Seamester: Antigua to Grenada - 80 days

The hardest question after returning from this trip is "What was your favorite part?". The only answer is EVERYTHING. Everyday on Ocean Star is absolutely incredible and just when you think you've seen it all it only gets better! Living onboard with your fellow students, you will get to experience the trip as a working member of the crew. That's right, This is NOT a cruise ship. Be prepared for dance parties while cooking in the galley, cleaning the saloon and heads, and getting your hands dirty hauling lines and flaking the anchor chain. Within 3 days, every person on the boat will feel like family and by the end you will have up to 15 lifelong friends. The Seamester staff are AMAZING! They care so much about every student and want to see each person thrive. They provide top of the line medical care and good medical facilities were easily accessible everywhere we went (speaking from personal injury experience). If you, or your parents, are concerned about storms, they closely monitor the weather and will alter the course or the schedule if necessary to make sure the conditions are safe. I came into this program with next to no sailing or diving experience (as did the majority of the students on my trip) and I never felt behind at all. We started with basic sailing 101 for everyone and slowly built our skills from there. In a few short weeks, you'll have a brand new boat vocabulary and be confident enough to take the helm on passage! The 80 days I spent on Ocean Star were some of the best days of my life! We went horseback riding on the beach in Nevis, toured a chocolate factory in Grenada, found the geckos on Union Island, visited a mud bath in St. Lucia, went canyoning in Guadeloupe, dove with reef sharks in Saba, and so much more! This experience was better than I could have ever dreamed. If you are adventurous, hard working, open minded and up for any challenge, then this program is for you. Apply! I promise you will regret it if you don't!

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Seamester was definitely one of the best experiences of my life! This is not a luxurious sailing program (there’s no crew to sail you from place to place or cook for you), but that makes it so much better. Learning to sail while actually living on a boat was amazing. You can look forward to swimming in the ocean every day, getting really close with your fellow crew, and making so many cool memories!!

My seamester voyage was remarkable. Every day brought new adventures, challenges, and opportunities to learn. I remember thinking “I could describe any day on Ocean Star to someone at home and it would seem like an adventure.” Part of the joy of the trip, maybe counterintuitively, came from having to work hard to maintain the boat, build relationships and a positive culture aboard, and meet my own personal needs in a wholly new environment. I went to bed every night tired but satisfied, and I came out of the experience proud of what I had accomplished. I made life long friends on my voyage, including the Seamester staff, who inspire me and motivate me. I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything.

Incredible sights, amazing people, treasured memories. The things I saw, learned, and experienced were priceless. Seamester is a special program that truly cares about its students. Great fun was had and the islands you visit and people you meet will be with you for the rest of your life. Would do it again in a heart beat.

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I studied abroad in the BVI’s to give myself a break and self-reflect. For 80 days I completely went off the grid and I reflected about what I want to accomplish my senior year of college. This program gave me all that and more, I met great people and made friends for life.