Reflections on an Intense New Zealand Sailing Course

In a recent Washington Post article, writer David Brown shares his experiences as a 65-year-old student on a challenging 14-day New Zealand sailing course. Impressed by the awe-inspiring Marlborough Sounds and the excellent instruction he received, Brown also reflects on how the range of ages and life experiences of his fellow students enhanced the course.

“It helped that, the first week, we gathered around the table after dinner and told our stories. This was both bonding and entertainment…When I learned that my fellow students were all Americans no older than 30, I figured they might be preppies right out of a Vineyard Vines catalogue. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Five of them were paying for the course from AmeriCorps education awards—$5,900 tuition vouchers earned by 10 months of subsistence-wage service work. The best student among us had gone to a vocational college and was a diesel mechanic. One student had lived three months in a house without electricity or hot water during her senior year in high school. Two weren’t college graduates…They brought a cornucopia of experience.”

Read the full story