For the children who dare to dream, for the families who choose the ocean, and for everyone brave enough to set a new course . This book is for the island, for the community that loves it, and for the wind that carries us all forward .
I. BEGINNING — The Starting Line
1. Dream — Set up the Course
2. The Start — Gratitude for the Hands That Lifted Us
3. Becoming — Who This Journey Makes Us
II. CHALLENGE — The Upwind Leg
4. Hold the Line
5. You Cannot Change the Wind, But You Can Adjust Your Sails
6. Ride the Gust
III. GROWTH — The Downwind Run
7. Trust the Boat
8. Catch the Breeze
9. Growth — Know Yourself
IV. CELEBRATION — The Finish Line and Beyond
10. Steady On
11. Eleuthera our Anchor
12. Keep Sailing
Eleuthera changes people.
Some arrive seeking quiet. Some arrive seeking adventure. Some arrive looking for a life with more meaning — a place where the horizon feels wide and honest again. And some arrive simply following a feeling in their chest, trusting that the ocean will reveal what they’ve been missing.
Eleuthera Sailing Academy was born from that same instinct. What began as a small dream — two boats, a beach, a handful of curious children — has grown into a community where courage, resilience, and belonging take root.
Every week, we watch children discover their strength on the water.
We watch second-home owners find a
We watch an island rediscover its national sport and reclaim the possibilities held in wind and tide.
This book is not just about sailing. It is about choosing a life shaped by intention, about learning to let the wind teach you, and about the beautiful journey we share — locals, visitors, dreamers, and sailors — on this small, wild, unforgettable island.
Welcome to the race.
Welcome to the island.
Welcome to the journey.
Five years on Eleuthera… and what a journey it has been.
As many people who end up here will say — the wind brought us.
Ten years ago, we began an adventure on a small boat, just the two of us, sailing across the Caribbean. Along the way we discovered the magic the ocean creates in kids: confidence, calm, curiosity, discipline, and that spark you only see when a child realizes, “I can do this.”
At the same time, we saw how far many local communities were from the world of sailing and the opportunities connected to it. That’s when we created Make Them Sailors, teaching kids in remote fishing villages how to sail and sharing everything the ocean gives us.
Then life surprised us — we welcomed two little twin pirates — and everything shifted. I focused more on competition and Olympic sailing, and we thought our wandering chapter might pause. But then we received a call from someone who had a dream of building a sailing school on his beloved Eleuthera.
Craig Symonette’s vision aligned perfectly with ours. After years of leaving kids behind as we moved from island to island, always wondering what would happen if we stayed longer, we suddenly had the chance to build the project we always dreamed of.
We arrived with two babies, no sleep, and suitcases full of dreams and donated gear — not knowing exactly what we were stepping into, but excited to finally put down roots, raise our family here, and use what we know and love for something meaningful.
Five years later, I look back and feel proud, grateful, and honestly a bit shocked at how far we’ve come. It has been an incredible journey. We dreamed big, and somehow, with a lot of help, we achieved so much:
We established a world-class Eleuthera Sailing Academy and put Eleuthera on the global sailing map.
We gave hundreds of kids access to sailing— through the Eleuthera Warriors racing team, Learn to Sail programs, and partnerships with schools from Cape Eleuthera all the way to Spanish Wells.
Our local sailors competed internationally — and shined. They traveled the world and gained exposure that will stay with them for life.
We helped build and strengthen the Bahamas National Sailing Team during what has become the strongest generation of young sailors the country has ever seen.
We embraced our local traditions and brought sloop sailing back to Eleuthera, with full support from the Regatta Desk and the community. With our own E-Class sloop, Sugarloaf, we proudly won the E-Class National Championship at the National Family Island Regatta on our very first try!
Sailing became the National Sport of The Bahamas, and we feel honored to be part of that movement.
ESA became a beacon for dreamers around the world who joined the growing Make Them Sailors Global Network, helping spread this vision to other islands and communities.
“Everything is ready, just come,” our local contact told us before moving our family to Eleuthera. We arrived… and immediately discovered that Eleuthera has its own rhythm — nothing happens quickly, but with hard work and the right people beside you, dreams can come true. Anyone who has tried to start anything on this island knows you need grit, flexibility, and a sense of humor to survive. It truly is “better in The Bahamas”—just not simpler.
We have the perfect ingredients — world-class conditions, equipment, knowledge, and a supportive community. But helping kids who are new to the ocean takes time and trust. As a friend told me once, “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” and I feel that truth every day.
The truth is, we’ve been sprinting for five years — we reached every goal we dared to imagine. Now it’s time to think about the long run. And as we look ahead, we know how much this place can mean for the youth of Eleuthera — a doorway to opportunity, confidence, and new horizons.
That’s why this feels like the right moment to imagine what ESA can become: not just a sailing school, but a lasting part of life on Eleuthera. We can already see the beginnings of that future. ESA is becoming a place where people meet — Bahamians, second-home owners, families, friends, and visitors sharing the bay, learning from one another, and experiencing a side of Eleuthera that only the ocean can reveal.
Through the sailing school, hundreds of people have discovered how much more this island offers — from the beauty of Savannah Sound to the confidence and simple joy that come from being on the water. We like to think we’ve helped people rediscover what’s right here — from locals reconnecting with the ocean to visitors experiencing Eleuthera more fully.
In our own small way, we’ve helped make Eleuthera even richer — connecting communities, creating opportunities, and bringing people together around the water.
To support this growth, we’ve built a simple structure: community support through donors and members, and a small social enterprise that keeps us running through lessons, camps, rentals, and ocean activities.
But as we look ahead, our hope is bigger and clearer — that ESA becomes a truly sustainable place, with its own clubhouse and workspace, run and supported by a community shaping the future of Eleuthera’s youth, and a place everyone wants to be part of and enjoy.
Thank you for believing in this dream and helping us reach this point.
Onward
and forward — let’s Make Them Sailors and enjoy Eleuthera paradise together.
Carlien Pels & Martin Manrique
As we approach our fifth anniversary of the ESA, I would like to congratulate the entire ESA Team on the tremendous progress you have made in developing the Academy into a sustaining presence within the community of Eleuthera. It is particularly rewarding that the ESA has given a firsttime sailing experience to so many Eleuthera youngsters.
The program continues to expand its activities from only Opti sailing toward a full board and kit sailing menu of activities.
I also welcome the support of all Eleuthera homeowners, The Island School, and everyone interested in youth sailing to support the ESA as we continue to develop our junior sailing program.
Craig Symonette Founding Member
CHAPTER I
BEGINNING — The Starting Line
Every great beginning has a moment when someone chooses to help you launch.
I. BEGINNING
— The Starting Line
1. Dream — Set up the Course
Every journey begins long before you set foot on Eleuthera.
It begins with a dream — a quiet longing for clarity, for open water, for a life shaped by something more honest than noise or hurry.
People arrive here carrying expectations, hopes of freedom, and the small trembling fear that comes with stepping away from everything familiar.
It takes courage to imagine another way of living.
To picture yourself in a place where the wind writes the rhythm, where the tide teaches patience, where the horizon reminds you that life can still be wide.
But dreaming is not a luxury. It is a compass. It points you toward possibility. It whispers that change is allowed, that the future is shapeable, that there is always room to become more yourself.
And so we came — all of us, in different ways — following a dream that carried us here.
2. The Start
— Gratitude for the hands that lifted us
Every great beginning has a moment when someone chooses to help you lauch
Eleuthera may hold the magic, but people gave the spark. Friends, neighbors, families, locals who believed in something bigger, second-home owners who offered support, mentors who showed the way, and a community that said, “Go on. Start. The island will meet you.”
It takes many hands to raise a mast, many hearts to build a place where children can step into small boats with big questions.
And because of those hands — because of those who trusted, guided, donated, shared tools, shared time, shared courage — these kids now have something that changes them forever:
A place where they learn to steer their own lives.
A place where the wind speaks honestly and the ocean teaches gently.
A place where they discover that courage grows in motion, that failure is a teacher, and that the unknown is worth exploring.
We are here because others helped us begin.
We carry that gratitude in everything we do.
3. Becoming — Who this journey makes us
Eleuthera doesn’t just hold you— it shapes you.
Everyone arrives with a plan, a schedule, a rhythm they think they can impose.
But the island has its own pulse, and slowly, it teaches you how to listen.
You cannot rush the wind. You cannot force the tide. You cannot control the weather, the pace, the people you meet who shift your course in ways you didn’t expect.
Something changes in you when you learn to move with a place instead of against it.
Our children feel it too. On the water, they look to the sky, watch the breeze ripple across the sound, and begin to understand the world in a new language.
Life becomes less about certainty and more about direction.
Less about control and more about awareness.
Less about where you came from and more about who you are becoming.
Because once you set your course, listen to the breeze, and dare to dream — the island carries you forward.
And you realize the greatest gift Eleuthera gives is this:
A place to grow, a place to belong, and a place where both children and adults discover what their lives can be.
CHALLANGE — The Upwind Leg
CHAPTER II
You cannot change the wind. But you can always — always — adjust your sails.
II. CHALLANGE
— The Upwind Leg
4. Hold the line
Upwind is the hardest part of any race.
It’s where resistance lives. Where effort matters more than speed.
Life in Eleuthera has an upwind leg too.
The road breaks. The boat won’t start. The wind disappears when you need it most. The comforts you left behind feel far away.
But moving upwind teaches resilience.
It shows you that steady pressure, patient steering, and quiet confidence
carry you farther than force ever could.
Our sailors learn this each time the bow points into the chop.
They lean out, they breathe deep, they keep going — and they discover a strength they didn’t know they had.
5. You cannot change the wind, but you can adjust you sails
Trim the sails.
Life — like Eleuthera — refuses to move according to your plans. You don’t control the breeze here. You respond to it.
Every sailor learns this early: sometimes you’re on a lift, sometimes you’re on a header, and the only thing that matters is knowing the difference.
There are moments when the wind gives you a gift, lifting you gently toward the mark — the rare feeling that everything lines up without effort.
And there are moments when the wind turns against you, quietly or suddenly, asking you to make a choice:
keep pushing into resistance, or tack,and find a better angle. The secret isn’t strength. It’s awareness.
You keep your eyes on the upwind mark — your goal, your direction, your reason for being out there at all.
You watch the water, you read the sky, you feel the breeze changing on your skin before it changes your course.
the days unfold according to weather, the island pace, and the unspoken rules of the breeze. Soon after arriving, you stop trying to command the days: the weather decides the rhythm, the island decides the pace, and the wind — always the wind — decides when it’s time to move and when it’s time to wait.
And in this constant adjustment, something beautiful happens—
you learn flexibility without losing direction.
Small changes, calm hands, and respect for the wind can transform your journey. And a willingness to tack when the moment calls for it can change everything.
You
cannot change the wind. But you can always — always — adjust your sails.
You can’t control Eleuthera. You can only respond. A sailor learns this fast. When the wind shifts, you adjust your sails, not your destination.
6. Ride de Gust
Gusts arrive without warning.
A shift in the sky.
A sudden pressure in the sail. A moment that makes you ask, “Am I ready for this?”
Eleuthera is full of gusts— in the weather that surprises you, in the people who change you, in the moments that tilt your life toward something new.
Our young sailors feel it first-hand. The boat heels hard. Spray hits their faces. Their legs shake, their hearts quicken— and then, suddenly, they’re flying.
A gust tests you, but it also reveals you.
It reminds you that growth happens exactly where comfort ends.
Ride the gust. Enjoy the speed.
Hike when things get difficult— dig in, lean out, trust yourself.
Because in the end, you’re not competing with the kid beside you, or the boat ahead of you.
You’re competing with the person you were yesterday.
A gust doesn’t just push you forward.
It shows you who you are becoming every time you choose not to let go.
—GROWTH
The Downwind Run
CHAPTER III
And the breezes that matter most are the ones a community catches together
III. GROWTH
— The Downwind Run
7. Trust the boat
Once you round the mark, the tension eases.
You stop fighting the wind and begin moving with it.
This is the moment when trust becomes real.
Trust in the boat beneath you. Trust in the island around you. Trust in the people walking this journey with you.
For many who come to Eleuthera, trust builds slowly — through familiar faces, shared meals, the rhythms of sea and sky.
For our kids, trust begins the moment the sail fills quietly and the boat begins to glide. They learn:
I
am safe. I am capable. I can go farther than I thought.
And just like that, the world opens.
8. Catch the breeze
Downwind is joy — pure, effortless joy.
It comes after patience, after effort, after facing the wind honestly and choosing to continue.
When the breeze fills the sail and the boat begins to run freely, you feel something larger than yourself carrying you forward.
Community is like that. It gathers slowly — through kindness, through shared moments, through the simple truth that we are meant to move through life together.
On Eleuthera, you feel this everywhere — in neighbors who wave before they speak, in children learning side by side, in families who find new roots on an island that welcomes them.
Some days feel like a perfect downwind run — a sunset shared with friends, laughter carried across the bay, the sense that this place has become part of your story because of the people in it.
Everything aligns — wind, water, hearts — and you remember that joy is not meant to be contained.
Happiness is only real when shared.
And the breezes that matter most are the ones a community catches together.
9. Growth — Know Yourself
Your limits are not your enemies.
They are the shapes that define you, the quiet edges of who you are today — not forever, just today.
Life doesn’t hand you an empty horizon. It gives you a landscape, a course, with boundaries you must learn to read, not invent.
Some kids tack a million times, believing the laylines are right in front of them — closer, smaller, safer than they truly are.
They think the world ends where their comfort ends. But it doesn’t.
ESA shows them otherwise. Here, they discover the space beyond their own assumptions — that the laylines are farther, the course is wider, the world is bigger than they ever imagined.
Eleuthera has a way of revealing the truth: your limits shape you, but they are not the end of you. They are simply the beginning of understanding who you are and who you might become when you dare to look past the edges you once believed were fixed.
Embrace your limits. Explore beyond them.
Life is larger than you think — and ESA helps you feel that with your whole being.
CHAPTER IV CELEBRATION — The Finish Line and Beyond
The wind invites us forward. The future is open. The horizon is ours.
IV.
CELEBRATION — The
Finish line and beyond
10. Steady on
There is a quiet triumph in simply continuing. Showing up for the early tides, supporting a community, watching kids grow into strength and families grow into belonging.
A race is never won in a single burst.
Life may feel like a sprint — fast, demanding, full of moments where you want to stop — but the truth is in the rhythm you build, the discipline you choose, the refusal to give up.
Discipline is the mother of success.
Not the loud kind, but the steady kind —
the one that keeps a child sailing even when the wind shifts, the one that keeps a community rising even when the current pulls back.
At ESA, we teach that greatness is not in the one big moment, but in the repetition of many small ones — a steady hand on the tiller, a steady presence in the lives of kids, a steady belief in what this island can be.
Steadiness is its own kind of victory. And sometimes, it is the most powerful one of all.
11. Eleuthera our Anchor
Every person needs an anchor — not to hold them back, but to hold them true.
Life will push, pull, surprise, spin you in circles, and throw you into waters you never saw coming.
Without something steady, you drift.
Without something real, you forget where you’re going.
An anchor is the part of you that doesn’t move when everything else does.
Your values. Your roots. Your story.
The place that reminds you who you are when the world tries to tell you otherwise.
Eleuthera becomes that anchor for so many of us.
Not because it stops us, but because it connects us —
to nature, to people, to a simpler truth about what matters and what doesn’t.
This island ties you to something honest and elemental. Salt. Wind. Community. Responsibility. Future.
It asks you to protect it, because in protecting it, you protect a part of yourself. A part of your children. A part of tomorrow.
Don’t forget where you came from. Don’t forget what holds you steady.
Let your anchor keep you grounded so your dreams can rise without losing their way.
12. Keep sailing
A finish line is never the end — only a turning point.
Every sailor knows there is always another course, another island, another horizon waiting to be explored.
Eleuthera teaches you this too: that life is wide, the ocean endless, and possibility always ahead.
And so we all keep sailing— second-home dreamers, island families, children discovering the world, and all those who believe that the ocean can change a life.
The wind invites us forward. The future is open. The horizon is ours.
Keep sailing.
The journey has just begun.
To the families of Eleuthera, who trust us with their children and who remind us that community is built one day at a time.
To our supporters, donors, and second-home families, who give not only resources, but heart, belief, and continuity. Your courage to invest in this island creates opportunities that last a lifetime.
To the volunteers, coaches, and friends who show up, haul boats, share meals, fix engines, and keep the sails full.
And most of all— to the young sailors of Savannah Sound, who teach us daily what courage, joy, and possibility truly look like.
Gratitude
Major supporters Acknowledgements
The Eleuthera Sailing Academy exists because one person had a dream — Craig Symonette, whose vision and generosity planted the seed for everything that followed. From that first idea, a remarkable community began to grow around the mission: families, supporters, sailors, neighbors, second-home owners, and visitors who believed Eleuthera deserved a place where young people — and adults — could experience the ocean’s power and possibility.
These first five years were only possible because so many stepped forward to help.
To every donor, volunteer, coach, parent, sailor, partner, and friend:
Thank you. You are part of this story.
Donor tiers & recognition
Foundational and visionary donors who launched ESA and continue shaping its long-term mission.
Jane & Scott Snyder
Rich & Kim McArdle
Thomas Morales
Van Sickle Family
Randall Saunders
Jim Parker
Maxey Family
Andrew Kemp
Clay Sweeting
Radek Rybicki & Caitlin Symonette
Tsoumpas Family
TK Foundation
Community donors
Supporters who keep the sails full and the doors open.
Sven Borho
Peter Kuhn
Shelby Gibbs
James Doramus
Dickson Family
Roger Ryall
Jeff Bistrong
Jane Martin
Nicholas Damianos
Jenn Palmer
Tom & Lauren Shaffer
Lauren Hannan Shafer
Olivier Trefgarne
Nanette Johns
Joel Lovelace
Winfield Clifford
Michelle Johnson
Rachel Errickson
Ellen Gray
Steve Elam
Allan Penn
George I. Politidis
Denise Wilkes
Doris Hauber
Katie Frost
Django Houston
Terri Bingham
James Doramus
Bruce Ferri
Doug Douglas
Tricia Avidano
Ann Montgomery
Mani Dawes
Anne DeBoer
Patricia Armstrong Alexiou Family
Tomlinson Family
Dennings Family
Dyane Bailey
Geordie Dalgish
Susie Patterson
Sven Dethlefs
Shauna Wells
Adriana Coderch
Jones Family
Donna Outwater
John Crone
Geoff White
Ives and Jess Lenouvel
Janet & Bill Dunbar
Angela Brown-Cuevas
Ray Fanelli
Sid Conrad
Vernal Bethel
Dwayne Montique
Leslie Lightfoot
Minton Sparks
John Jackson
Guthrie Trapp
Dylan Altman
Rod McGaha
Jane Martin
Debra Ann Myers
Nicola Monti
Katie Freeman
Mike A. Klonaris
Candy Kelly
George Owen
Nonprofits and foundations supporting ESA’s mission.
Make Them Sailors
Cape Eleuthera Island School & Cape Eleuthera Foundation
Windermere Foundation
Regatta Desk
Bahamas Sailing Association
CTI One Eleuthera Foundation
Lyford Cay Foundation
BREEF (Nassau)
Acme Radio Foundation
Partner organizations Board & supportive team
Guiding hands who shaped ESA’s mission, growth, and community impact.
Selima Campbell Hauber & Timothy Hauber
Ian & Laura Heinen
Alexander & Laura Paine
Jannine Carey
Chervette Starchan
Businesses & organizations
BUSINESSES & ORGANIZATIONS
Businesses, sponsors, supporters, and contributors.
(*) If we unintentionally left someone out, we apologize — and we thank you. ESA is built by countless hands and hearts, and we are grateful for every one of you.
Keep sailing.
The horizon is open. The journey continues— on this island, in this community, with every child who dares to dream.
Eleuthera Sailing Academy Savannah Sound, Bahamas 2025
