Adria M. Lande, Education Director for the PMHF
(photo by Kathleen McQuillan-Hofmann, PMHF)

F&A: How did you become involved in tall ships? Aren’t you from Idaho?

AML: Yes, I did grow up in Idaho, and I didn’t do any sailing there! I first became involved in
tall ships in college when I did a sail training program with Sea Education Association. The trip
I took was absolutely amazing. Imagine 20 college kids aboard a 135’ schooner sailing to
Newfoundland. It was a wonderful experience, and I learned so much. After completing
college, I decided to work aboard a tall ship teaching environmental education. I was hooked!

F&A: What is sail training?

AML: Good question! Sail training is not only learning to sail a tall ship but learning from
sailing, working as a team towards common goals. I think that sail training is about
magnifying life and seeing how they connect with each other. My favorite thing about my
first sail training program is I never had to set an alarm. It sounds silly I know, but it was
very liberating. Can you remember the last time you didn’t have to set an alarm for 7 weeks
straight? I depended on the next watch to wake me and knew that I was being depended
on to wake the following group. Sail training is about taking pride and responsibility in
everything you do, from cleaning the galley to making a sail maneuver happen. Sail
training is about living in a community, creating teachable moments in just about everything
you do. When you strip everything else away you are left with you, your crew, your boat,
the wind and the sea. Take those elements, mix them together and you realize you don’t
NEED tv, ipod or even your cell phone. That you actually have all that you really need right
here, right now! It doesn’t matter where you came from, what your background is, you are
all literally in the same boat.

Adria teaching knot tying to Jennifer Smith, participant in Providence Set Sail!,
our Providence After School Alliance program
(photo PMHF archives)

F&A: Is sail training only for jocks?

AML: Not at all! Sail training is for anyone who is up for an adventure and a life changing
experience. People who work on boats come with different sets of skills. Your job is not
to be able to do everything on your own but to be able to work with your crew.

F&A: What were some of the things that you learned from sail training?

AML: Wow, there is so much that I have learned from sail training. Let me see if I can
list a few for you.

-Teamwork. None of us could sail these boats alone!

-Responsibility. If I don’t do my job properly some one else is going to have to do it
again and it is really hard to be anonymous on a boat!

- I have learned that we are all teachers and learners and that learning is endless- in a
good way! Who wants to stop learning?

- That I can make things happen. As a student I had a mate who used to tell me what
sail maneuver to do or scientific equipment to deploy and then she would say “Make it
happen!” What a wonderful thing to say to someone. It showed that she had such faith
in me that I could actually “make it happen”. To this day I carry that phrase with me.
When I come up against something that I think is difficult to do I hear her voice telling me
"Adria, make it happen!” And I do!

-Community. You cannot make greater friends then with the ones you sail with, live with,
work with. Think about it- when you are living on a boat you are spending almost every
moment with your crew. No other period in my life have I spent so much time with the
same people. Even as a child there was a separation of family and friends, Aboard a tall
ship those line blur and my crew become family. It is very intense. Living on a boat can
heighten your emotions. Those moments of joy and belonging are tempered with moments
of sea sickness, exhaustion and the longing for privacy.

- I learned that happiness can be found in a cup of hot chocolate at 5am waiting for the
sun to rise and that sometimes it really is about the journey not the destination!

F&A: Why did you decide to make tall ship education your career?

AML: The sail training community is a very small one. Introduce me to a sailor and we
will have a least one person in our lives that connects us. I love that feeling, that belonging.
When people ask me “Why an educator, and why tall ships?” I tell them I would have
never stayed sailing without the education aspect and I never would have been interested
in teaching without the sailing. For me they go hand in hand. Is this my career? I don’t
know. To me this is more then what I do for a living, it’s who I am.

F&A: This summer the Sloop Providence will offer its week-long Cadet and
Midshipmen Academy programs in the Great Lakes. What can kids expect to learn
during a week on the Sloop Providence?

AML: Kids learn many things aboard the Sloop: From the arts of traditional sailing
to navigation to marlinspike seamanship. However, there is so much more that they
can learn about themselves and human nature. It really is an adventure.

Young people working together aboard the
Sloop Providence (photo PMHF archives)

F&A: And they will have a lot of fun too?

AML: Of course, there is a lot of opportunity for fun during these programs.
We start and end them all at a tall ship festival. There will be opportunities to meet
other crews, to participate in friendly competition, to be welcomed by the port.
Not to mention the time spent sailing and racing to the next port. Humor and laughter
is very welcomed on the 3am watch! But parents, be forewarned before you ship
your child off to sea: Your son or daughter might just get hooked like I did!