THE SPIRIT of Bermuda raced home this week from Rockport, Maine on the last leg of her first overseas Tall Ship campaign.

In total, the sloop logged some 6,000 miles in winds from 0-50 knots and won acclaim in overseas ports from Charleston, South Carolina to Halifax, Nova Scotia and was dubbed "the jewel of the (Tall Ship) fleet" and "my favourite" on numerous media blogs.

Martin Hatfield, of the Bermuda Sloop Foundation, said more than 500,000 people admired her at the dock and 40,000 people toured the ship.

He said praise was heaped on her enthusiastic young Bermudian crew who conducted the tours. Despite being overrun by endless lines of rubber-necking tourists, the youngsters remained calm, polite and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience.

It has been a long summer for the crew of the Spirit and besides the six voyages across the Gulf Stream, 15 students also successfully completed a demanding ten-day wilderness course at an Outward Bound retreat in northern Maine while the Spirit was in port for a refit.

"I thought they needed a break from the sea to freshen up," Captain Chris Blake said this week.

"To maximise the learning, we've been rotating watch leaders this summer and had exchanges with Germany from the square-rigger Gorch Foch and Dutch navy trainer Urania," he added.

Madeline Gardner, 19, who is studying bio-engineering at Tufts University, and high school student Collin Campbell, 16, were appointed watch leaders on the most recent voyage.

"Although this is not the first time I have sailed on board a Tall Ship training vessel, I found this summer to be a step beyond my previous voyages," Madeline said.

"One reason for this was because this was a Bermudian programme which placed me with other young adults from the same country, each of us with very different life experiences."

She described her time with the Spirit of Bermuda as very rich and rewarding.

"I also found a great deal of pleasure in learning about some of Bermuda's maritime history. It would be sad if Bermuda's maritime traditions and community of sporting sailors did not continue to have a major presence in Bermudian culture," she said.

"The Bermuda Sloop programme is not perfect. However, having just completed its first year I believe that it has the potential to grow and become a great asset to our island community.

"It quite simply needs the funding and support for it to continue and develop and I will support the Bermuda Sloop Foundation in any way I am able to."

Madeline also served on the Foremast Watch along with Elijah Simmons, Travis Robinson, Tyneisha O'Connor and Steven DeSilva, while Mainmast Watch included Reid Perinchief, Raymond Brangman, Marcus Fox, Campbell Duffy, Gina Richardson and Paul True.

At only 17, Raymond has completed numerous trips with the crew of the Spirit:

"This programme has helped me to develop into a better person. I also think the activities aboard the ship are very interesting. Some of the activities include cooking, seamanship, engineering and navigation.

"The ship is an educational ship that will teach young Bermudians what they can do in their futures. My experiences with the Spirit of Bermuda have been phenomenal."

Raymond said he was surprised to find himself participating in the Outward Bound programme, but was happy at the chance to do something different.

"The first week we went backpacking on four or five mountains. Every morning we had to be up by 6.30 a.m. to start our day. I didn't imagine myself climbing the third tallest mountain in Maine."

He added that sometimes he thought he would never make it because parts of the mountain seemed impossible to hike, but he pressed on and couldn't wait to get back to Bermuda and share the experience.

"On the second week at the Outward Bound Wilderness retreat we went rock climbing, swimming, running, completed obstacle courses and went canoeing. On the last day it was a long run. They wanted to see us young adults challenge ourselves for the last time," he recalled.

The Mizzenmast Watch consisted of Collin Campbell, Rayanne Brangman, Joshua Iris, Tristan DeSilva, Mario Swainson and Liz Chang.

Mr. Hatfield added that Spirit would be conducting two Under-16 Skiller five-day voyages this month from the August 20 to 24 and again from August 27 to 31 with a much-needed break in September for the professional youth crew.

"We are going to recharge our own batteries," Captain Blake said.

"We also promised our chairman we would report back to the people of Bermuda on how their kids are doing."