Last
night, Fred Littleton spoke of his trip aboard the Effie M.
Morrissey in 1940. At the end of the trip, there wasn't
a lot of choice about breakfast cereals. It was Wheaties
and that was that. (Capt. Bartlett had a sponsorship
deal with them and is the only explorer to have appeared on
their box.) Well, this morning as the sun rose, so did
the ship and we were hauling up the main sail at 0600 without
the help of a Wheaties breakfast! Mate Gwen Matusek woke
up all the sleeping hands with a rousting call to the
halyards with a promise of tooth brushing after the anchor was
up! By
about 0630, the sail were up, the anchor was off the bottom
and we were underway, heading back home to New Bedford.
Our new steward, Kate, did a spectacular job with breakfast. We
all had a good appetite after all the heaving and hauling. All
watches broke into field day, cleaning all the nooks and
crannies of lovely Ernestina. The After School kids did
a wonderful job and the old girl was looking GREAT! (The
heavy boson's locker was even moved to get under the sole
plates!) All
watches then went into a friendly competition of American
Idol...at Sea. Erika Pires started the event with an
incredible rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner".
She has a beautiful voice! C-Watch sang "Johnny
Come Down to Hilo" complete with interesting costumes.
Randy Rivet's accent was so good, you'd think the island he
had just been on was Jamaica, not Martha's Vineyard!
B-Watch performed "Walk Around the Capstan" - a
song from our recent play, "Moby-Dick ~ The
Musical." Kristin York, another wonderful singer,
did a great job leading that. Finally, A-Watch sang a
chantey about Noah's Ark called "A Long Time Ago."
Jimmy Muse looked quite authentic in his sou'wester and foul
weather gear! Even Paula Abdul herself was present to
judge the competition in full Hollywood-style costuming!
She looked surprisingly like our new program coordinator,
Gretchen Stuppy. Hmmmmm. All
watches then participated in a Ernestina Olympics event, doing
a pin chase, naming lines and parts of the ship, and answering
trivia questions based on the ship's history. We
arrived back into New Bedford Harbor at 1430 and were greeted
by family members and a food delivery which many of the
students stayed and helped with. The last three days have
been a bonding time for the kids, the crew and our dedicated
chaperones, Jim Muse and Bob Rocha. We thank the
Invest-In-Kids program for the opportunity to share this
experience. We also look forward to the fall for another
exciting year with the Ernestina's after school programs.
Program Coordinators: Polly Zajac, Kristen
Sharpless
Captain: Willi Bank
Here are some comments from
students:
"Thank you so much
for giving me the experience of a lifetime. I did not think
when I left on Sunday I would have a very good time. Boy was
I wrong!" "I
have memories to last a lifetime. Thank the crew and
everyone involved in the after-school program."
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Johnathan, Kristin, Krystal, and Erika get ready for American Idol at Sea
Randy, Jim, Erin, and Jeremy also get ready
Is it Paula Abdul?
OK, it's not....
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