Fall is the best time for sailing on San Francisco Bay, and we have been blessed with some spectacular days on the water, not only for our students going out on Bay Exploration sails, but also for a variety of different groups getting out on the water for Fleet Week. Matthew Turner also had the opportunity to sail over to the city front and dock at the St Francis Yacht Club for our annual gala on a glorious October day.
This year, we are celebrating Spreading Our Sails. Those three words capture where Call of the Sea is right now. We have these extraordinary ships. We have wonderful educators and crews. And we’ve seen what can happen when you put a young person aboard a tall ship and give them the chance to experience the Bay in an entirely new way.
For some kids, it’s their first time on a boat. For others, it may be the first time they’ve really thought about the ocean, the environment, or even what they themselves are capable of. You can actually see the change happen.
And we want more kids to have that experience. But we’ve realized something important: we can’t always expect the kids to come to us. We need to go to them. That’s what Spreading Our Sails means.
It means taking these beautiful ships beyond our home port—sailing to more communities, partnering with more schools, and reaching young people where they live. This year, our vessels visited Redwood City, Richmond, and San Francisco, as well as Drakes Bay, Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz and Monterey. All told, Call of the Sea reached more than 6,000 young people and invited more than 4,500 new people onboard our vessels.
Imagine Matthew Turner or Seaward sailing into a community and becoming, for a few days, a floating classroom for hundreds of local kids. Then imagine doing that again—and again—in ports throughout the Bay Area and beyond. That’s the opportunity in front of us. And, like everything involving a sailing vessel, it takes a crew.
That’s where all of you come in. Your support puts these ships on the water. It puts kids on the deck. And now, it can help us sail farther and reach more of them.
Thank you for being part of our crew, and helping to Spread Our Sails!
Carla Thorson, Executive Director and Thom Maslow, Chair of the Board