It was a Brilliant sail.
During the summer of the year 2019, eight girls from the NY Harbor School were asked to crew the sailing vessel Brilliant, for five days in the New England. During those five days we were expected to be able to trust and care for those around us even though we didn’t really know each other. On day one we introduced ourselves to one another and we met three incredible people which were, Captain Mackenzie, deckhand Johnny and the cook Jamie. Captain Mackenzie told us that the most important thing that was needed on Brilliant was communication, the reason being was that we needed to make sure that everything on the boat was well taken care of and that everything was done properly, so they took away our phones for those five days, so we can be more focused and be able to meet each other well.
The first day we all woke up early at 6 am to be ready to sail brilliant. We were each instructed to do a task in two groups of four to be able to finish quicker. We were instructed to maintain the boat by washing the deck of brilliant with brooms and water while another group is drying the already wash side of the sailboat. I believe maintaining a boat is really important because you don’t want to live in a dirty place, you want to be able to sleep and eat in a clean space. Furthermore, (back to the trip) When our work was completed we all ate then began to get ready to sail, we then put up the sails one by one with each others help, the sails weren’t easy to put up, they felt extremely heavy, but it got easier to lift up with a lot of people helping. Each sail had a name which was the Jib, Staysail, Foresail, Mainsail. For me the sail I liked the most was the foresail because it was the easiest to lift up and the sail I least liked was the mainsail because of how heavy the sail was, I especially didn’t like how we had to put down the sails at the end of the day and fold the sails which took a while to do especially if it wasn’t done correctly we had to re-fold the sail.
I believe that the trip was a great experience because we all got to try something new, we got to experience a life without any electronics, we experienced sea sickness, we got to jump off the boat to 60 feet deep water. And many more but for me these three stand out the most because first: we lived for five days without our phones, TV, music, netflix, absolutely nothing and before I left my house I downloaded like one hundred shows so I can watch then at night and stuff, for them to tell me that they were taking our sweet beautiful phones. So we had no communication with our family members or friends for five days, we had no netflix, no music, just absolutely nothing for those five days and I wasn’t going to read a book. For me the crazy part was not being able to communicate with any one, it got to a point where I started to overthink and believe certain things going on in my head like “what if my mom just got randomly sick and i'm here IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN” but then I tried to relax and enjoy the trip, and keep a positive mindset.
Two: Before going on the trip, I was reading the list Aaron gave us telling us what to bring and I read bring sea sick pills, at first I wasn’t going to get it because my doctor was type far not gonna lie, but then I just got up and got the pills because it's better to be safe than sorry, better to have something and not need it than need something and not have it. So, I got the pills expected me not to use them but little did I know almost all of the girls on board ended up being sea sick, especially me. It was so bad that when we sailed one day to watch the fireworks from the boat, one of the girls ended up throwing up. I feel like I am making this trip sound awful but it was really fun besides the sea sickness, like for example, three: we got to sail to the beach and mid way I was looking at the water with three girls from my watch (group) and we were talking about how beautiful the water looked like, how peaceful everything was and how we really wanted to get in the water. At this point we didn’t expect the captain to say yes but since there was no wind he jumped and said sure and after he jumped we all did. That experience for me was amazing because I’ve never swim in sixty feet deep water without a PFD which was cool experience that I will never forget. Overall, the trip on brilliant showed me how I can live a beautiful life without a phone if I am busy at all times doing something that I truly enjoy. It also taught me patience and to always be prepared for any situation.
Josmarie on the helm sailing through Fishers Island Sound on the schooner from Brilliant Mystic Seaport Museum.