The Journey Itself (Perspective Summer 2008 excerpt)

Summer 2008

Perspectives The magazine of Ashley Hall

The Journey Itself Sophie Clark ’08

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n a blustery, freezing pre-dawn Valentine’s Day, eighteen Ashley Hall students and three faculty advisors set out upon an adventure quite unlike any other in school history: a ten-day, open sea voyage as crew members aboard the Spirit of South Carolina.. The Spirit is a tall ship, a two-masted, Carolina pilot schooner reminiscent of 19th century ships that served pilots in Charleston’s harbor for 25 years.

Spirit Captain Tony Arrow describes the tall ship experience and the intent for the Ashley Hall voyage:

Sailing aboard a tall ship such as the Spirit presents an experience that compels everyone aboard to contribute to the safety of the vessel and community. More importantly, it requires each crew member to contribute to her community and environment in order to achieve much more than would be possible for an individual. It is the collective effort, far greater than the sum of its constituent parts, which ensures success aboard a tall ship.

The ten day Ashley Hall program was focused on the themes of freedom, self-sacrifice, thought and action

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and leadership. Prior to embarking on this adventure, the young women of Ashley Hall spent several months preparing for the voyage with activities and assignments that focused on the inward journey of a hero(ine). While onboard a student’s duties included activities such as ensuring the safety of the vessel and fellow shipmates by standing watch, assisting with navigation, leading sail evolutions, cleaning the heads and common areas, and participating in an academic program.

What follows are edited excerpts of the students’ personal observations and journals from the voyage.

“Today we had our first four hour watch. It was so much fun! We rotated through positions and learned about what is to be accomplished while on watch. Taking on the helm was at first very exciting. Were they really already going to let us steer the ship?! I felt powerful and important as I closely followed the ordered course by compass. I soon discovered, however, that the helm was not for me, for staying on course was more challenging than I ever thought. I think I better stick to bow watch.”

- Libby Proctor ’09, Day 2 “This trip on the Spirit of South Carolina has tested just about all of our abilities: physical, mental, and emotional. We’ve been given great opportunities which we would probably never experience if we were never on this mini moving community. We’ve seen whales and other sea life, played fun games like Jeopardy, steered the ship at the helm and much more. Just yesterday we arrived in Amelia Island, Florida. The best part was probably seeing how adjusted our legs were to the boat life! Everyone was rocking while just walking down the street. After walking around and enjoying the things we don’t have on the boat (ice cream!), we returned onto the ship for a crazy game of Jeopardy. Some of the crew dressed up as our founding fathers which everyone had a laugh about. After getting our happy birthday brownies all over the deck, the next day we had a field day in which we cleaned everything, everywhere.”

- Amy Randazzo’10, Day 5

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“So we arrived at Cumberland Island yesterday. The Captain told us that Cumberland Island is the largest undeveloped island on the east coast, so that is definitely saying something. After lunch, we all took turns putting on bright orange life jackets and going on “small boat adventures” over to the island. The ground still rocks for most of us, even after Amelia Island. We gathered under one of the oak trees waiting on the rest of the group to arrive and took turns using the “land heads” which is a HUGE treat. We then made our way down a long beautiful path toward the beach, passing a graveyard, the ruins of a mansion, an armadillo or two, some old model-T Fords, some stables, and a lot of big white dunes. The beach was beautiful with white sand, bright blue water, and giant seagulls. We hung out on the beach for a while just relaxing and playing some tag. We then made our way slowly back to the dock where we sat under the oak tree listening to Sarah Felder play her guitar. Mr. Hall came to pick us up and by that time it was dinner again. Because we are docked, everyone slept really well last night and watches were only an hour long instead of four. Dr. Davis gave us a lesson on the stars last night which, by the way, are beautiful out here!”

- Sarah Norvell, Day 7

“A few minutes ago, Amy, Sarah, Caroline, and I were sitting on deck discussing the trip. We all agreed that two days ago we could not wait to get off the boat and go home, but now we are really enjoying the trip and don’t want it to end. The weather has not been ideal, and our radar broke, preventing us from sailing to the Bahamas, yet we have still enjoyed the trip.

Last night Dr. Davis talked about the stars and the different galaxies. Learning just how vast our universe is made us all realize how secluded our lives in Charleston really are. At home we have no peripheral vision; we see only what is directly in front of us, whether it be a test, a party, or a volleyball game. We fail to see the big picture. Going on the Spirit of South Carolina has forced us to take a step back from our regimented lives and see how we fit into the universe as a whole. When you are offshore, out of sight of land, with only the sun, the moon, and the stars to look at, you are forced to think about bigger and better things...”

- Nancy Hagood ’10, Day 7 “This morning, we left Cumberland Island.

We were able to raise the sails to sail back into the open sea. I saw a couple of wild horses in the marsh and some more dolphins as we were leaving. The winds are just barely blowing but we are still moving at a nice pace that is not too rough. After lunch, Mr. McDonnell taught us about celestial navigation, and we wrote in our journals.

Then the crew announced that the boat was stopping and we could get into our bathing suits and jump into the water for a swim.

Not everyone was excited about the idea of jumping into freezing cold water, but soon enough, everyone was on the head rig ready to take the plunge. As soon as I hit the water, I felt like I was swimming in icicles but I did not care. It felt so good to wash my hair and to be wet in the water. Then I had to dry off and finish my 12-4 p.m. watch.

I took control at the helm and steered the ship on a 020 course. Then some others and I got to share stories with our watch officers. I hope that I can see the lunar eclipse tonight.”

- Christina Kearse ’10, Day 8 “There hasn’t been much wind lately, so the ocean has been eerily calm all around us. Last night as I stood on the bow, the moonlight shone through a group of clouds at just the right angle to create a rainbow.

I’d never seen a moon-rainbow before, and as I watched it slowly fade away, I was reminded of how beautiful but powerful the ocean really is. She is synonymous to life, I suppose, ever changing, never constant.

She is terrifying and awesomely destructive at times and then calm and soothing at others. The other day I was shocked when I looked around and realized that I would never be the same person again. When I attempted to describe these feelings to Alex, he told me that he guessed it was a part of growing up, not being able to go back to the way things were before. We’re all doing that now - growing up, I mean. We will be doing it for the rest of our lives. In a sense, no one ever reaches the stage of being grown-up.

Changes happen, forcing us to learn and reshape our lives in order to keep going, and our entire lives, starting from this point, will be a journey of self-discovery” - Derrill Hagood ’09, Day 8

“I am really starting to get sad that the trip is almost over. Today we wrote a letter to ourselves that we will receive next year when the next group prepares to go on their voyage. I wrote about all of the valuable lessons this experience has taught me and said that I hope that I am still the same person in a year as I am leaving this ship. We are anchored again tonight and it is raining, so we will only have one hour watches. My watch is from 4-5 a.m. which isn’t too bad.

One thing this voyage has really taught me is to try and look beneath the surface. On my first night on anchor watch I obviously judged my watch leader before I got to know her. She was pretty quiet and didn’t say much except that we needed to be quieter, so I thought she was really strict and mean because she was insecure, but boy was I wrong! Now that I have lived with her for almost ten days, I feel that I have gotten to know her and can say that I think she is

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one of the coolest people I have ever met and completely the opposite of insecure.

This is the same with almost all of the crew: I started out with one opinion about them, and now that I know them my view is completely different. After leaving this ship, I will try and not judge anyone before I get to know them, knowing that I might miss out on knowing someone really special if I do.

I am really thankful I have had the opportunity to go on this trip, because I feel that it has completely changed me and the way I view doing work, and it has helped me realize what is really important. I loved learning to sail a tall ship, and getting to know so many people that before I just considered my schoolmates. I came on this trip with the idea of getting a tan, missing a few classes and going to the Bahamas, and I am leaving a little bit tanner, but now I know that the destination is not what is important, it is the voyage that gets you there.”

- Caroline Ravenel ’10, Day 9 “Today was wet. What’s funny is that it really started out sunny. We had a beautiful clear sunrise after the lunar eclipse last night and the water was so calm and glassy and the wind so light that it took us 45 minutes just to try to tack at 5:30 this morning whereas, about an hour ago, the wind was so strong that we had to strike the jib! It slowly started to rain this afternoon, and it is now pretty well pouring. The sailing was great! The sails were full and beautiful, and we really loved getting to go so fast. All the huge waves mixed with the freezing rain while trying to prepare for a tack or take down the sails; it was so exciting! While we had “all hands” on deck the “idle hands” (people without a job) were all singing at the top of our lungs, soaked in the rain.

After lunch, we learned about celestial navigation and a little about how to use a sextant. It is cool to be able to plot our position and know exactly where we are in the world and what course we need to steer to get to our next point.

Since it is raining, we are having our talent show or “Foulie Formal” in the Main Salon which might impede some of the acts a bit, but it should still be a lot of fun and very funny! It is now or never, too, because tomorrow night, we will be underway. It is very strange to think that this trip is drawing to a close. I definitely miss the commodities of home, a shower in particular, but I will really miss living on the Spirit of South Caro-

lina with all of the other crew, teachers, and students.

That first cold day seems like ages ago, yet, at the same time, I feel like we have only just started this journey.

We are all enjoying and learning from every minute we have left of this trip, and are definitely having fun at the same time.”

- Olivia Hipp ’10 Day 9 “Anchor watches went well. Many were rained on pretty hard. This morning we pulled up the anchor and took off after breakfast. Due to weather, the sails are not up and we are speedily motoring to try and make it to Port Royal before the big storms hit. So far little rain but more to come this afternoon. The seas are a bit rough and we are rolling around quite a bit. Everyone is working together to help get us to our destination. Tonight we will spend the night on anchor and then be headed for the Charleston Harbor in the morning.”

- Libby Proctor’ 09, Day 9 “We had another stormy day yesterday, beginning with chilly and wavy seas as we left the Sapelo Sound and culminating with an amazing storm cloud hitting us as we pulled into the Port Royal Sound. Before we got off anchor yesterday morning, we had all hands on deck to double reef the main, anticipating storms forecasted on the VHF. We ended up motoring the whole day because we were headed into the wind, and the Spirit was rocking in the big swells. A few people didn’t feel well, but for the most part we seem to have our sea legs. The Junior Watch Officer program got underway yesterday, and we students started plotting our course on the chart, estimating our arrival time, and calculating our course steered hour by hour. It started to rain as we were pulling into the Port Royal Sound, a huge dark storm cloud coming on us very quickly and bringing with it lots of wind and rain. We didn’t see any wildlife yesterday but we encountered a bit of boat traffic crossing the entrance to the Savannah River.

Today we make our way home to Charleston.

- Emma Kofmehl ’09, Day 10 “So today is our last day and it has all come down to this: We worked hard, slept little, learned to go 10 days without a freshwater shower, saw wild horses and armadillos on Cumberland Island, learned to appreciate dry land and real beds, learned the names of a ton of sails and lines, met and formed bonds with some amazing people who we will remember for the rest of our lives, saw some amazing wildlife including Portuguese man-o-war’s and “mola-mola”, learned to steer by the stars and how to plot positions on a chart, looked hard for that “green flash” that came with every sunrise and sunset, saw hundreds of shooting stars as well as an eclipse, climbed out on the jib boom to furl sails, got a little sea sick, and most importantly, learned that life as well as other journeys are never about the destination, but about the journey itself.”

- Sarah Norvell ’09, Day 10

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