School at Sea

By Lynn Wisloski

I woke up to the smell of mildew and sensed a queasy feeling in my stomach. I wondered to myself exactly why I had taken this trip in the first place. The deck hand was shaking my shoulder and I slowly came to the realization it was my turn for anchor duty. I was so tired from the Dramamine I had been taking I could hardly function. Hiking in the rain forests the whole day definitely helped feed my fatigue. I climbed out of my crowded bunk and realized I had brought way too much luggage. We had to sleep with everything we brought and my duffel bags were bigger than I was. I grabbed my army blanket and climbed up on deck.

The night sky that greeted me as I took my post was magnificent. The stars were brighter than any I had ever seen and it looked as though I could reach out and grab the moon. Two of my bunkmates were sleeping up on deck because they were too sick to sleep in the smelly, crowded cabin. I looked out at the calm sea and smelled the salty air. Well, two days had passed and I was surviving. I was thinner and sicker than when I had started, but I was proud of myself for sticking with it and getting closer to my goal. The rest of the class were having just as hard of a time as I was, so I didn't feel too incompetent.

When I had first heard of this trip through my college I thought it sounded great. It would be a whole week of sailing around the Virgin Islands, travelling from one island to the next and earning a few credits while I was at it. The credits aren't as hard to earn as I thought since it is a spiritual learning adventure and all we have to do is keep a journal and read a little. The hard part is sailing and living as primitively as possible. I can't stand the way I smell. I brought Dove soap and they made me throw it away and use Ajax dish detergent to wash with since it is biodegradable. Not only that, but the sea water we collect for washing is directly across from the other side of the boat where we dump all our excrement. I cringe every time I wash my hair in my biodegradable shampoo and try not to think about where the water is coming from.

As I was drowning myself in these thoughts during anchor duty, one of the torrential downpours started and I wrapped my thin blanket around myself and waited for it to pass. The rains came once about every hour, but they only lasted a couple of minutes. The people sleeping on deck just groaned a little and rolled over. Not much longer and I'd be able to go back to bed...

Next thing I know, I'm being shaken on the shoulder again. "Time to go back to bed," said the burly deck hand. I guiltily went over to where my friends were sleeping and felt bad I had fallen asleep on the job. If for some reason the anchor had drifted and were far off course it would have been my fault. I lay down and fell asleep for about an hour with the beautiful night sky as my blanket. At 7 AM I was rudely awakened by the breakfast bell. I guess I really shouldn't call it the breakfast bell because nobody ever ate breakfast. After sleeping on a rocking ship the whole night we found it hard to stomach cold eggs and purified sea water that tastes like bleach.

After I had mushed my eggs around in my ketchup for a while breakfast was over and we washed our dishes. We pumped water with our feet from the deck into a bucket to wash the dishes and brush our teeth. Some of us swabbed the deck while others cleaned the toilets. Before we had class we had to get the sails up. We knew it would take twenty minutes of hard work and rope burn, but at the same time it was kind of fun working together. The best part about it was knowing that it was solely our man power that was getting us to our next destination, Norman Island, otherwise known as Treasure Island.

The sails were put up successfully with help from the four deck hands that had accompanied us on our trip. Without them and our teacher to help float The Spirit of Massachusetts we would have been lost. Next we had class, but only about half of us showed up because the other half were too seasick. They were down below trying to sleep, or hanging over the side losing the little of the breakfast they had managed to force down. Class was always pretty interesting though. Our teacher was trying to get us to open up and explore the spiritual realms of life and we learned about one another a little bit more each day.

After class we wrote in our journals for a little while until we arrived at Treasure Island. Today was "loner day." We had to go off by ourselves equipped with nothing but fins and a snorkel to explore the island. I was pretty excited, but a little bit frightened at the thought of being face to face with a hungry Barracuda. We boarded the dinghies, rowed ashore, and then split up. When I was off on my own and snorkeling I saw the most beautiful little fish and fluorescent colored coral reefs I had ever seen. Even the music of the sea was enchanting. Under the water you could hear the baby Barracuda making noises that sounded like a symphony of piccolos. When I got out of the water to explore, I was surrounded by a white sandy beach and huge palm trees. Further on into the island I knew there was a resort where I would probably meet up with some of my classmates. I explored most of the island carrying my fins and snorkel and wearing nothing but my bathing suit.

When I got to the resort I found my friends relaxing and recuperating. We decided to go back to the ship together. When we got back to the ship the crowded bunks and stinky resting quarters didn't seem especially inviting after our glimpse at the resort's living quarters. My two good friends and I decided that night would be a good night to be wimps and take a dingy to a hotel. Of course, this was looked down upon by the die-hard members of our group, but a real shower and a bed with clean sheets sounded great to me by then. They put us out on the dingy and brought us halfway into shore. We had to heave our bags over our heads and walk in the waist high ocean to the beach. That night I had never felt so relieved to take a real shower and sleep in a real bed. My friends and I went out to explore the night life on the island and found the people to be very friendly and the dancing to be plentiful. We had a great time, although wearing dirty shorts and a shirt I washed in sea water that day, I didn't feel as though I quite fit in with all the snazzy tourists.

The next day on our trip home I looked back on my journey and couldn't believe what I had accomplished. I was so proud of my group of friends and myself for having cooperated to complete a trip that at first seemed impossible. It was true that at some points the seasickness was unbearable and personal hygiene went out the porthole. However, I couldn't believe how much I had learned about people, friendship and cooperation in one week. If I had to do it all over again I definitely would, although next time I would bring a little less luggage and a little more Dramamine.