Sailing Across the Kuroshio: Taitung Family Support Centre's Adventure to Green Island

At Taitung Sailing School, one of our founding ideas has always been simple: every child in Taitung should have the opportunity to experience the ocean. Regardless of where they come from, which school they attend, or their family's financial circumstances, we believe the sea should be accessible to everyone.

This July, that vision took us across the Kuroshio Current once again: this time with a group of teenagers from the Taitung Family Support Centre (台東家扶中心).

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A Year of Learning, One Big Graduation Adventure

Our partnership with the Taitung Family Support Centre began last year, when we established a sailing group to give local teenagers the opportunity to try something different. Throughout the year, the students participated in regular sailing activities, gradually building their skills, confidence, and understanding of the ocean.

The trip to Green Island became the perfect graduation adventure for the group. Fifteen middle and high school students, two social workers, and three sailing instructors set out together with one ambitious goal: to cross the stretch of ocean between Taitung and Green Island by sail.

Crossing the Kuroshio

Before the students arrived, our coaches had already begun their own adventure. Allen and Fede travelled by train to Hualien and spent the night at Hualien Harbour. Before sunrise the following morning, they set off by sailboat for Taitung. From sunrise to sunset, they experienced almost every kind of weather, from thick clouds, heavy rain, blazing sunshine to changing winds, before finally arriving at Fugang Fishing Harbour.

Why make the journey this way? Because getting a group of students to Green Island by sail requires preparation, experience, and a boat in the right place at the right time. And because every successful crossing brings us one step closer to making island-to-island sailing a normal part of life in Taitung.

Indeed, this wasn't our only Green Island crossing of the summer. Earlier in July, students from Taitung Girls' Senior High School and Changbin Junior High School joined us for their own sailing expedition across the Kuroshio. Less than a month later, we made the journey again with the Taitung Family Support Centre.

The Ocean as a Classroom

Green Island may look close to Taitung on a map, but crossing the Kuroshio is an experience that makes the scale and power of the ocean very real. The Kuroshio is one of the world's strongest ocean currents.

Rather than seeing it simply as an obstacle, we see it as an incredible classroom. Students learn to observe the wind, understand currents, make decisions, and adapt to changing conditions. They experience first-hand that the ocean cannot simply be controlled: we have to learn how to work with it. For young people who may have had limited opportunities to travel or experience the ocean in this way, the journey can be a powerful reminder that their world is much bigger than the places they know.

When Taitung Sailing School began around eight years ago, there were no sailing boats operating as a school in Taitung. We were sometimes told that Taitung's waters were too dangerous, that the Kuroshio was too powerful, and that sailing to Green Island was unrealistic. But two years ago, our coaching team completed our first crossing of the Kuroshio by sailboat.

Since then, we have continued to explore what is possible, and have now been able to bring students, teachers, parents, and community groups along for the journey. Our hope is that one day, a child growing up in Taitung will think nothing unusual about saying: "We went sailing to Green Island."

Thank You

This journey would not have been possible without an incredible network of people. Thank you to Yizhen and Yixiu, the social workers from the Taitung Family Support Centre, for accompanying the students throughout the journey and taking care of them every step of the way. Thank you to Chen Yi, Allen, and Fede, our sailing instructors, for sharing their knowledge and experience with the students on the water. Thank you to the Fugang Fishing Port Fishermen's Association and Chairman Wu Po-Cheng for helping arrange a berth for our boat and making it easier for the students to embark and disembark. And thank you to our friends at Hualien Sailing School and SV Always Summer, who continue to be our partners in these adventures and help make Green Island and Orchid Island feel a little closer every year.

🙏 謝謝老天爺給我們兩天的好天氣。 星期二很刺激的東北風，在三個半小時內就抵達目的地。 星期三溫柔的順風順流緩慢地飄回去台灣本島。

🙏謝謝富岡漁港的漁會和吳柏成理事長，幫我們安排一個泊位給我們的帆船在富岡漁港停靠，並讓家扶中心的孩子方便上下船。

🙏謝謝花蓮帆船學校與永遠天晴號，一年接著一年當我們的大航海夥伴，每年把綠島和蘭嶼拉到近一點。

🙏謝謝宜蓁和怡秀社工全程陪孩子，時時刻刻照顧孩子的安全。

🙏謝謝陳逸，Allen和小飛教練，在海洋中陪孩子們學習航海，讓他們開闊眼界。

🙏謝謝大海，謝謝風，謝謝黑潮，當成我們每天的夥伴， 有祢們才有台東帆船學校。

Most importantly, thank you to the students who were willing to step outside their comfort zones and take on the challenge. We hope this journey gave them more than just a sailing experience. We hope it gave them a wider view of the world, and the confidence to keep exploring it.

Thank you, ocean. Thank you, wind. Thank you, Kuroshio.

We'll see you on the next crossing. ⛵