By Amy Hellewell
When I was in college, my roommate and I fell in love with a movie call “White Squall.” It was a movie about some young men, who during their senior year of high school, signed on to spend the year working on a Tallship (think pirate ship). It didn’t end well for those boys, but my roommate and I were so fascinated with this thought of sailing on a really old ship. We quickly searched for ships to sail on that next summer, but being poor college students, the dream quickly vanished.
Fast forward four years. I had graduated from BYU and moved back home in 2000 and caught the last 30 seconds of a PBS show about the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. During those last seconds they spoke about a ship called The Pilgrim that you could do volunteer work on Saturdays. I showed up that Saturday and started volunteering and was quickly welcomed into the family. I volunteered for 8 years, showing up most Saturdays to help maintain the ship, all for a chance to go sailing for a couple weeks. After a year I started working on the programs that you and/or many of your kids have been a part of. Elementary school children would come spend a day or night on the ship. The members of the crew would each play a part such as the Doc, the 1st and 2nd Mate, and the Captain. We provided an experience that you can’t have anywhere else and the kids, after 18 hours of being scared to death and then having a lot of fun, eventually didn’t want to leave. But it was sailing on the Pilgrim that I enjoyed the most.
We would leave Dana Point Harbor for two weeks and visit the different Channel Islands off the coast of California. Typically we would sail in the afternoon, anchor off of an island, explore the island and play in the water, and then pick up anchor the next afternoon and sail again. As a crew, we depended on each other everyday, working side by side, learning the uses for all 140 lines and which ones to haul on to raise and lower the 14 sails of the ship.
We not only depended on each other, but we depended on her, The Pilgrim, to get us to each destination safely. We took care of her and she became a living, breathing thing. Sometimes if the wind was strong enough we’d break her, and we’d spend the next day mending her wounds. We learned the different sounds, what angle the yard needed to be at to get the full wind into her sail, how to climb up to the Royal, the highest yard, in order to furl her sail and put her to bed for the night. As a crew we did hard things, we did things that scared us, and things that gave us a lot of satisfaction, and we did it all together.
It was an environment I thrived in, just like the team sports I grew up playing. When we were out at sea we didn’t have any worries of what was going on back on the mainland. It was a simple life and it gave us a great sense of accomplishment. It helped mold and shape me, gave me confidence in myself, gave me opportunities to be in charge, and to lead a crew. It was during this time that I started thinking about being a firefighter, which is my current job where I live now in Salt Lake City. I don’t think I’d be where I am today had I not had those experiences on The Pilgrim.
When I heard about her sinking, my heart sank. I’ve gone through a lot of emotions since and thought of all the good memories and friends I made during those years of sailing. It may sound funny, but it feels like I’ve lost really good friend. One of those friends that you could always count on. She was a lot of work, but if you took care of her, she’d take care of you.
