All Hands On Deck: 12 BPS Students Take To The Seas

BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A dozen Boston Public School students spent two weeks at sea and arrived back in Boston on Friday.

The sailing program is through the nonprofit World Ocean School, which provides immersive, hands-on education to hundreds of students every year.

Their mission is to “empower students from all backgrounds to be courageous and compassionate changemakers for themselves, their communities, and our planet” through programs sailing aboard their tall ships, the Denis Sullivan and the Roseway.

A dozen students from the Boston International Newcomers Academy set sail aboard the 137-foot schooner, the Denis Sullivan, on June 24.

They headed up to Maine and back on a 12-day voyage, although Eden Leonard, the executive director of World Ocean School, said that wasn’t the original plan.

“The plan was to voyage to New York City, but the weather wasn’t cooperating so they voyaged up to Maine and had a voyage of a lifetime.”

Leonard explained what the experience was like for the students. “They become crew on board, so they raise the sails, and they stand watch, and they do the chores,” like washing the head, or the bathroom, and the soles, or the floors.

Adelino is 15 years old and said that the voyage taught him a lot about himself.

“I learned that I could do dishes. I learned that I could do a lot of stuff like I could climb up very high. I didn’t know that stuff about me.”

He said that at first, the journey was a rough one. “When I started, it was not good because we were going to go two weeks without using the phone, but when we started doing the thing, it was mad fun. We started pointing the sail and seeing whales.”

Adelino’s favorite part was night sailing and being able to look up at the dark sky filled with stars.

Students learned about navigation, were taught how to shuck oysters, and saw a variety of wildlife like whales and dolphins.

“I saw many whales. It was really beautiful,” said Barthelemy, who recently immigrated from Haiti.

“The hard thing was to remember the name of the line. That was really hard,” he said.

Kara, a mate on board, said they loved seeing the kids become more confident. 

“For a lot of them, climbing aloft builds their confidence. For a lot of them, jumping off the side of the boat and swimming was really cool,” they explained.

“So we went on to anchor, and we would have the students swim, and a lot of them were pretty hesitant, but by the end, everyone wanted to get into the water.”

Leonard explained that this kind of experience is life-changing.

“When they do a voyage like this, they come back and they say, ‘Well, if I can do this, I can do anything.’”

WBZ NewsRadio's Suzanne Sausville (@WBZSausville) reports.

Follow WBZ NewsRadio: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | iHeartmedia App | TikTok