Leaving our new home – crossing a border

Ship: Reggie
Date: 10.01.2025
Postion: Costa Rica

Today has been a very special day. You might argue that you could say things like that about almost every day of our voyage. But this time, we had quite another context.

Today, we left our new home, our beloved Regina Maris, the place where we ate, slept, learned and had watch for nearly three months now (except for a few days in Morocco, but that doesn’t count). From today on, we will stay nearly three weeks on land, the longest time ever for our whole journey.

And yes, it feels kind of weird. Over the past few months, we got used to so many things! What a strange thought to sleep anywhere else than in our bed where we can barely turn to the other side while sleeping because there is so much stuff! What a strange feeling to get food from anywhere else than the galley, which is not even cooked by anyone of our companions! And most of all: What a strange idea to have solid ground under our feet for a longer time!

It is not as easy as you might think to leave all the constants behind that your life has for the moment – as little as they may be.

But of course, that is only the one side. The much bigger part of our emotions was held by something else: Excitement!!!

Waiting on the main deck with all the backpacks, we realised: We were about to dive right into another adventure. Costa Rica!

Most of us had no clue what exactly was waiting for us in this country, but it would be an adventure either way. And let’s be honest: If we didn’t like adventures somehow more than our routines, we maybe wouldn’t be on a sailing ship for half a year. So we waved goodbye to our ship and crew and nearly flew away with the speedboat that shuttled us.

It’s a little miracle how relaxed we were all the time, even when the engine of the speedboat seemed to break – I suppose we were a little bit too heavy with all the HUGE backpacks. But after all the rides with our dinghy, things like that became quite normal to us. At least we reached land safely.

After a little break (which was used by a bunch of smartphone-addicted teenagers who got their phones today to stare intensely at the screen, even without Wi-Fi), we took a bus that brought us to the border between Panama and Costa Rica.

Throughout our journey, we experienced borders in many different ways. When you are on the ocean, borders tend to lose any importance. The sea looks pretty much the same everywhere, completely independent of the country it theoretically belongs to. When we are sailing, we can only know which land we are passing by the flag that is up and our map in the wheelhouse.

Borders somehow lose importance on the ocean. And so it gets much easier to realise that, in the end, borders between countries are man-made…

But we also saw the other side often enough. We all noticed how the captain, Marie, Kaspar and Maxim had to organise official things with the authorities in every new country before we were allowed to step on land. And today, we finally experienced a third way of dealing with borders: We crossed one on foot!

Well, that sounds like a really long and exhausting walk. In fact, we just left our bus, walked for around 10 minutes and then took another bus. But it was a special experience though!

Between Panama and Costa Rica, there flows a river, so we had to cross a bridge. When we stepped on the bridge, we were in Panama and when we left the bridge, we were in Costa Rica. Travelling from one country to another has never been that easy…

Finally, in Costa Rica, we took another bus that brought us to the Bribris, where we will spend the next few days and see how the indigenous people in Costa Rica live. The first things that excited us when we arrived were a lot of bananas free to eat and the fact that we are allowed to shower every day and not just twice a week.

You see how our needs change.

So yes, today has been a very special day. We left our home and crossed a border. And while I’m writing this daily report, I feel like that fits also in a bigger context.

Doesn’t that sound like the whole Ocean College journey? Aren’t we crossing the border of our personal comfort zone over and over again, each day a new?

Of course, we are. But it’s worth it. That’s adventure. That’s why we are here!

Anmerkungen:

Marie: Das ist so cool hier, das ist echt Wahnsinn. Freu‘ mich aufs Telefonieren bald! Grüße <3

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