Best place in U.S. to learn sailing/sailboats for ~1 year before sailing away?

[sck5]

I had a slip in Rock Hall for quite a while. Excellent marinas and boat services if you want them, and way cheaper than, say, Annapolis. Both Baltimore and Annapolis are easily reachable and St. Michael's too. Lots of other good places also.

I never did it but I would bet you could find very cheap off-season rentals on the Eastern Shore if you wanted to be on land for a few months.

[sck5]

And though I had sailed lasers and a hobie cat on the northern lake I still live on, I just "jumped right in" to a bigger boat (OK, a Caliber 33 but it was big to ME and big enough to sail offshore to the Virgin islands 18 months after I got it).

People were always willing to help me out when I had questions and it helped to have two full seasons on the Chesapeake to find out how to fix the things that broke or needed maintenance. I discovered that there are Youtube videos for every conceivable repair you might want to make. How do people have the time/desire to document every nut and bolt of their repairs/renovations? I have no idea but am very grateful to all of them