One of the most rewarding experiences that sail training offers, in my opinion, is the incredibly close knit community that we belong to. This experience was underscored this past summer when fellow tall ship sailor, Emma Charles, and I reunited on the S/V Concordia.
Emma and I both started on the very same day in Philadelphia while serving as volunteers on the U.S. Brig Niagara during Tall Ship Ships 2000. We were both the youngest people onboard – I was sixteen, Emma seventeen. We forged a friendship that summer that has stood ever since. During the winter we rarely stay in touch, but we have ended up seeing each other every summer since through various ASTA Tall Ships gatherings. This year was no different.
This summer the schooner Bluenose II made a stopever in newport. Since I was working in the ASTA office there for the month of June, I decided to take a tour and low and behold, Emma was crewing onboard. She told me we were lucky to have caught each other because she was living in a week for the West Coast to sail on Concordia. While we laughed at the coincidence at ending up together again on Concordia, we somehow were not surprised.
This summer Emma and I were both living out a dream onboard Concordia. Having both started as volunteer deckhands, we were finally in positions in which we were teaching other young people, who were the same age as when we started in 2000, about tall ships and sail training. Emma was serving as the 2nd mate, and I as the Summer Shipboard Director.
The sail training community is more than just small and close knit. It is a community based on relationships, and the passing of knowledge to new sailors. Just as sail training has shaped Emma’s life and my own, we hope that we can share this gift with other young people.
