When Diane (Danny) Dube Lindblade first heard about the Martha’s Vineyard Sailing Camp in 1961, she was skeptical. As a teenager she felt at home in the outdoors, but she had no idea how to sail. 

But by the end of the summer during her first year at the camp, she was already saving her babysitting money and looking forward to returning.

“I think I just fell in love with it,” she said.

Last weekend, 62 former campers traveled to the Sailing Camp Park from all over the country to reunite for the first time in 43 years. The Massachusetts Girl Scout Council started the camp in 1938, and it brought groups of young women to Oak Bluffs each summer to learn and hone their maritime skills.

Singing the old songs brought back memories.

Ray Ewing

Singing the old songs brought back memories.

Ray Ewing

“We were all here at a time before women’s liberation, before Title IX,” said former camper and planning committee leader Sue Rapple. “We were trailblazers.”

The camp closed in 1981 after facing financial trouble. The original Sailing Camp building was demolished and replaced by a new building by the town of Oak Bluffs. But campers were glad to be back at the place where they learned to sail.

Janet (Rickie) Erickson attended camp for three years between 1972 and 1976. She said many campers arrived at the reunion as strangers but will be leaving as friends.

“So many of the people here didn’t know each other before but everybody has that commonality, so nobody’s afraid to go up and talk to anybody,” she said.

After leaving camp, Ms. Erickson said she spent many years wearing her “business suit.” However, when she was 30 years old her friends invited her to sail from Key Largo to the Bahamas — an offer she could accept because of the skills she developed at camp. She went on to travel the world by sailboat and is now a harbormaster in Sausalito, Calif.

The way we were.

Ray Ewing

The way we were.

Ray Ewing

Ms. Erickson credits her camp days with sowing the seeds for her maritime career. It also taught her how to be herself.

“We can come here and be stupid and it’s okay,” she said.

A collection of old camp memorabilia was displayed, including T-shirts, photo albums and patinated brass rings taken from sails. 

Dawn Para McKenna, who camped from 1971 to 1976, assembled a binder of old postcards, journal entries and homemade newsletters from her camp days. The pages detail camp shenanigans and Ms. McKenna’s descriptions of current events of the day. Scrawled atop one postcard to her parents was the note: “It’s About Time Nixon Resigned.”

The memories weren’t confined to old mementos. Women stood in clusters reminiscing about formative camp experiences — eating supper fresh from the bean hole, sinking the sailboat fleet ahead of a hurricane, celebrating the moon landing.

One of the most beloved camp traditions was singing. At the reunion, everyone received a spiral-bound book containing sheet music for every song they once sang as campers. In the yard, Donna Kramer Merritt, Ricky Erickson and her sister Judy (Eric) Erickson led a singing circle on guitar.

Current Sail MV executive director Andrew Nutton talks to the former campers.

Ray Ewing

Current Sail MV executive director Andrew Nutton talks to the former campers.

Ray Ewing

Campers placed the songbooks in their laps, but many didn’t need them as they knew the songs by heart. When one song ended, someone would call out a request for the next one until nearly the whole songbook had been finished.

“If we wanted to do everything, we should have just started at the beginning!” Eric Erickson teased.

Though it had been several decades since most of the campers connected, time and distance had not eroded the bonds formed many summers ago.

“A lot of people haven’t seen each other in ages, but you look at the faces and you know the faces, and you know the hearts behind them,” Ricky Erickson said. “Everybody’s just completely picked up from where they left off.”