Actual immersion learning aboard a sailing school vessel

A long, long time ago, I spent a semester as an undergrad on a sailing school vessel. In place of a regular semester on campus, I spent 9 weeks sailing and learning aboard the tallship Spirit of Massachusetts and I haven't experienced anything like that since. I didn't take much away from the experience in terms of new scientific knowledge, in fact for me Seamester was a academic waste of time, but many other students on my ship learned some science along the way. And we all took home life lessons (cheesy as that sounds). Intense doesn't begin to describe this immersion learning, off campus educational experience. We sailed and navigated the ship, we attended classes on deck and on shore in domestic and tropical ports, we stood watch at all hours of the day and night, and we ate, bathed, hiked, sang, danced, and lived with our instructors (and the crew). You learn a lot about who you are and how you relate to other people in addition to anything academic that you pick up along the way. As an educational experience for undergraduates (especially a marine biology major), a semester aboard a sailing school vessel is like no other.

I was thinking about this way off campus educational experience again recently as a result of a conversation with a friend that had participated in a similar program, SEA semester. In their program, they spent six weeks on shore in the classroom before heading out to the blue waters of the Atlantic or Pacific. The science education part of their program was much more intense - they actually have a fully functional science lab on their ship - and I'm sure that graduates of that program could run circles around Seamester grads when it comes to ocean sampling. I once spoke with a faculty members that had participated in both programs and he said something like an SEA grad could run the science program on a research vessel, but a Seamester grad could actually sail the boat. But those people that are fortunate enough to have completed either program, have had a totally unique educational experience unrivaled by any class on any college campus.