Date: 25.01.2021
Author: Max-Eliot
Position: At the south end of the Panamacanal
Nautical Position: 335°, 0.95nm from the flamenco signal station, Balboa
Etmal: 0 nm (Total: 8112 nm)

It´s a real pain in the ass to have to write a daily report a day where nothing interesting or new happens. I mean today we (or more precisely captain Ben) waited for some paperwork related to our crossing of the Panamacanal (last time I had to write the daily report was the 23.12. and we were waiting for the immigration customs from Curacao to get ashore). And we had AGAIN PCR-tests (this day ressembles way too much the 23.12… ).

At 1745 our pilot for the transit came and we immediately began our way through the canal. I already did a very precise description of how a PCR-test is been done and how much it ressembles to the new torture method of the 21st Century and Lukas already talked about our first crossing of the canal.

So what do you do in this case? You have then to be MORE creative. I wish I would be like my sister. She always has her own, good ideas. By the time I’m writing those lines you are reading, it´s the 26th of january (Julius M. 18th birthday!), 5 to 11pm local time. I´m questioning myself now: Is it really so difficult or am I just too stupid? I would be tempted to chose the second option even though I know that others struggled to find a subject to talk about too. But it´s most probably just because they are as stupid as I am surely.

But not my sister. She is, as I said earlier, very creative. She always has the best ideas for birthday or chrismas presents. I don´t (it´s the one reason why I never managed to offer any presents to any member of my family or friends). She draws and paints a lot. She not only draws and paints a lot but also does it well! She once made a painting that looks like a picture of a nebula taken by the Hubble telescope and every time I see it (well I haven´t seen it for quite a while, since I am on the Pelican) I’m astonished by it’s beauty. If you combine her gift to do the best gifts, her artistic mind and her knowledge about her only brother (me), you have then a very happy me who just recieved a beautiful selfmade minecraft painting. You then also have the best advent calender for the Ocean College trip with photos she took at home, pictures she drew, texts she wrote, all for me in one small book.

In our family we inherited a very strong love for games and movies. And so do my sister and I. During holidays, we would play together hours at Mario Kart Wii, Wii Sport & Resort, Wii party, Mario party 9, animal crossing; when our parents would come home, we’d be watching a movie together whilst eating a homemade delicious dish or just a Pizza from Franky´s Pizza. She would cook the best cookies (even better than Abbies, I swear!). During lockdown we’d be sitting in our garden playing Toc (or Brändy Dog as Priska calls it), Dutch or any other game. My sister and I would watch one, two or three movies together; a studio Ghibli movie, a Pixar movie, a Disney movie, a dreamworks movie, I don´t know, any movie we have a common love for (which is nearly every movie we both know). And whenever an occasion is set to say a sentence from any of our favourite movies, we’d say it to the other and laugh about it, even if we just argued against each other a few seconds ago: I would try once again to show her how to cook this or that, she’d do it wrong (from my point of view), I would correct her and show her the good way and she would just roll her eyes and answer: „eeuh mets les doigts, mets les doigts…“ (it´s french) like in the movie The Minions.

We would listen to musics of our favourite movies and then watch those movies because the music made us exited about it. We would listen to Twenty One Pilots or Alt-J during the car ride to our cousins or grandparents and sing the songs together. We would send each other memes or funny videos and pictures on instagram. We would be petting our two cats, Pipo and Holly together.

And I’m now pissed of because of the shitty internet connection we (or at least I) had in Costa Rica. I could not see her nor could I really speak to her. I miss three things: The kitchen at home where I can cook everything, my cats who I would pet during hours and my sister with whom I would watch movies, play, talk and laugh. Tomorrow it´s gonne be four months for the watchleaders and the teachers, and so for myself, since we left home and have been on the Pelican. It´s been a long time and there are still nearly two and a half months to go until I can see her again. I didn´t write a real daily report and I´m sorry. I just miss my little sister.