About Us
Wonder is an education vessel on a mission to transform learning.
We bought Wonder to serve as the Ocean Campus for The Planet School, a high school we are designing that focuses on experiential learning through real-world projects. Serving as a campus for The Planet School was not envisioned to take up the entire year, so we planned a business around Wonder in the winter and summer that would help offset the cost of tuition at The Planet School. Most tall ships offer sunset sails, so that’s the business plan we started with. But then we realized a more enticing opportunity.
When we describe The Planet School’s “semester at sea” aboard Wonder, we often get asked “That sounds amazing! Can adults enroll?!” We hear it so frequently that we decided to do some research to see if such a program exists. We searched for an opportunity for adults who are brimming with curiosity and enthusiasm, but lacking in experience, to come aboard a tall ship for a week (most adults cannot sail for a semester), become part of the crew, learn seamanship skills, and feel the same magic of ocean voyaging that our teenage students feel. We could not find such a program.
So we created The Voyaging Institute.
We’ve transformed our usual six week voyage into short format expeditions for adults. Join us for an adventure of a lifetime and know that every dollar you spend supports a new high school that, one day, we hope to make tuition-free.
A Note From Our Founders:
Sailing brought us together.
It happened while attending a friend’s wedding during COVID-19—masked and sitting at isolated tables. The groom: one of Thane’s college roommates, the bride: one of Lindsay’s high school best friends. We got introduced when one of Thane’s friends learned Lindsay was living on a boat in San Diego that she was teaching herself to renovate. “Oh, I have to introduce you to my friend who is sailing his boat around the world.” From that moment, we were inseparable; we were either dancing or talking. The next morning, Thane showed up to the coffee station to tell his assembled roommates, “I am going to marry that girl.” They chuckled, but we knew. We changed our travel plans to stay together for a few extra days, then we rearranged our lives, and within a few months we were living on a Tartan 42 sailboat in Key West preparing to go voyaging.
Love, romance, passion…these are almost inextricable from the lore of the sea. We started The Voyaging Institute to share the seafaring magic that has changed our lives and the lives of so many students we have come across during semester-at-sea voyaging programs. The night we met, we talked until sunrise about our dreams, including our mutual passion for working with youth: Lindsay through pediatric medicine and Thane through teaching. The vision of building a school with ocean voyaging (and experiences like it) as its classroom became a shared dream.
In 2024, we made good on this dream and bought Wonder. We sailed her over 6,000 miles from Key Largo to the Great Lakes and then back to Key West via the inland rivers to complete the Great Loop, testing our curriculum and honing the voyaging experience. We got married mid-voyage.
We see The Voyaging Institute as the adult learning and business side of the same coin as The Planet School: a place where strong community, a sense of raw purpose, authentic adventure, and engaging hands-on learning can coalesce and thrive.
We can’t wait to welcome you aboard.
Gratefully,
Lindsay & Thane
Our Crew
Thane Robinson
Founder and Captain
Thane is an experienced educator who encourages ambitious, imaginative thinking in his students. Formerly a media executive, Thane has voyaged over 30,000 nautical miles on sailing school vessels and led students in founding a radio station in India, launching a youth advisory board within local government, and riding bicycles across the United States for affordable housing. In addition to The Planet School and The Voyaging Institute, Thane is the Director of the Restorative Aquaculture Degree Program at Northeast Maritime Institute.
He particularly enjoys sailing at night using the stars.
Qualifications
- 100 Ton USCG Captain’s License
- M.S. in Agriculture Education, Montana State University
- B.A. in Economics and Development Studies, Brown University
Lindsay Hook
Co-Founder and Medical Director
Lindsay combines a passion for working with children with global senior organizational leadership. She helped found a clinic in rural Uganda and served as the Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO of an international biotech firm. In addition to direct patient care—most recently at Seattle Children’s Hospital—Lindsay has overseen the medical care of youth with cancer for the Sunshine Kids Foundation and Camp Goodtimes.
Lindsay spent the COVID-19 pandemic renovating a boat in San Diego and then sailed a Tartan 42 sailboat from Key West to Charleston with Thane.
Qualifications
- Pediatric Nurse Practitioner specializing in Oncology
- M.S. in Nursing, Yale University
- B.S. in Nursing, Clemson University