Dear Adventurer,
Thank you for your interest in an Odyssey Expeditions Educational Adventure!
For 28 years, Odyssey has been leading unique and outstanding educational adventure programs focusing on sailing, scuba diving and marine science. Combining an awesome island sailing adventure and underwater exploration program with a staff of enthusiastic sailors, biologists, and scuba instructors, Odyssey Expeditions integrates marine science discoveries into an adventure of a lifetime. Voyages are dedicated to providing the educational background, underwater exploration skills, and personal talents to help students develop into 'Ambassadors of the World's Oceans.' With projects that bring science ideas to life and contribute back through environmental service, your voyage is not only personally rewarding but also a positive influence in our world.
You and your shipmates take full charge of your sailing catamaran; you explore biological wonders of the oceans and islands, enjoy breathtaking scenes, and hike through lush tropical mountains. You learn to navigate, to hoist the sails, and to drop anchor. You will even be 'skipper-of-the-day.' You earn PADI SCUBA certifications and 'dive-in' to fantastic reefs, historic shipwrecks, and brilliant, coral-encrusted pinnacles.
Prior experience is not necessary; these voyages will develop your skills for ocean and undersea exploration and allow you to discover your potential. You will face challenges and exceed your expectations as you master new activities in exciting environments awaiting your discovery. Setting new goals you never thought you would set, and accomplishing them, assures you that we can make a difference in the world and that we may live our dreams.
Please read over our website carefully to better understand Odyssey's unique program offerings and our special way of making the voyage your voyage. Request a brochure and also explore our extensive slide shows and leave messages with other students through our facebook page, and then call us so we can ensure the best fit for your goals amongst the different programs. You will soon know that Odyssey delivers excellent summer adventures.
Join us on a fun and safe voyage of discovery that you will never forget!
Jason and Jon Buchheim and the Odyssey Expeditions crew
Offering unique adventures for more than 28 years, specializing in Sailing, SCUBA Diving, and Marine Biology. We bring you the most access to the best of the Caribbean's British Virgin Islands and Windward Islands, including the fabulous reefs, rain forests, shipwrecks, marine life, and beaches while sailing and living aboard a fast, sleek 46 foot catamaran yachts. Our Staff are highly experienced, our itineraries, encompassing, our equipment new and of the highest quality, our unique philosophy of keeping groups small and intimate, our commitment to you for personal instruction and our well-honed course design make Odyssey Expeditions the safest and most rewarding Caribbean summer adventure available.
Our programs do not sail around in large flotillas, rather each vessel is functionally independent. You do not have to wait for dive boats to pick you up for your turn to dive, there is no sharing of gear, or rotation of students between many staff. Your vessel is able to travel to the best locations without the locations becoming swamped with multiple boats and many people, keeping the experience yours. Your schedule is not rigid, you will have input on your days activities and you do not rotate through a pre-set schedule of activities. Odyssey programs are about personal discovery, adventure with good friends, skill building and creating an awesome experience. SCUBA and sailing courses progress at your pace. If you need a little extra time to master a skill, you can get it. We have a student to staff ratio of nearly 3 to 1 so you will really get to know your instructors who live aboard the boat with you and help to make the voyage your voyage! Learn At Your Own Pace.
The British Virgin Islands are world famous for their excellent protected-water sailing grounds, national marine parks, shipwrecks, beautiful islands and friendly people. The Windward Islands are also full of wonderful people and the islands themselves feature tall volcanoes, incredible reefs, lush rain forests, and Dutch, British and French cultures. Both locations are in stable democratic countries with modern hospitals, airports, and infrastructures but still have incredible natural diversity and healthy ecosystems awaiting your exploration.
Our staff are highly experienced, friendly leaders and educators. The Odyssey Expeditions directors, Jon and Jason Buchheim, personally sail and work with each program ensuring that the programs are of the highest caliber. Many of our staff have been working with us for years and are the heart of our excellent programs. They have extensive training as USCG licensed Captains or equivalent, EMT or Wilderness First Responder certifications, PADI master SCUBA diving instructor training and certification, and Odyssey Expeditions training course completion. Our marine biologists are college instructors or research biologists. We screen our new staff very carefully, selecting the best applicants from a large pool to ensure that they are the type of people who will exhibit strong responsibility traits and excellent personal judgment while being fun and exciting to learn from.
ExperienceThis is Odyssey's 29th year and our staff have a combined experience with summer SCUBA adventures of over 115 years without any serious medical incidents, injuries, or equipment damages or accidents. Odyssey Expeditions is a 5-Star International Resort Member with full review and accreditation by the Professional Association of Dive Instructors PADI. We have amongst the highest continuing education ratio of any major diving school and have an excellent safety record with thousands of dives being safely performed each summer. Our staff teach marine biology at colleges, sailing throughout the world and are dedicated to providing the safest, most educational experience for you. The Moorings is our exclusive vessel provider, we use only catamarans so that there is ample room for our SCUBA diving activities. These vessels are comfortable, stable, and fast. They are great for sail training with easy-to-understand and well-thought-out rigging and excellent performance. A catamaran is much more comfortable than a monohull, especially doing SCUBA activities or peering through a microscope at plankton. The catamarans come equipped with their own SCUBA compressor, full SCUBA equipment for each student, and two tanks per student. No sharing of gear is necessary, nor is it necessary to wait for a separate dive vessel to pick you up for diving activities, allowing you much more time for exploration. We sail to each dive site, so the transport is active and exciting rather than just a boat ride.
SCUBA, sailing, and marine biology educational gear are stocked onto each catamaran, allowing each vessel to be functionally independent. You get your own set of SCUBA gear for the duration of the voyage, and it includes an advanced dive computer to increase bottom time and provide safe dive profiles. The SCUBA gear is personally fitted for each student. No time is wasted swapping gear or waiting for a dive boat to pick you up, allowing for more adventure time and skill development. This allows you to earn many more dive certifications than is possible with other seemingly similar adventure sailing programs. *Each program also has digital underwater cameras for students to use, and computer access to download the images for instant feedback after a dive. *Advanced-instruction equipment includes underwater communications devices, so that our marine biologists can talk to their students while underwater. *Adventure equipment aboard includes sea kayaks, water skis, wake boards, and knee boards. *Biology supplies include microscopes, water testing lab equipment, and ecology research materials.
Odyssey Expeditions is NOT A SUMMER CAMP! You will not be part of a huge group. The atmosphere is not structured for dealing with lots of people but, rather, personal instruction and small group development allow for true leadership roles to evolve in a friendly atmosphere promoting teamwork and individual achievement. We allow each trip to develop on its own terms and you should expect something new around every corner!
Odyssey Expeditions Environmental Commitment Help Preserve the Reefs, Travel Sustainably, Explore Lightly, Keep the World Beautiful, Contribute
Odyssey Expeditions has a strong environmental conservation commitment. We are dedicated to providing outstanding educational adventures that teach about the marine and island environments, foster a greater commitment amongst our students to help preserve our worlds natural resources and to become leaders towards this cause. We also are committed to minimizing our impacts upon the areas we visit through proper anchoring techniques, the use of mooring balls and the installation of mooring systems in sensitive areas, the proper disposal of wastes we generate and through education on the buoyancy techniques and behaviors of divers visiting the coral reefs.
Through our Adventure and SEA Programs, we also contribute to research efforts with Project Aware, REEF Environmental Education Foundation, and REEF Base, Reef Check Initiative, the St. Lucia Marine Management Area, and Martinique Dolphin Population Monitoring Project, and the Sea Turtle Population Recovery Efforts in St. Vincent.
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