Different Drum Sailing Adventures

More about SeaWeek!

What is Sea Week? Sea Week is a five to twenty-one day live-aboard sailing program for middle school, high school and college students that combines classroom learning, real life applications, fun and adventure. Sea Week is offered during the summer and throughout the school year including Spring Break.

Where will I sleep and what will I eat? You will eat, sleep, study, cook, read, and relax aboard Boundless, a 46’ ocean sailing ketch (2 masts). Boundless can fly 4 different sails at once, has 2 heads (bathrooms to a landlubber), a galley (kitchen) with a gimbaled stove (look it up!), on deck "sun" showers, and bunks for 6 students and 3 adults. "Luxury Camping" describes it best. We eat fairly "normal" food, so if you have special requirements, just let us know and we’ll try to accommodate you.

Do I need any previous sailing experience? In a word...no! Part of each day will be spent sailing, and you’ll learn to sail as we explore and travel the Chesapeake Bay. By the end of the week you will have had enough "hands on" experience to sail any similarly sized boat with confidence.

What will we do each day? A lot! In addition to learning to sail, you’ll learn how to read a sailing chart (map) and use algebra and geometry formulas as we navigate. You’ll learn about the lives of the early explorers as we tour historic settlements like St. Mary’s, MD, and assess the health of the Bay as you collect and analyze water samples from different anchorages. You’ll also learn how to forecast the weather as we study down-loaded satellite images from our on-board weather fax and keep daily logs of the barometric pressure and other weather observations. In certain parts of the Bay, you can collect sharks’ teeth and fossils embedded in cliffs along the beach.

What else? Fun...have we mentioned having fun yet? Of course there will be time to go swimming and beach walking. Some evenings we’ll watch a movie (there is a DVD on board) and eat popcorn or play board games. Water balloon fights just...happen. On our longer trips we’ll travel as far as the busy harbors of Washington, D.C., Baltimore or Norfolk and explore nearby attractions. And if we do happen to be anchored near civilization, we’ll row ashore in the dinghy and find pizza!

What do I need to bring? After you’ve signed on we’ll give you information on how to pack and what to bring, but it probably won’t be anything you don’t already own. We do ask that you bring a willingness to learn new things with an attitude of flexibility and cooperation. Living and working in close quarters can at times be taxing, and a lousy attitude just makes it worse for everyone on board, so leave it ashore.

What shouldn’t I bring? We are a tobacco, drug, and alcohol free program. For the safety and health of us all, leave it behind. If you are addicted to one of these, please do not use Sea Week as your withdrawal time. Quit before you come. Any student found in the use or possession of tobacco, alcohol, or drugs will immediately be put ashore to be picked up by a parent or guardian. What if you’re 18 or older? Tough, the same rule applies.

Who teaches this? We are Captains Jeff and Liz Armor, and we have been high school educators for over 20 years. In the fall, late spring, and summer, we offer educationally based sailing programs on the Chesapeake Bay and similar programs in the Bahamas in the winter. In addition to having taught math, science, English, and music, we have been teaching adventure based educational programs including rock climbing and wilderness survival for over 15 years. We both hold United States Coast Guard Master Captain’s licenses and are Red Cross certified in First Aid and CPR. In 1993 we began a 14 month cruise aboard our own 28’ sailboat Different Drum, crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice and logging over ten thousand nautical miles beneath our keel.

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