On April 15, select Year 9 Warwick Academy students went on a five-day trip aboard the Spirit of Bermuda.

One of the participants, Jack Fitzsimmons, said he was “extremely nervous” to board the boat and said: “I thought that this would be the last adventure of ‘Jack Fitzsimmons’ but it turned out to be one amazing adventure. There were about 20-22 students, two teachers, a very talented chef and a very polite crew.”

And an adventure it was, as it was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Students Elsie Hastings and Kaila Cook were also thrilled by the trip.

Elsie had an amazing time as well, saying it was “awesome” and she loved helping hoist the sails. She was “exhilarated” to board the ship and loved every second of her exciting and educational experience which was put to a sad end on the 20th of April.

Every day was on the same routine and every night they would measure the depth, wind direction, cloud coverage, cloud type, air pressure and bearings from the boat for the educational side of the trip, along with some other fun activities.

For the whole trip, the ship was either sailing or anchored and it was great fun.

Student Kaila Cook said: “Just being on the boat was amazing, with all the people that were there.”

On the second day, they sailed all the way from Dockyard to St George’s and had a blast. The third day was all about trust.

They went to Fort Cunningham in St George’s Harbour to observe and tour the fort and did teamwork and trust exercises.

They were put in a maze and had to work together to escape. There was also a High Ropes Challenge, where they were on a tightrope like rope with ropes on the side for support, and had to jump down and hope their partner would catch them.

Students also said that co-operation and patience were essential. “It was completely and totally about trust,” Kaila said.

Day four was another sailing day, the group sailed to Paget Island and then to Hamilton. Anything anyone left on the trip was put into a bag.

If you needed to get something back you had to tell a joke or do a funny dance, something for others to laugh at; this was amusing. As things steered to the end, all students had favourite parts to the trip, all could agree that the food was amazing.

It was very diverse every day and surely delicious, one of the things some enjoyed was the accurate routine.

They woke up, did morning exercises, ate breakfast (while other gender sailed alternated daily) and went back to the boat all at the same time every day.

Students thought the stay on the boat was “very comfortable” and “nice”, and when asked if they would recommend it they jumped immediately to say “100 per cent” and “1 million per cent”.

They said it helped with “teamwork, social skills and co-operation” and was a fantastic learning experience.

The group of lucky Year 9’s wanted to give a special shoutout to Mrs Zanders. Many students said she was very kind, nice and polite, explained everything amazingly well and they feel she shared all her knowledge with them as well as she could. They feel she made them very happy and made their experience that much brighter.

Warwick Academy would like to give a special thanks to Bermuda Container Line as they donate funds to help with the cost that Warwick Academy students have to pay to participate in this adventure.