The Start of the St. Croix Season

St. Croix, USVI

12/5/24

Written by 2025 AmeriCorps Deckhand Educator Eliza

Today was a lovely day of sailing with many new faces aboard! We started the day by welcoming High School students from Ms. James’s Complex High marine biology class aboard. After human-knotting and I’m-a-star-ing, we got to work setting the sails and made our way out of the harbor. Students split into three rotations to learn about water chemistry, go out on the bowsprit, and practice their knots and coiling. While some students got sick, all were troopers and threw themselves into the tasks we set for them. I feel proud of our crew and of how we are coming together as we get more comfortable aboard. I think our hard work during training was reflected in how smoothly this first program ran and how excited the students were to participate. We even got some students interested in coming aboard for our Winter Ambassador program at the end of the month. I call that a big win. As we said goodbye to our school group, we also began preparing for our evening sunset sail. We had a lovely group of eleven passengers aboard, all of whom seemed eager to learn more about our boat, organization, and work. We hoisted the sails as a team and took in the sights as the day came to a close. The beginning of this St Croix season has been full of hard work, new friends, and fair winds. I look forward to whatever blows our way next!