There was something about being out on the water that changed Justin Marrero.

Like most people with autism, Marrero, a 14-year-old freshman at American High School, has trouble socializing. For the first two months of the school year, he didn't say a word to his classmates or teachers.

But one day in mid-October, according to teacher Annie Perez, he learned to sail as part of the Anchors Away program and began to repeat what she told him. Later, on shore at Oleta River State Park, she said he pointed to one of the two-person fiberglass vessels and said ``sailboat.''

That one word made the day for Perez, an adapted physical education teacher at the high school. The hours of work she had spent with him in the sailboat were paying off.

``I felt really good that he was able to communicate something, and I understood,'' she said.

On Oct. 22, Perez watched Marrero and other students with disabilities maneuver their boats at Oleta River State Park. A steady westward wind propelled them across the water's surface.

It was not just another class. On shore, a crowd of community leaders, including Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, gathered to recognize the program that makes experiences like Marrero's possible.

The Anchors Away Foundation has been helping students with physical and intellectual disabilities learn how to sail and develop other related skills in the marine industry since it was founded in 2002. The foundation came about as a collaborative project between Jayne Greenberg, the director of health literacy for Miami-Dade Public Schools, the Aventura Marketing Council and Aventura City Commissioner Billy Joel, now the foundation's president.

Greenberg said the program gives students with disabilities a chance to exercise, stay fit and improve their quality of life.

``Sailing levels the playing field,'' she said. ``When the students are on the boat, they are independent; there are no boundaries, limitations or barriers.''

The foundation launched six new specially equipped boats Oct. 22, bringing its total to 35. The boats, specially equipped accessible dinghies, are manufactured in Australia.

With the help of donors and sponsors, the foundation purchases the boats, which each cost about $3,800, along with specialized motorized equipment adapted for children without arms, wheelchairs designed to be used on the beach and other equipment needed for the program. The students have sailing classes once a week at Oleta River State Park or at the docks operated by the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, the Miami Yacht Club. Soon, they also will have access to the Larry and Penny Thompson Park in South Miami-Dade.

The event was a way for those present to recognize the foundation and the sponsors who make its work possible.

North Miami Beach Mayor Myron Rosner, who uses a wheelchair and owns his own adapted sailboat, told the crowd of about 50 people that he has experienced first-hand how important the act of sailing can be for a person with a disability, especially if that person is able to do it with little or no help.

``It's to be given your freedom back,'' he said in an interview. ``Just something minute like that, to be able to go out on your own. . . . Most people just don't realize what they have.''

There were 65 students with disabilities present from Braddock High School, North Miami Beach High School and Jorge Mas Canosa Middle School. Volunteer student mentors came from Hialeah Gardens High School, North Miami Beach High School and Felix Varela High School.

They were all in their boats and on the water before the speeches had finished. Kathryn Guevara, 20, steered her boat toward shore by using a joystick.

Guevara, a student at North Miami Beach High, has cerebral palsy.

She has trouble speaking and her hands are shaky, but with the joystick she can move her boat through the water just like her peers. An assistant was perched on the boat behind her to help in case she needed it.

At school later that afternoon, Guevara told her teachers about the day.

She used a machine with a touch screen that allows her to input letters, figures and words. When she's done, she presses part of the screen, and her message comes out of speakers on the side of the box. The voice is robotic, like a GPS, but the words are hers.

She worked for several minutes, then tapped on the screen one more time:

``In the water, I am happy.''

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