From Summer Camp To Soul's Mirror

A teen shares why her senior photos weren't "complete" without Adventuress

Wind rustling hair until it is one large knot. Waves crashing against the hull, rocking you gently. Scents of biscuits and sweet potato stew wafting up from the kitchen. And hands holding firmly to a jib sheet, waiting for the call to pass it.

It is a scene I could never have imagined myself in two years ago. Sailing was just one of those things other people claim as a hobby. Not me. But when my mother stumbled across the Adventuress online and suggested the summer camp, I somehow instinctively knew how much I would love it. Within minutes, I was excited enough about the camp to be willing to pay for it all myself. And my instincts didn't let me down.

Kyra S.

It’s impossible to describe the feeling of sailing on the Adventuress to someone who has never done it before. The perfect freedom of the open water around verdant islands can’t be matched. There is a certain magic in working together with people you barely know to move something a hundred times your weight. Any worries you pick up in your outside life stay on the dock when you climb aboard, and life is wonderfully simple and full of laughter and satisfying hard work. People you would not otherwise talk to thrice become your best friends in a week, with bonds that would usually take a year to form.

 I went back the next summer, and it was not for lack of other options. It was because, when I left the Adventuress in Friday Harbor, I left a part of my soul with it. I couldn't imagine having a better week my second time, because the first was so perfect. it can’t be doubted that I did, enough that I teared up during closing remarks.

Sailing can’t be a large part of my life with my busy schedule, but that makes my time on the Adventuress even more special. In just two short weeks, the Adventuress and her crew slid their way into the deepest hollows of my heart, and thinking about the schooner fills me with a craving for more. That is why I am certain to go back for an apprenticeship next year. And that is why, when I found a photographer who would take senior pictures wherever you wanted, the thought of taking senior pictures onboard the Adventuress filled me with an uncontainable excitement. 

She is a beautiful boat with a beautiful mission, and in the last two years she has become my second home. It is only natural that I would select her as the background to the portraits intended to be, if you are in a profound mood, a reflection of my heart and soul. I can’t imagine my senior photos being complete without the Adventuress.