27 vs. Wild

Ship: Johnny
Date: 05.01.2025
Position: San Blas Islands
Nautical Position: 9° 34.9′ N, 78° 40.8′ W
Etmal: 0 nm
Total Etmal: 6691 nm

An exciting morning

This morning I was woken up by Fufu yelling: “JUNOO! There’s a shark outside!” I immediately ran on deck, following Fufu and Juno, who were on galley duty that day, which was why they had already been awake.

And there it was: A small shark swimming around right in front of the Johnny – what better way to start your day?

For breakfast, we had very delicious pancakes, the best ones so far in my opinion. Soon afterwards, we discovered that the Thor Heyerdahl had anchored right next to us.

Since she is a school ship as well, we were very excited that we got to see her. Unfortunately, there are currently no students on board because they’re on land, otherwise we would have loved to meet them.

Surviving on a lonely island

Later that morning, we were divided into two groups: One group had to start packing for Costa Rica and the other one took the dinghy to explore the San Blas Islands.

For most of us, it was the first time stepping foot on the islands and we were completely stunned. There were palm trees everywhere, and combined with the clear, turquoise water, it almost looked unreal.

Many students said that it was the most beautiful landscape they had ever seen – and definitely a huge highlight on our journey so far.

On the islands, we could swim, snorkel and walk around to explore the untouched land. Well, untouched except for the trash that was lying around everywhere. It surprised us how many cans and plastic bags we could find, but fortunately, the second group picked some of it up.

While we were on the islands, we pretended to be participants of the series “7 vs. Wild”, planning our imaginary shelters and the way we would provide ourselves with enough food if we were stranded there.

Packing up

Back on the Johnny, the second group started with the dinghy and we had to face the huge challenge of sorting all of our belongings, deciding whether to take them to Costa Rica or not.

Even though that took up a lot of time, most of us had imagined the process to be more difficult than it was after all. We needed a bit more time than expected, but once we were at least kind of ready, we could finally get to the highlight of the day.

The Caribbean (slash Atlantic) Ball

Due to the risk of falling overboard, we haven’t been able to hold our Atlantic Ball yet, so it was about time to change that! Our Caribbean Ball took place on one of the San Blas Islands at a picturesque little beach restaurant.

When we arrived, we immediately hung up our hammocks, saving the best spaces in between the palm trees (always looking out for falling coconuts, of course). Then, we had some time to go swimming, swing on a beautiful swingset in the water, or simply sit in the sand and enjoy the view.

Later on, we ate coconut curry with optional tuna in the restaurant. For dessert, we had coconut cake and passion fruit juice.

The galley team had prepared dough for “Stockbrot”, which was then made at our bonfire. After a while, some people from the UK joined us there and we got to practice our English. They were very interested in our journey and we talked a lot.

At some point, we all went to sleep in our hammocks peacefully… until about 2 a.m.

An unfortunate surprise

That was when it started raining very hard. At first, we all stayed in the hammocks, hoping that the rain would stop soon, but there was no point in waiting. When we had finally all gone to the dry restaurant, our hammocks, sleeping bags and clothes were soaking wet.

We tried to get comfortable on the ground, benches, and tables and put on dry clothes if we still had some left. Most of us slept in their wet sleeping bags, but a few lucky ones still had dry towels that they could use as blankets. During the night, it rained like before repeatedly, so we had made a good choice in moving.

Even though we didn’t get much sleep and some were totally eaten up by mosquitoes, it was quite an adventure and we had an amazing time.

Greetings:

Daniela: Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, alter Sack🎉🥳