Boys & Girls Club members go sailing




HIGH SEAS- A group of youngsters become crew members for a day aboard the 110-foot Irving Johnson. From left, Shane Weddle, Jasmine Anderson-Fransen, Tiana Sarmiento, Catherine Orellana, Ryan Weddle, Ryan Palmer and one of the ship's staff. Below, a square-rigged brigantine ship.

HIGH SEAS- A group of youngsters become crew members for a day aboard the 110-foot Irving Johnson. From left, Shane Weddle, Jasmine Anderson-Fransen, Tiana Sarmiento, Catherine Orellana, Ryan Weddle, Ryan Palmer and one of the ship’s staff. Below, a square-rigged brigantine ship.


Members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Conejo & Las Virgenes set sail on April 5 from San Pedro aboard the Irving Johnson, a 110foot, square-rigged, 2-masted brigantine.

Twenty-four boys and girls functioned as a working crew under the supervision of eight permanent, professional crew members. The youth manned the vessel’s helm, hoisted and lowered its sails and swabbed the decks.

Ryan Palmer, a seventh-grader at Los Cerritos Middle School, talked about the excitement of “being just like a sailor, out on the seas. We got to stand up on the crow’s nest, and even though we were hooked in, it was still pretty scary because up there the boat shakes even more. You could see the whole boat and the islands in the distance and other boats.”

In the ship’s galley Ryan and his friends prepared ham and eggs for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and spaghetti for dinner.

According to Becky Fleishman, one of three Boys & Girls Clubs staff members who accompanied club members on the two-day voyage, the youth cleaned their plates and utensils in buckets on the deck.

The young crew members anchored overnight in Long Beach beside the Queen Mary and the Black Pearl from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and participated in “man overboard” and “sinking ship” drills before disembarking the following afternoon.

For more information, to volunteer or to make a donation to the club, call (818) 880-8577 or visit www.bgcconejo.org.

 

 

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