Sailing Story: Sean Morgan

Sean Morgan started sailing young but it wasn’t exactly an enjoyable experience.

“My brother and I absolutely hated it,” he said. “My dad thought it was hilarious to go out on the boat and flip it over. So my brother and I thought we were going to die.”

For decades, sailing was a sport Sean left in his past. However, as an avid traveler, he found himself sitting on many a coastline admiring the sailboats passing him by. 

“We kept saying how cool it would be to do that,” he said. “I’m not six years old any more so I’m not scared of it now.”

A few quick Google searches and Sean found Go Sail Virgin Islands. He saw it as an ideal sailing trip to learn the ropes in an environment much less stressful than the one he found himself in as a kid.  

“We had an absolute riot,” he said. “We just had a wonderful, wonderful time.”

Sean immediately hit it off with Captain JT and loved his teaching style. 

“JT was incredibly easy to get along with, he was patient beyond belief with us,” he said. “[Learning how to sail is] confusing on paper and as soon as I got on the boat he had a much easier, simpler way of explaining it.” 

While Sean had done the pre-reading for the course, he said the real learning all happened once they set sail.  

“That is where I really learned what I needed to learn,” he said. “The books are a good reference but I really think the learning took place on the boat.”

Sean also found himself falling in love with the tranquility sailing provides. 

“I really enjoyed the freedom of it. We would get out into the open water and we would turn off the engines and everything you think matters just melts away,” he said.

After finishing the course, Sean felt he was well prepared to bareboat. 

“I feel more than confident,” Sean said about his abilities to now sail a boat on his own. He has already signed up for advanced ASA courses with Go Sail in November, followed by two charter trips afterwards. 

“I’ll essentially step off of the boat from school and step onto the boat I chartered,” he explained about the Go Sail charters he has already planned out with his wife. 

“She is very, very excited to soak up the sun and just relax,” he said. “She wants to sit up at the helm with me and enjoy the scenery and let me do the stuff [but] she said if she needed to pull a rope, she assured me she will.”

While Sean is excited to charter, he also is already making bigger plans for his sailing future. He is hopeful he and his wife might find their own boat at the Annapolis Boat Show in October. 

“We’ll see if we come home with a new toy or not,” he laughed.