Reunions

8/17
As the summer season with Ocean Classroom comes to a close, I find myself at a point of great personal richness. I have advanced as a sailor, I have grown closer with my shipmates and I hope the friendships last.
I have been tested as a man by the seas and the ship and by all the other facets of everyday life I find myself in.
Here we are, full circle, back in Boston, where the summer began, preparing for the final stretch of the season. This time, though, the whole Ocean Classroom fleet is together, as Gamage is rafted up alongside the Spirit of Massachusetts and the Westward. It’s not often we get to have all three ships together like this, but here we are, and we will all finish the season together.

After my stint on the Gamage, I will head up to Nova Scotia and spend the next 18 to 20 months back with the Picton Castle, maintaining her through the winter and sailing her across the Atlantic, around Europe and the North Sea, down Africa, to Brazil, and back to Nova Scotia by way of the Caribbean. Someone will be giving me money to do all this, by the way, a fact that still baffles me.
The recent days have been challenging, and as is always the case, my alone time and quiet moments for meditation have been my closest allies. Perhaps the greatest challenge of the summer has been the separation from loved ones. It is extremely difficult for me, though luckily, having grown close and bonded with crewmates, I am never far from a brother or sister. Unfortunately, as is always the case, we will soon be parting ways and I will gain more friends whose company I will soon be wishing for.
So it goes.
That is why we can dream of heaven, and I can dream of having all my friends and family with me on a ship and we can all sail and have adventures together.