Class Afloat

My experience on Class Afloat – Jesse S. (Duxbury)

I first heard about Class Afloat from Mr. Sarsfield in English 11 last year and the way he described it made it out to be a great travel experience and an awesome adventure overall. For the semester that I was aboard, it was that and more. Not only did we see amazing places like Dublin and Morocco, I and the rest of the crew formed bonds that we will probably keep for a long time to come. You may have heard on the news that the ship sank off the coast of Brazil a few weeks ago, although the ship went down, the SV Concordia remained strong by the friendships we had made. Not only did it connect us to each other, we were also joined to a larger group of alumni that had experienced life aboard. In fact, on the way back home a few old “floaties” (that’s what they call people who have sailed with the program) actually came and met us at the airport just to show us how much they supported us.

The program as a whole definitely contributed to my growth as a person, personal growth hadn’t even factored into my decision to apply for Class Afloat, but it ended up being one of the major things I can take from it.

Another experience I got from the program is the actual sailing, I had never been on any sort of sailing ship from a sloop to a super yacht before this, and the work is the most fun manual labour I have ever done. One of the highlights, climbing aloft (into the rigging) is very exhilarating, especially when the ship is rocking around. Even the most menial of tasks, such as chipping rust, isn’t so bad a job if you think of it as keeping your home in ship shape condition.

The travelling associated with sailing really opened my eyes as to how different other cultures are, and how similar. For example, in Senegal, a typical dish is made up of rice and chicken eaten with your hands from a large communal bowl, but the teenagers we met there like to hang out, play sports and shop just as much as we do. I really enjoyed my time aboard the Concordia, and I will definitely miss her.

I thought I would go over the events that occurred during and after the sinking of the ship, just to give you guys some perspective.

The events of the sinking of the S/V Concordia
Approx. 2:15 PM Wednesday -- Ship begins to rock quite heavily, we are excited for a big storm (rare but not new)

Approx. 2:20 PM -- Ship tilts all the way to port side, my biology class is told by Mrs. MacArthur to exit via the door to the reception area and then out the reception area hatch. Some people had started to get emotional.

Approx. 2:25 PM -- Immersion suits are handed out and we are told to don them, there are two groups of students, those of us on the side of the wheelhouse and those who were on the side of the mess. Several liferafts are already deployed and bobbing near the stern boat, we deploy the one that was out of the water on starboard side. This is the second time that it hits me that we were going down, and the first that I realised that all of my stuff was completely destroyed. Understandably, I didn’t really care at that point.

Approx. 2:28 PM -- We are given the order to enter the liferafts, the engineers go first and attempt to keep all of them together, several students are tasked with keeping the stern boat out of the way. I am helped into the first one by Rob, and make my way to the furthest one back (20 man raft). This was one of two of the times when I was really scared because the zodiac, which is a big plastic and inflatable rubber raft slammed against some students, crushing them underwater for a while. Thankfully they were alright afterwards.

Approx. 2:30 PM -- Due to the conditions and the stern boat flailing around, we decide to cast off and attempt to get away from the ship, from the window of the raft I see the keel of the ship slowly sinking. I was still pretty shocked, and I still get a bit emotional thinking about it.

Approx. 2: 45 PM -- We set up watches and attempt to catalogue supplies as well as set up rainwater catchers. We also string up lifejackets to provide blinking lights for later on. We had no idea how long it might be before help comes, so we told everyone that it would be a few hours, in fact a few months earlier the epirb, which is our satellite beacon, had gone off accidentally, and there were planes overhead within two hours.

The rest of that night -- We keep a constant watch, when it rains we use the cup from the supplies to pass water from the catcher in the roof. On watch I could easily see the blinking lights of the other liferafts a little ways off. Everyone who can, catches some sleep, others are sick the whole night.

The following evening, time unknown -- Natasha spots a plane, we set off at least one rocket flare and at least one hand flare, we notice the other rafts following suit and the plane circles overhead presumable to let us know that they have seen us. This is a major highlight.

Approximately 5 hours later -- We see lights in the distance and activate the SART (it had been running low on battery so we turned it off sometime earlier) that resolve into two ships as they approach. We light flares to catch their attention but they don’t appear to be moving towards us. We spot a third ship that comes towards us, the SART lets us know that it is working by beeping irregularly.

Approximately 1 hour later -- After several passes the Crystal Pioneer manages to get lines attached to life rings down to us, we secure them and are held near the base of the pilot's ladder. We are lowered a harness, and we climb the ladder with the aid of the harness one by one.

Approximately 30 minutes later -- I notice that the time on the clock in the Crystal Pioneer reads something like 5:15. We are well cared for and are given a place to shower and sleep. When we first sat down they gave us coffee, which tasted awesome at the time.

Approx. 12:00 PM -- We are told to grab what we owned and follow them to the deck, we would be transferred by boat to the other ship. We were then told that the transfer was denied because the swell was too great.

Several hours later -- We are escorted to an area where a helicopter was overhead with a harness lowered down, we are lifted up into the helicopter and transported 4 at a time to the Brazilian Navy frigate Constitucao, where we are given food and rooms and meet up with the Captain. We are told that everyone was alright, although the medical officer had broken a couple ribs and dislocated a shoulder when the handle on his door snapped off and he fell ten feet into his bed, he then relocated his shoulder and got out.

I’m so glad that everyone got out, and I’m definitely glad to be back home.