Maine Sailing & Sea Kayaking
Discover Maine's coastal wilderness and your leadership strengths on this unforgettable adventure of exploration, teamwork, and personal growth.
Embark on a unique maritime journey through Maine's rugged coastline on this 15-day Sailing and Sea Kayaking expedition. Explore secluded islands, navigate challenging tidal currents, and experience the thrill of wilderness living. This immersive program combines the excitement of sailing with the tranquility of sea kayaking, offering a unique opportunity to connect with nature and develop essential life skills.
While in a sea kayak, you will build the basic skills of travel, planning, leadership, navigation, and weather observation while traveling between remote islands and wild peninsulas. You will then transition to traveling and living aboard traditional 30-foot sailing boats uniquely built and designed to develop teamwork and leadership skills. Each day you will learn the skills necessary to safely traverse the rugged Maine coast, and at night you will sleep under tarps or in tents, developing backcountry cooking and campcraft practices. Sharing your goals and concerns, your group will work as a team to plan each day’s activities and choose an appropriate itinerary based on the conditions of the day.
The skills and practices learned on these expeditions will serve you for life, whatever challenges lie ahead.
UPCOMING COURSES
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Once a course has reached capacity, three waitlist positions become available. To join a course’s waitlist, click “Join Waitlist” to begin the application process. A $500 deposit is required. This $500 deposit includes a $150 non-refundable application fee and a $350 tuition payment. The $350 tuition payment is refundable only if you cancel your waitlist application or if an open position does not become available. If a position does become available, the applicant will be applied to the open position and the Application and Cancellation Policies of the Regional Outward Bound School will be followed, including forfeiture of the $500 deposit if you cancel 90 days or less prior to the course start date.
Waitlist applicants are encouraged to complete all required admissions documents while awaiting an open position. Positions may become available up to two weeks prior to the course start date. Applicants may only apply to one course. We recommend applying to a course with open positions instead of a course that is accepting waitlist applications. If you have questions, please call 866-467-7651 to speak with one of our Admissions Advisors.
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Sea kayaks are an intimate and accessible means of traveling the coast, creating opportunities for both independent skill development and teamwork. Students will have the opportunity to paddle both single and double-kayaks, learning the techniques necessary to handle each craft. At night, students will sleep in tents on islands and the mainland in private areas, many of which are part of the Maine Island Trail network. To live well in the wilderness, all crew members must share the chores that turn a camp into a home, including setting up tents and tarps, creating a kitchen area, taking turns fetching water and cooking satisfying meals. These learned and practiced skills transfer to both the next section of the expedition, and to life back at home.
On the sea kayaking section, students will learn to:
- Navigate and plan routes using charts, compass, and other navigation materials
- Understand the impact of weather, tides, and currents on both navigation and travel
- Pack, unpack, and manage a sea kayak, which contains both personal and group gear
- Maneuver and propel a sea kayak using paddles and foot rudders
- Camp in rugged wilderness maritime environments
- Practice Recreate Responsibly ethics
- Be part of an expeditionary team including: campsite management and upkeep, kayak and gear management on shore, food preparation and cooking, cleanup and maintenance, and repair of gear.
Traditional 30-foot sailboats encourage teamwork and leadership like no other classroom. On an open boat with no cabin and no engine, the group will live closely together using only wind and oars to power their way. As they rotate responsibilities during this expedition, students learn the crafts of maneuvering under sail, coastal navigation, rowing and living aboard a small open boat. At night, students sleep on deck under a tarp, taking turns at anchor watch under brilliant night skies.
On this course, students:
- Learn to navigate using a map or a chart and a compass to arrive accurately at the day’s destination over mountains and across open water
- 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
- Move the boat under oar power, coordinating all the rowers' movements so that the oars splash as one, precisely maneuvering in and out of secluded anchorages
- Set a pace of hiking that covers each day’s miles and gets everyone through together, an integral part of the team
- Live (cook, eat, sleep, work and learn) with the group in the backcountry, contributing energy and ideas, sharing tasks and responsibilities and relying on each other
Service projects are often incorporated into Outward Bound courses through coordination with local land managers, conservation groups, government or social service agencies. While on expedition, students are encouraged to practice service to the environment and their team by sharing responsibilities and following Recreate Responsibly ethics throughout the course.
The Solo experience provides an important break from the rigors of the expedition and gives students the opportunity to reflect on their Outward Bound experience. With sufficient food and equipment, students will set up camp at sites of their own, using the wilderness skills learned during the first half or two-thirds of the course. The time students spend on Solo depends on the length of the course, and will likely be one or two nights on this course, depending on various factors including weather, location, and crew readiness.
Campsites are chosen to offer as much solitude as possible (yet be within emergency whistle-signaling distance of other group members). Most students spend their Solo time journaling, drawing or just thinking and resting as they process lessons of the course to focus on their goals for the future. Instructors check on each participant at least daily and are within whistle-distance at all times.
The coast of Maine, with its intricate and indented shoreline, is a unique segment of the North Atlantic seaboard. It is known among ocean travelers for its picturesque beauty, iconic lighthouses, abundant bays and harbors, rocky islands and quiet coves. Expeditions occur in an area that covers roughly 200 miles of the Maine coast – with countless rivers, bays and islands to explore.
The rocky, spruce-covered islands are the summits of a prehistoric mountain range, and generations of inhabitants have made their livelihoods here. Evidence left behind on the islands reveals the historic presence of indigenous Abenaki camps, pre-colonial fishing communities, post-colonial timber and farming operations and early 20th century granite quarries. Cold, nutrient-rich waters flow from the Canadian Maritimes and make the Gulf of Maine home to a wide range of sea birds, seals, porpoises and whales.
These regions are the ancestral lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which includes Abenaki/Abénaquis, W∂last∂kwiyik (Maliseet), Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy nations.
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Getting Started
If you are ready to enroll on a course click the enroll button next to the course you wish to select or you can enroll over the phone by speaking with one of our Customer Success Specialists (toll-free) at 866-467-7651.
To secure your spot on a course you must submit an enrollment form and $500 deposit that is applied toward the total cost of the course and includes a $150 non-refundable enrollment processing fee.