Ashley Hall students learned leadership and life skills during their 10-day sailing trip aboard the The Spirit of South Carolina towards North Carolina's coast.

The 140-foot tall ship left Charleston Harbor on Feb. 12, returning Feb. 21. Aboard the working schooner were 30 people total: nine professional crew members, three faculty members from Ashley Hall and 18 students.

Of the 18 students, six are from Mount Pleasant; with another from the Isle of Palms.

The sailing program is open to any school that is interested. SC Maritime Foundation can develop a custom program, anything from one day of sailing to multiple days of sailing.

"This is a program for any sort of student; any student can benefit from it. It is about who they are and doesn't matter about the background. The program puts people on the same platform and level to learn the same things," explained Sarah Piwinski, COO/CFO of SC Maritime Foundation.

This is the third year that Ashley Hall students have participated in this program. Thanks to an anonymous private donor who made a donation in 2007, Ashley Hall students can enjoy two more years of educational programming aboard the Spirit. Interested participants are required to write an essay and fill out an application. Students' grades and extracurricular activities are factored in as well. Once accepted into the program, students take a semester of classes, taught jointly by the South Carolina Maritime Foundation staff and Ashley Hall faculty in preparation for their journey.

"This program at Ashley Hall is a leadership and teamwork program. It really is something that tests [the students], making them realize that they are more capable than they thought," Piwinski said.

On the ship, students participate as active members of the crew, learning all aspects of shipboard life.

They are taught the traditional methods of navigation. Students were taught to think about what they really needed versus what they wanted. The water, food and electricity on board is what they used for the entire trip.

While they learned to manage consumption, they also learned about sustainability.

Technology is handy and helpful, but the students learned traditional methods of navigation (like looking at the stars and landmarks) should the technology give way.

Sophomore Danielle Feerst, a Mount Pleasant resident, said that she gained an appreciation for the sailors who would have come to discover America, people who were on these ships for so long and never knew if there was land.

While the students were brought into this completely new way of living and working together, they were also learning about themselves.

" As teenagers get away from computer and texts, they can focus on growing as a person for those 10 days," Piwinski said.

Feerst, who said she has been sailing over the summer since the sixth grade knew it would be a life-changing adventure.

"It [the trip] would push me and I would discover more about myself," said Feerst, before the trip began.

She said that she learned patience, especially when it was very cold or her friends were getting sea sick.

In the beginning part of the trip, a terrible storm blew through and everyone went through a sea sickness pattern. Feerst learned how a good attitude paid off. She said that she had to get used to a rigorous schedule of working on a ship at all hours.

"There was a lot of team work, selflessness. I had to be willing to put others before myself," she explained.

Mount Pleasant resident Margaret Shull learned about hard work and self-reliance as well.

Shull, who had very little sailing experience, said that the most rewarding aspect of the trip is taking away the knowledge that she accomplished this challenging journey and can accomplish any difficult or seemingly impossible feat.

"There were many things about this experience that seemed impossible at first; such as going for 10 days without showering and even running water, sleeping in a bunk that rocked so much you almost fell out of it, or climbing out onto the tip of the bowsprit to take down a sail while the waves crashed around you," she said.

"The most amazing part of this trip is accomplishing all of those 'impossible' tasks and then applying that to the rest of your life," she continued.

(Helen Ravenel can be reached at helen@moultrienews.com.)