We'll All Float On

Rolling seas and gale force gusts made trying times for the students and crew aboard the Spirit of Massachusetts as they disembarked from the American coast into their Caribbean catcall. Limits were pushed, patience was tested and calluses were earned and lost with every friction filled line pull as each toppling wave panned across the foredeck.

Dawn on the eleventh day brought the plush palmetto hills of the northern Dominican coast. The humid, vibrant streets of Samana, with its bustling roundabouts that overflow with merengue, are lush with culture and the pursuit of happiness. European tourists gander through cheap art prints, children hustle seashells to pedestrians and a thick dampness loiters about town like bums in front of convenience stores. The people’s positivity and wide-eyed charisma generates benevolence that overshadows their second-world existence.

Student treks to pristine waterfalls, local farms and countryside hilltops provided thorough insight into the country’s rich personality. All is well in the land of endlessly daunting sunsets.

- TAYLOR HAAG, Apprentice

Spirit of Massachusetts