Cooking without a Chef

Date: 30.12.2023
Geographical Position: 12°19.5′ N 72°14.0′ W
Etmal: 139 nm
Total: 5711 nm
Ship: Regina Maris

Since our Chef Jürgen sadly decided to leave us on the beautiful island of Aruba, it has meant for us: „Cooking without a Chef.“ Well, in theory, luckily for us, we have our new Captain Martin, who not only knows how to sail the ship but also can tell and teach us chefs in training how to cook for 45 people.

While we were enjoying our free shore leave on Aruba, Martin already volunteered to cook delicious meals for us without our help. But for the past two days since we left Aruba, he has had the Galley Duty there to lend him a helping hand.

Breakfast is, as always, in our own hands, but once that is done, it involves the usual first dishes. After that, it’s time to plan the lunch and dinner with Martin, which is nice as it gives us the opportunity to decide for ourselves what we want to cook on a given day.

Once discussed, we distribute the jobs among ourselves and Martin then tells us how to prepare everything. If we know how it is done, he gives us the freedom and opportunity to take over and do it ourselves.

The Fishing Squad

Since our old Captain Michael also left us on Aruba, we now had no one to take care of the fishing equipment onboard. So, Max, Lasse and I decided to take over the responsibility of fishing.

As we all like to fish every now and then in our free time, we have a bit of experience and knowledge when it comes to fishing. All of us also share the same dream: Catching a bigger fish than last year’s Ocean College.

So far, we have only managed to catch a small Yellowfin Tuna together with our last Captain, but we are aiming to catch something a lot bigger.

Finally getting better

On our departure in Aruba, we had to set all the sails at once, but for the first time, it worked without any difficulty. Martin called out the name of a sail like „groß zegel,“ and the group of students stationed there would pull up the sail without any difficulties.

All sails were set within five minutes and the feeling of pride afterward was enormous. Finally, we managed to do everything quickly and efficiently. It gave us the impression that we learned something in the past two months and we’re even happier to impress our new Captain.