Colorado Springs School (Day 8)

St. John, USVI

3/10/25

HELLOOOOO from your favorite: the coolest, classiest, craken (or C watch)!!! Reporting from N17°. 63’, W64°. 40’. Today was quite eventful. We started in Francis Bay in St John and are currently traveling back to Green Cay, Saint Croix. We have had a full day of sailing and, although we have not made it there, we are racing against the setting sun (which has been one of the most gorgeous sunsets we have seen this trip). We flew the topsails of the mizzen, main, and foresail for the first time this whole trip. This is only the third time the crew had flown this sails since November. The morning started off with some scrumptious pancakes for breakfast (some of which were shaped like hearts, and one boat), and then into chores. This was followed by a pretty hard and laborious task of getting the anchor up and heading home. There were 2 shots (180 feet) of chain that had to be pulled up manually by the use of a windless. This took multiple rotations to give our arms a much needed break. The other crew members worked on getting the sails prepped and ready for sailing off the hook. Sailing off the hook means getting out of an anchorage without using the engine and just solely using the sails. We had to maneuver 180° in order to get out of the anchorage. The prep work looked like getting the anchor up, laying the halyard lines, getting the sheets ready, and organizing the order of what would be hauled and when. Once the anchor was home, everyone jumped into action to raise the sails. This went really smoothly (we all got complimented by the captain (yipee!!)) and went on our rotations. This included leisure time, navigation, and active watch.

While we were on active watch we reached a speed of nearly 6 knots. The Denis Sulivan is a large tallship that is not known for its speed because of how heavy of a vessel she is. The top speed that the Denis Sulivan has reached with this Captain was 8 knots. When getting near 9-10 knots it can be dangerous for the well-being of the ship. Another thing we did was navigation which included calculating the navigational path and getting an understanding of how we can map out headings, distances, and estimated times. Once we were on our leisure time we were preparing for the most important events of the whole trip. The Deckhand Olympics. There were four rounds: knot tying, pin identification, coiling, and a relay. We dominated knot typing, not so much the other rounds though :( . BUT it was okay because there was one surprise bonus round. This was a shanty. For those of you who do not know, a shanty is a song that sailors used to sing while getting tasks done. Our task was to pick out a shanty, create a performance, and entertain the audience. We decided on the shanty called Fish of the Sea. We went full entertainment mode and even got costumes. Hudson turned into a beautiful eel-mermaid, Melinda became a BIG shark, and Morgan became a fisherman. While Izzy and Brody were our glorious singers. Our performance was topnotch, yet we only got 2nd place (rigged). That's ok because we had lots of fun. This day was very fun and we don’t want to go back home. If we could stay on this boat most of us would. Signing off, C watch (the best watch)!