Can we talk about that passage, though?

Few people on this planet get to experience the rigor and challenge of living offshore on a sailboat, and our crew has just passed their biggest challenge yet — sailing over 600 nautical miles from the Bahamas to the Dominican Republic!

For our newly salted crew of sailors, a journey of this distance is an incredible marathon of physical and mental endurance, especially with a strong headwind, stormy weather, and the endless rocking of the boat. For those of you who don’t know, S/Y Whatever It Takes is a ‘work hard, play hard’ type of vessel, which means that all crew members share the responsibility of navigating the ship from its departing port to its arrival destination.

While offshore, students are split into shifts of 3-4 persons, and each shift is responsible for running maintenance checks, navigating, providing watch, and helming the vessel. Each shift rotates, creating a 24-hour schedule where you’re on for 6 hours and off for 3 hours. This may sound fair, but when you add the additional crew responsibilities of preparing meals, deep cleaning spaces, and fixing mechanical issues all while being tossed and turned every minute of every day, it starts to wear on you.

And boy, did it wear on our crew. After 48 hours, there began a chorus of complaining, groggy stumbling into the cockpit, difficult wake-ups, vomiting, and bruised toes. These complaints didn’t subside until we finally laid our eyes on shore after more than 96 hours surrounded by open ocean. You could likely hear our cheers from shore as everyone ran on deck to finally see the beautiful mountains of the southern Dominican coast.

Despite all these difficulties, we couldn’t be more proud of the perseverance, resilience, and teamwork of our crew to get us safely anchored in Bayahibe. Next, we're excited to share more about the community service work with our favorite local organizations in the Dominican Republic.

Stay tuned for more!

Can we talk about that passage, though?

Few people on this planet get to experience the rigor and challenge of living offshore on a sailboat, and our crew has just passed their biggest challenge yet — sailing over 600 nautical miles from the Bahamas to the Dominican Republic!

For our newly salted crew of sailors, a journey of this distance is an incredible marathon of physical and mental endurance, especially with a strong headwind, stormy weather, and the endless rocking of the boat. For those of you who don’t know, S/Y Whatever It Takes is a ‘work hard, play hard’ type of vessel, which means that all crew members share the responsibility of navigating the ship from its departing port to its arrival destination.

While offshore, students are split into shifts of 3-4 persons, and each shift is responsible for running maintenance checks, navigating, providing watch, and helming the vessel. Each shift rotates, creating a 24-hour schedule where you’re on for 6 hours and off for 3 hours. This may sound fair, but when you add the additional crew responsibilities of preparing meals, deep cleaning spaces, and fixing mechanical issues all while being tossed and turned every minute of every day, it starts to wear on you.

And boy, did it wear on our crew. After 48 hours, there began a chorus of complaining, groggy stumbling into the cockpit, difficult wake-ups, vomiting, and bruised toes. These complaints didn’t subside until we finally laid our eyes on shore after more than 96 hours surrounded by open ocean. You could likely hear our cheers from shore as everyone ran on deck to finally see the beautiful mountains of the southern Dominican coast.

Despite all these difficulties, we couldn’t be more proud of the perseverance, resilience, and teamwork of our crew to get us safely anchored in Bayahibe. Next, we're excited to share more about the community service work with our favorite local organizations in the Dominican Republic.

Stay tuned for more!