Land in sight!

Date: 22.12.2023
Geographical position: 12° 01.3’N 061° 00.1’W
Etmal: 190 nm
Total: 5013 nm 
Ship: Regina Maris 

Since a month I know that the 22nd of December is going to be the day I have to write a daily report. And as everyone here I hoped that it would be a day where something interesting, new would happen in order for me to write about it. And how lucky for me today is the day where we could finally shout out:

“Land Ho!”

At exactly 13:16 o’clock (GMT-4) we could spot Grenada at the horizon. (Actually it was Max who spot the island first and thus got a bag of chocolate as a prize 😉 You can not imagine the feeling of seeing land after 14 days of just water and more water and even more water. 

Getting closer and closer to land also means that we are getting closer and closer to the end of our first Atlantic crossing. In some way the end of a beginning. If you would have told me a year ago I was going to cross the Atlantic, on a sailing ship with 35 other teenagers I would probably have laughed at you.

And where am I now? In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. And how can I describe that? Honestly I don’t know. 

How can you describe something so special that you can not even put words to it?

I am going to tell you about a few of my favorite moments of my first (and not last 😉

Atlantic crossing!

Endless horizon and sunsets:

What does a “normal teenager” do on a Thursday afternoon at about 6pm? Probably not sit 20 meters up in the air, watching the sunset and having dolphins swim around, right? Well, that’s anyway what we are doing 🙂 One of my most beautiful moments on this journey until now was when one evening I climbed up the mast with Darja, the sun already started to set and the moment we arrived on top, dolphins came.

Just as if we would have ordered them. Because of the clear water we could see the whole pod of dolphins swimming around the ship. There were no sails up so we could see 360 degrees endless horizon around us and just the ocean in every direction.

We saw the people on deck going after their daily business and being up there on the mast was like being in a little bubble. You could observe everyone but no one could really talk to you or ask you anything.

It’s the only place on the ship where you can actually have a little bit of silence and distance from everything that’s going on. I was really lucky to be able to climb up there few times during the crossing 🙂 

“Hoist all the sails in the morning sun…”

That is actually a part of our Charlie watch shanty we came up with 🙂 Another thing I loved during the crossing: The Charlie watch. Until now it was my favorite from all watches. We either had the sunrise or the sunset and in addition to that we also had the night sky with all the stars.

I never had such a beautiful view while eating my breakfast 😉 Also sometimes during watch a tropical rain shower decided to surprise us or dolphins came and visited. Once we had a pod of dolphins that actually made backflips and all kinds of artistic things.

I did not only love the watch itself but also the people. Having deep talks, normal talks, standing there in silence, getting to know people better, talking to people I did not talk to that much before, having insights, sharing beautiful moments, laughing about random stuff, all that was part of watch. 

The crazy penguin family 

And all that is actually not just part of watch. At this point, after two months it really feels like a second home and a second family to me. Each person brings something to our crazy penguin family (that’s how we like to call it often 🙂 and without one of us it would be different. Yesterday, the 21st of December we realized that we were at the third of our voyage and that scared us all a little.

There is literally no time feeling on board and some of us already said, we would not wonder if we would come back home and find a newspaper where it would say 2060 on it 😉 Right now I just don’t want this journey to end at all. 

The small moments 

There are many more moments that I loved. The Atlantic ball, the party’s in the hallway, singing together, board game evenings and so forth. But it’s not just about special things as climbing up the mast or seeing dolphins.

It’s about those little moments when you realize that what you are doing goes beyond reality.

I am so looking forward to everything that will happen in the next few months, we all can’t wait to finally arrive in Aruba 🙂

P.S.: Emma: Wenn ich Glück habe, dann lest ihr das um Weihnachten herum 🙂 Ich wünsche  euch Frohe Weihnachten und liiieeebbbee euch ganz stark. Loooove youuuuuu <3

Isabel: Alles Gute zum Hochzeitstag, Mama und Papa!!! Hab‘ euch ganz doll lieb<3