SAIL, EXPLORE, LEARN

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

Thom Maslow, Chair of the Board 

November 7-8 San Francisco Bay Overnight

This is your chance to learn about control lines for raising the sails, how to handle lines on belaying pins and coil lines on deck, and best of all, climb the rig to the Course Yard, where you will be rewarded with a great view!

Sign up for the pre-sail Aloft training. Available to those on the overnight

• Learn about tall ship sailing
• Enjoy a Sunset Sail
• Anchor off Sausaito or Tiburon
• Dinner & Breakfast onboard the ship

Partnerships~Making a Difference

“Our work depends on incredible partners who bring hands-on expertise and transformative experiences that help our students thrive. Call of the Sea is such a wonderful example of what that partnership can look like. 

Call of the Sea has opened up an extraordinary resource to Oakland students: the opportunity to get out onto the San Francisco Bay aboard a working sailboat, completely free of charge. Just this fall, over the span of 2 weeks, together we organized 17 sailing trips serving 514 Oakland students. 



That kind of scale matters. Because it means sailing on the Bay isn’t an extraordinary opportunity available to just a handful of kids. Together, we’re working to make the SF Bay part of the educational landscape for all Oakland students. For many of these young people, this is the very first time in their lives setting foot on a sailboat, or even being out on the San Francisco Bay.”

Don't Miss Out on End of the Season Sails

• Sunset Sails
• Saturday Sails
• Halloween Sail
• Veteran's Day Sail on Seaward

Call of the Sea Comes to You

Can't get your whole class down to the water for half the day? 

Invite Call of the Seat to come to your classroom instead!

Classroom Visits for grades 5-10. Hands-on Marine science right in the classroom gets students up close to Marine life. Students can dissect Squid and observe live plankton under the microscope.



Contact education@callofthesea.org to learn more.

Check out the Ship's Store