Ag Fair and Day Programs in St. Croix

February 22, 2026

The crew of the Denis Sullivan began their week by attending St. Croix’s Agricultural Fair. If you were to visit The Children's Museum booth right next door you would find World Ocean School’s station. Inside you would find three Deckhand/Educators eager to spread the word about our organization's mission and two sample lesson stations. The children of the Ag Fair learned the principles of how ships stay afloat in the ocean with our buoyancy lesson and learned the foundation of knot tying and the importance of knots on a tall ship with our knot lesson.

Later on, the crew prepared Denis Sullivan for her first Educational Day Program of the week with Central High School. It was a smaller class of high school students that came aboard but that only means that each student truly got most of their experience. After leaving the dock and setting four of her ten sails, the students split into watch groups with their respective deckhand/educators and began their rotations. Students first went through a ship's tour exploring the majority of the vessel, on deck and below. Completing their tour at the Quarter Deck each student then had time to actually get behind the wheel (or in front of in this case) and drive Denis Sullivan. Towards the end of this program, the students of Central High had the exciting opportunity to go out on the headrig. A very scary but very rewarding experience. Overall, a very exciting day for Central High!

For our most recent Educational Program for this week, Denis Sullivan had the pleasure of having St. Mary’s Catholic School aboard. On the dock, these students played “Human Knot” a game designed to embrace teamwork and communication before heading on board the vessel. After once again setting our four lower sails, which include the Mizzen, Main, Fore, and Stay’Sail, our students prepared for their rotations. The staple of this program being our Dutchman's Log lesson. If you are not familiar with the Dutchman’s log, it is an experiment that allows one to calculate the speed of their vessel without any fancy navigational instruments. And that is exactly what the students of St. Mary’s accomplished.

We are looking forward to welcoming a new group of students on board for this coming week. Stay tuned!

Armando