing chores around the ship. We spent the night anchored at Peddocks and a lot of us had our first night sleeping on a sailboat. We even took turns on anchor watch at night to make sure the boat hadn't drifted and that there were no other issues onboard. Even though it's a short trip and we had some bad weather, everyone is having a lot of fun.

- Chloe (Piers Park Staff)

My experiences on the Denis Sullivan have been great. We got on the tall ship in the morning, and we raised all seven sails. Sailing out to the islands felt slow because of the rain and fog. We took a tour around the boat and identified safety equipment. Due to the cold, everyone wanted to hide in the galley. After lunch, everyone felt much better. We sailed between Peddocks and Long Island, and I got to steer for a bit. At around 1600 we dropped anchor and flaked the three big sails. Some of us went swimming in the freezing cold water, but I went up to the bow on the cables (headrig) and helped flake the jibs. We had dinner (chicken enchiladas with beans) and just talked for a bit. I was on the first anchor watch (2200-2320), where the midrat (midnight rations) was cooling off. We got slices of coconut mochi cake, which was still warm.

- Xiaoyu