EIGHTEEN young men and women recently stepped outside their comfort zone by boarding the Spirit of Bermuda for a week-long intensive training programme at sea. This life transforming experience challenged them towards a path of self-discovery wrought with bouts of seasickness, encounters with flying fish and early morning watches that would have the hardiest sailor struggling to stay awake.

Bermuda Sloop Foundation director Malcolm Kirkland explained that the Young Adult Development Programme's objective is to accelerate the focus and development of the young adults and guide them towards becoming a positive force in their own lives - both in terms of resiliency and skills.

But more important, he says, it would help them develop a sense of self, as well as a sense of place in the unique environment that only sailing at sea can provide.

At the end of the first of their three, five-day voyage, The Mid-Ocean News met the crew on their return to Dockyard to get the scoop on what the experience was like.

The first young man to introduce himself was 18-year-old CedarBridge Academy student Mario Swainson.

With a broad smile he described his experience as "fun, but hard" and like many of his fellow crew, felt the most important thing he learnt during the five-day voyage was the importance of team work.

"You have to learn how to really work as a team and you notice if one of your team mates slacks off because it effects the rest of the team and comes down hard on the rest of us who then have to work harder," he explained.

He felt the hardest part of the voyage was not staying awake, but in fact sleeping: "I got stuck with all the crappy watches. Some were from midnight until four in the morning and some were from four o' clock in the morning until 8 o' clock in the morning and it was just.... horrible."

During these watches Mario was responsible for navigating, trimming the sails, keeping a lookout for other ships and filling out a captain's log. However, the peace and quiet of being at sea with just the wind and the waves for company made the watches bearable. And with a chuckle admitted that not having any cell phone coverage during the voyage turned out to be blessing.

This was 19-year-old Kanhai Woolridge's third voyage and the young man, who works at the Hamilton Princess, was chosen as a watch leader, a leadership position he said made him extremely proud.

"I oversee general safety... basically just ensure the environment is safe for everyone," he explained.

Considering he had more experience than any of the youngsters, Kanhai felt they did look to him for guidance, but said the hardest part was getting them motivated and showing them the importance of team work, especially when were all horribly seasick.

One of these challenges was getting them to work together: "After the first three days they saw how working together made everything easier so it was smooth sailing for the last two days."

When asked about any experiences he could have done without, Kanhai described how during a watch, one of the other youngsters threw up and vomit hit him in the mouth.

"It was kind of nasty, but we can laugh about it now," he said with a broad smile as crew members listening in burst into laughter.

Kanhai said he would like to participate in at least one sail programme a month and looks forward to meeting new youngsters and reaching out to them.

"They could be going down the wrong road and I would like to guide them, talk to them and help them," he added.

Kanhai was on the maiden voyage from Rockport, Maine and said the experience was very humbling when he realised just how small he was on board the sloop in the middle of the Atlantic.

Raymond Brangman, 18, is a GED student with Adult Education and will be remembered by the rest of the crew as one of the few people to get hit by a flying fish.

With a laugh he explained how he was knocked flat onto his back on the deck and never thought a fish could do that.

The youngest member of the crew was 17-year-old Blake Somner who was working at the Royal Yacht Club when Mr. Kirkland enticed him to join the crew.

"At first I didn't want to come," he admitted, but after his five-day experience admits that he learnt the importance of team work and hopes to be included in the crew to participate in the Tall Ships Challenge in Charleston, South Carolina in May next year.

The student crew was under the command of Captain Chris Blake OBE who said he was surprised by the challenges the older group posed.

"They were a mixed group, but not one of the easiest groups to handle. Some were not used to hard work, got seasick and a few of them played on it, but when they reflect, they got a whole lot from it, but at the time they were not very impressed," he said.

Captain Blake said the greatest challenge was getting the group to realise that if they didn't work, the ship was not going anywhere and this was not necessarily something that got easier as the days went by. If anything, he said, it just became more interesting.

"They became more pliable!"

One thing that they do have is a good sense of humour, which he just had to stay on top off, sharing with them that they would only get out of it what they put into it.

When compared to the earlier group of 14-year-old girls and boys, Captain Blake said the older teenagers gave up a lot quicker: "It was a little too hard, too difficult, too complicated, too uncomfortable and a lot of the 14-year-old girls did a lot better than these rough and tough boys."

However, he hoped that when this group thought about it, they would realise that it was an exceptional experience and something that could help them in the future.

Captain Blake has worked with sail training programmes in the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong and with a laugh admitted the kids are kids no matter where in the world they are: "Seasick is seasick no matter what nationality you are."