The smell of fall is in the air, which means students in Northwest Maritime Center’s (NWMC’s) partner programs are back in the classroom and in the field. In both Port Townsend and Des Moines, NWMC provides access to experiences in the field and in the boatshop. These kinds of hands-on learning experiences can be transformative
By Jake Beattie, Executive Director “The sea is the most powerful teacher we know” is something we say at the Northwest Maritime Center because we believe it to the core. The good news is that we’re not alone. Teaching With Small Boats Alliance (TWSBA) is a grassroots association of 300 or so similarly-minded organizations throughout
By Abbie Smith, SSE Program Manager Back in May, a group consisting of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders from Manson Options School boarded schooner Zodiac for an expedition for the first time in two years. Manson Options School from the Lake Chelan area has been a repeat school group for years—it’s become tradition. With the
By Daniel Evans, Race Boss For the first half of 2022, the Northwest Maritime Center has been putting out a beehive’s worth of activity: sailing and cruising camps, a solid finish to the first year of the Maritime High School, Regattas, block parties, harbor tours on our new(ish) 40-foot catamaran, and two world-class adventure races.
By Tyson Trudel, Maritime Education Manager In January, Maritime High School’s (MHS) inaugural class began their third project of the year—exploring the topic of vessels and voyages, looking at different vessel types, and learning about their history and uses. As part of this project, students constructed 18-foot flat bottom canoes to a design by John
By Abbie Smith, SSE Program Manager We ended our spring season with a four-day trip on Schooner Zodiac with a group of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders from Hyla School. We set off from Bellingham and sailed to Sucia Island where we camped for three nights. Each day we sailed in a different direction and
By Nancy Israel, Education Program Co-Manager The Maritime Discovery Program was very successfully revived after a three-year break! This year, we worked with 20 Quilcene Middle School 7th and 8th graders for three days, followed by 85 Port Townsend 7th graders for eight days, and finished out the school year with 100 7th and 8th
By Danika Brown, Maritime High School Student Blogger Another great field trip awaited us Maritime High School students as we got our foul weather gear and got prepared to go kayaking on the Duwamish River. We were all filled with eagerness as we boarded the bus. Once we got to the Duwamish River, we had
By Daniel Evans, Race Boss Love and joy never really come up in phrases involving SEVENTY48, and only to say things like, “It was such a joy not to race this year,” or “I love watching the race tracker,” because SEVENTY48 is a 70-mile, all-muscle sufferfest, proven by the fact that last year less than
By Daniel Evans, Race Boss Artisanal cheese. Guns N’ Roses. Corn smut. Race to Alaska. At first glance, these are really bad ideas, but GNR won the World Music Award for Best Group, and a Humboldt Fog goat cheese quesadilla smeared with huitlacoche is powerful enough to build empires. In 2015, Race to Alaska grew