Kyle Busacker

During the course of the next two months, a crew of about 15 people will alternate between applying epoxy filler to the hull/deck and sanding it smooth with 7ft sanding boards, with teams of four to five people on each, to level the hull and remove any imperfections in the surface. During the time the fairing is taking place, Marsun’s engineering, pipefitters, mechanics, electricians, and carpenters will begin to fill her hull with all the systems and structures that will bring her to life. Flipping a (roughly) 65 ton steel hull is nothing short of incredible, a feat we knew the Marsun crew could handle with the utmost safety to both the work crew and the vessel. When I arrived at Marsun Shipyards the hull of Argo was fully welded and turned upright, three container loads of machinery and equipment had been shipped from the US and a small team of Sea|mester and ActionQuest staff had been organized to move out to Thailand to build out Argo’s masts and complete her final fit out.

As an interview with Clipper Round the World recently highlighted, Wiggy has been working toward this goal for years. Ian Wiggin…is a passionate racer and sailing instructor who has been working towards his goal of becoming a Clipper Race Skipper for the past ten years. He has extensive sailing and instruction experience across Europe and the Mediterranean and recently completed his seventh Atlantic Ocean crossing.” Participants will embark on a 40,000 nautical mile race aboard a 70-foot yacht – guided by a professional skipper – as they complete eight legs of racing in a global circumnavigation.

As you’ll learn in the interview below, Madeline took her Grandmother’s advice and spent a year exploring the options outside of entering college directly after high school. Granted, many of the people on my voyage specifically were gap year students, but even the people who were older felt exactly the same as the rest of us, which I think is very different from a typical college experience. After my gap year, most of my friends at the college I attended were in their late twenties and early thirties, and they all originally thought I was the same age as them, likely due to the fact that I had done so many things (travel, sailing, and working) since high school, rather than straight away attending college. The next semester of my gap year was spent working as a receptionist and taking art classes, and though I still couldn’t get myself to apply to colleges, I ended up being an art student at a local community college, and then transferring into their Associate’s degree program for Psychology.

Wednesday was a big day in the world of S/Y Ocean Star, as she just received her spring semester students in Antigua! So far the students have spent their days getting to know O-Star, settling into their new boat responsibilities, exploring the historic Nelson’s Dockyard, hiking to the tide pools above the Pillars of Hercules, and getting to know their fellow shipmates. Over the next 80 days, these students will sail, round-trip, over 1,000 nautical miles from Antigua to Grenada. We can’t wait to continue sharing all of the incredible experiences aboard O-Star over the coming weeks, but for now, the crew is busy welcoming and acclimating the students to their new floating home and there is certainly work to be done.