Backtracking

Time for a little history.
Bermuda Sloop Foundation Home Page
also check them out on facebook for a more up to date look at their porgrams and even voyages coming up; Spirit of Bermuda facebook page


Adam and I in Maine



Arrival of Spirit 2006



We first became involved with the Bermuda Sloop Foundation in 2005 when they had a meeting for people interested in the construction of a Tall Ship for Bermuda. Mark and I both attended and although we were the youngest people there with the least amount of money our hearts were connected to it from the begining.  The Spirit of Bermuda is a an 86ft cedar fitted schooner with carbon fibre masts.  Historically she is a replical of traditional sailing vesseles built in Bermuda.  This purpose built sail training vessle has full classroom amentities including a projector, whiteboard, electronic capabilities like laptops, dvd etc. and is the most beautiful charter vessle anywhere near our waters. In 2006 I had the opportunity to go to Maine just after the launching of Spirit to assist with the development of the school curriculum for voyages.  Unfortunatly the maiden voyage was delayed and I had to return for my second year of teaching middle school.  Mark was able to fly to Maine where he met Adam who had been there since the launch and finished final preparations for sail and then sailed home to Bermuda together.  It was such an amazing expereince seeing Spirit coming in.  I remember driving along South Shore the afternoon the arrived in Bermuda waters and calling school for them to announce over the intercom she had arrived.  It still gives me chills because all I could think of was how that was what Bermuda's coast would have looked like 400 years ago.  A truly amazing expereince!!!



First middle school trip



At Risk Voyage 2007

 The next day I had arranged for my school to take a charter boat out to be part of the official arrival of The Spirit of Bermuda with the entire flotilla.  It was a charter never to forget, the kids all made signs and our choir even took part in the welcoming presentation at Albouys Point.  A short month later my middle school boys were the first middle school voyage to ever sail on Spirit.  Another unforgettable voyage.  Adam was my watch leader then and then again on following voyages.  One of the voyages I will never forget is the "at risk voyage" I helped organize the summer of 2007.  We asked for the most 'challenged/ behavioral problems' at each of the 5 middle schools on the island and took them out for 5 days the summer before they would all end up at one of the two only public high schools in Bermuda.  It was one of the longest and roughest voyages I have ever been on.  I cried every day o f that voyage, I know Adam felt the same struggle too but there was no one else better to lead those kids even though he was only a few years older than them.  All my years of teacher training could not compare to the way he was able to relate and get through to the kids.  When I wanted to beat my head against a wall or thrown one of them onto the deck he would be calmly teaching them knots or explaining flags.  In 2007 I also sailed on Europa on a 2 week voyage from France to Portugal in the Tall Ships race.  It made sail training stick with me and made me even more excited about Spirit. Then in 2008 I spoke at the STA Tall Ships conference in Liverpool on behalf of the Bermuda Sloop Foundation on linking sailing to the school curriculum.  It was a great networking expereince that solidifed my work with the ship.
It was only fitting that Adam be burried at sea by way of the Spirit.  That was not unlike the arrival of her 4 years prior.  After his death Mark and I and his family along with the Sloop Foundation (the foundation that is the charity that runs the Spirit) organized a scholarship in Adam's name.  Mark works on the Spirit as engineer on charter voyages when he can and is overall still very invested in the program.  He finds kids and sometimes apprentices to take part in the overseas voyages and everyone he has recommended has really benifited from the program. 



Adam's funeral flotilla

 This is why this last week was so important to me.  This is why I will continue to sail on my middle school voyages even when it is a double edged sorwd because missing my kids aches but sailing with the future fills my ache for all the children.