Amber Diller
amberdiller.md@gmail.com

While Cal Poly prepares to settle into the slow, quiet days of summer, agricultural and environmental plant sciences freshman Sienna Streamfellow is preparing to set sail.

The first week of July will be the start of a yearlong journey for Streamfellow and her dad as she plans to accompany him on his dream to sail around the Southern Pacific Ocean on his boat.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “It’s going to be interesting not being in school for an entire year. I’m kind of excited because I know it’s going to be really relaxing.”

The father-daughter duo is still debating on two route options. One choice would lead their trip down the coast of Mexico and South America, then out west toward Australia. The other option would take them toward Hawaii first, then southwest from there.

“We’re taking off for a year and following a general route,” she said. “Our main goal is to be heading west, island hopping toward Southeast Asia. If we find an island we really like, we can change plans.”

Deciding on the route aside, this trip is a dream come true for her dad, Streamfellow said.

“He’s done lots of sailing,” she said. “He lives on the boat in Hawaii and takes a trip for three weeks every summer.”

Though not an expert like her dad, Streamfellow learned some sailing skills while living in Hawaii on her dad’s boat before high school, she said.

“Living on the boat, I’ve had to learn,” she said. “If something happened to my dad, I think I’d be able to at least get myself to shore safely.”

Streamfellow’s mother, who lives in San Diego, won’t be along for the trip, but is still supportive of her daughter’s plans to spend a year with her dad.

“She’s definitely not as adventurous as my dad, but she supports (the trip),” Streamfellow said. “She just wants me to get back to Cal Poly.”

Child development freshman Zoe Karanfilian is Streamfellow’s roommate and wasn’t surprised when she learned about the yearlong sailing trip, she said.

“Sienna is really adventurous and is always outdoors, but I’m really sad that I’m not going to be able to see her for a year,” Karanfilian said. “Whenever I think about things I want to do next year, I have in mind that she’ll be here but then I remember that she won’t be here.”

Taking a year off from school isn’t something foreign to the Cal Poly administration office.

“If someone wants to take a year off, they just need to fill out a Leave of Absence form,” Office of the Registrar student employee and environmental management and protection senior Reyna Schenck said.

Students can take up to two years (or eight terms) off school as long as the form is filled out and turned in correctly. A “leaving term” and a “returning term” are indicated on the form.

Streamfellow won’t be thinking about school or paperwork in July when it’s time to set sail, though. All she can think of is the call of the ocean.

“I keep imagining some random island that we’ll be on, enjoying warm water and good fish,” she said.