Fair Winds, CTY Trip 2!

Today is day eight of trip two for the CTYers this summer, and tomorrow morning our students leave bright and early to make their way back to Baltimore.  Today was a fulfilling final day, and the students have been singing the chorus of "I don't want to leave" all day.  The Lady Maryland docked last night in Dutch Harbor next to another boat out of Mystic called the Brilliant.  The Brilliant was originally a private yacht from the 1920s that was meant for pleasure sailing around the world but works today as a sail training vessel.  The students of the Brilliant and our students on the Lady Maryland gave tours to each other of their respective boats. The Lady Maryland was much larger and rougher since she is designed as a working boat, while the Brilliant was designed as a pleasure yacht.  Our students especially liked the fancy heads (or toilets) on the Brilliant much better than the rustic ones of the Lady Maryland.  It was a unique experience to have the two groups interact and proudly show off their homes.
After the tour the crew of the Lady Maryland sailed off the hook and headed toward their final destination for tomorrow.  There were fair winds and good sailing to be had all day, the perfect weather for the last day.  As we sailed the students had a "field day" where they gave the Lady M a bath from top to bottom, preparing for the next group of students.  After we anchored, the students then participated in the Schooner Olympics, a series of competitions centered around the ship and their duties while on watch.  There was a balentine off, a watch relay, the knot tying competition, standing orders sprint, and the classic sailing test - the pin rail chase, or line chase.  All of the students performed incredibly during these mini Olympics, and proudly showed off all they had learned over the past eight days.  And they have learned an incredible amount - how to sail a schooner, all about whales and estuaries, and about what it means to work as a team and to respect other people.  This is perhaps the most important lesson that they will walk away with - that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and you can work well with just about anyone.  As they leave the Lady Maryland they will take more with them than book knowledge, and will hopefully continue to implement it back on land.