This custom course, designed specifically for students from Brewster Academy, will take place on a 30-foot open sailboat that will serve as both home and classroom on a journey through the tropical wilderness of the Florida Keys. You will travel through the Keys on shallow-draft vessels as you learn to navigate and discover the beautiful marine ecosystem. Learn sail handling and maneuvers such as tacking and jibing through the wind. When the breeze is calm, bring out the oars and row together to your evening anchorage.
Daily lessons cover navigation, small boat seamanship, weather, and anchoring to provide the tools you and your team will use to set and meet each day’s goal. Regular group discussions allow for reflection on each day and ensure that leadership and on board responsibilities are shared, and that every crew member is involved in planning the next day. For the final phase of the course, discover more in you than you knew when the vessel is "turned over to the crew", to put all the skills you’ve learned to the test and create an unforgettable journey.
Expedition Skills
Group Dynamics
Open Boat Sailing Skills
Your course area in the Florida Keys is home to numerous birds and abundant marine life, is rich with the confluence of water flowing out of the Everglades into inner Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The waterways are shallow and intricate, providing an exciting cruising area for Outward Bound’s nimble shallow-draft sailboats.
Sailing courses cruise in three general areas. The backcountry offers challenging shoal draft navigation and the opportunity to explore mangrove keys, tidal flats and coral patch reefs. The Atlantic side offers excellent snorkeling at the outer reefs and open water sailing. The Everglades has beautiful sand beaches and a maze of rivers and bays to explore. Throughout the region, the turquoise waters, warm temperatures and prevailing easterly winds provide exceptional sailing, both day and night! Actual itineraries are based on weather, currents and length of course.
In Florida the HIOBS course area regions are the ancestral lands of the Seminole, Matecumbe, Cuchiyaga and Guarungumbe nations.
The essential goal of any Outward Bound course is for the students to learn autonomy. Our expedition curriculum supports this happening in a progressive way.
During the first third of a course (a phase called “training expedition”), the instructors are very present in the group. They teach outdoor skills, the technical aspects of the activities and guide the students as they form a team.
In the middle third of the course (what we call the “main expedition”), the instructors take a step back so students may step forward. Students begin to teach what they’ve already learned to each other, and experiment with applying basic skills to bigger challenges. The instructors continue to coach and support as the students practice leadership roles. When the group meets a particular situation, environment or activity they haven’t learned about before, the instructors jump back in and teach. Each time this happens, the group reaches competency more quickly.
By the last third of the course (the “final expedition”), students are the stars of the show. They are applying what they know, leading each other, setting goals, and solving problems collaboratively. The instructors are close by and ready to step back in to prevent a safety issue from occurring but will let students find their own resiliency when they make mistakes, and ensure they feel the full spotlight of success when they meet their goals.
The 30-foot open sailboat is your home and classroom. Our boats are very seaworthy, fun to operate, and perfect for a team adventure. The boats are rigged to take full advantage of the power of the subtropical trade winds, and when the winds do not cooperate, the boats can be rowed by two or four people pulling on oars. At night the boat can be configured as a sleeping platform and you and your watch mates will take turns doing anchor watch under brilliant night skies. Underway, you will learn to adjust sails properly for sailing at different angles to the wind and execute sailing maneuvers like tacking and gybing, which turn the boat through the wind. As you practice rowing, you will discover that by coordinating all of the rower’s movements so that the oars splash as one, you halve the effort it takes to travel on windless days. You will learn to navigate using a chart and compass and among the thick and similar-looking mangrove islands, precision in plotting your course and concentration on the environment around you will prove essential in arriving accurately at your destination. It takes an entire crew to sail or row the boat well; the whole crew must participate mentally and physically. In addition to the challenges of moving the boat, living together aboard this small vessel requires commitment to the support of your crew-mates, and your community as a whole. As your expedition progresses, your accomplishments in all these areas result in a truly memorable journey.