Date: 27. November 2022
Author: Lara
Position: Port of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
Nautical Position: 28°08‘.797N/015°25‘.182W
Etmal: 2446NM

Nutella-Day

Today was a normal shore-leave day but with a special morning. Because of the 1st Advent Franziska S. and Annbritt woke us up with Christmas songs e.g., “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht”. My motivation to stand up was the fact that today was Sunday, which means Nutella-Day. Only on Sundays you can eat Nutella for breakfast. That’s why there are always more people for breakfast on a Sunday. After the ship`s company meeting on the well-deck,­ we all went back to our cabins to get our stuff for a beach-shore-leave day. Around 09:30 am we all were finished and ready for the beach. We were lucky that we only have to walk 15min to the beach. 

Beach Day

When we arrived, the teachers said we should use the time for the “self-reflection” and the feedback-talks, which are in our blue study-books, before we went swimming. In the “self-reflection” we answer a few questions to different topics, like: Family, friendship, our emotional life or health and fitness. These feedback-talks are split into three feedbacks during the voyage.

The first one in Tenerife, the second one after the first Atlantic crossing and the last one after the second Atlantic crossing. After we filled out our study-books, we went for a swim. The water had the perfect temperature and we saw many fish, which swam around us. When I laid down on my towel in the sand, I thought about my family who sit at home in warm clothes and a cup of tea in the hand, while I lie here in the sun. 

Later on, everyone bought their last things for the Atlantic crossing, because we are going to be for three weeks on the Atlantic Ocean. Many of us have a huge stack of snacks, sweets, and drinks in our cabins. When you are at sea, a simple piece of chocolate can be your daily motivation to keep on going during watch or school. 

Our Barber on Board

After we arrived at the Pelican again, we all took a shower to wash the sand on our bodies away. Since the voyage started, we have a self-declared Barber on board, Constantin. It started a few weeks ago with shaving Nicolais and Hannes bold heads and a gave Paul a few undefinable haircuts. Now he cuts our hair seriously (not like before when the haircuts where for fun). Lennox, Paul, Theodor and Leander got a new haircut from Constantin.

Luckily, we had our phones the whole day so we could call our family and friends at home if we wanted to. The fact that I called them maybe two or three times before was funny, because we so often thought we would go on the Atlantic now but always something crossed our way. But now it is really happening. Our adventure starts! Three weeks Atlantic crossing! (Hopefully…)

Greetings:

Lara: I greet my parents my sister, my brother and my grandparents! I love you all and I wish you a great Christmas time with a lot of gingerbread, biscuits and a lot of good food.

Annbritt: Greetings to my parents, my sister and my grandmother.

Thea: I greet my friends at home who are sitting in the cold school.