Teaching Island Kids to Sail in the Bahamas

A group of sailing instructors from Planet Hope went on a sailing trip in the Abacos and were able to teach a sailing class to local young people from the town of New Plymouth. It turns out, none of the children that came out had ever been sailing before! Imagine growing up on an island, watching sailboats go by every day, but with no opportunity to go sailing. We are glad that we were able to change that for these young people!

How it all worked out: Green Turtle Community Fellowship had a sailboat donated to the church. While talking to Pastor Nehemiah, he offered the boat and the church grounds to us. Now we had a boat, a location and sailing instructors. The church put the word out to the community and we set a date for the children to come out for the sailing class. Everything came together wonderfully! We were only limited by the amount of sailboats on which to teach.

Our goal is to raise funds for teaching sailboats specifically for our Bahamas program. We will then be able to schedule regular sailing camps for the kids in New Plymouth and hopefully expand to more communities. Four boats are needed launch the camp and the goal is to build a fleet of six sailing dinghies. Since Sailing was named as the national sport of the Bahamas on April 12, 2023, we should definitely make it more accessible to the young people of the Bahamas.