Ready, set, go! The Watch Olympics

Date: 28.03.2024
Position: Horta, Azores
Etmal: 0 nm
Total: 10496 nm
Ship: Regina Maris
 
A few days ago, we had a creative morning with various creative activities such as board book planning, hoodies, baking, “Treffen der geheimen Waschmaschinen” (a secret matter for us students). Among other things, one group was also responsible for planning an evening program for the coming days. Jule and Onno then came up with something really cool: Watch Olympics.

What exactly are Watch Olympics?

The Watch Olympics are similar to any other Olympics. We pupils were divided into our nautical Watches. The first task was, for each of the six Watches and the team of the teachers, to come up with a team name.

The team names were:

Alpha 1 = Das A in Alpha steht für Autisten
Alpha 2 = Schnapsidee
Bravo 1 = Die sechs beschränkten Werwölfe
Bravo 2 = Die Zöpflinge
Charlie 1 = Charlie Chipmens
Charlie 2 = Einsatzkommando Jägermeister
Teacher = Die Oberlarrys

Next, everyone had to get a pad and pencil to write down the tasks themselves. Onno then told us the names of the individual mini-games and how many people were allowed to compete per team. The joke behind it was that we had to decide, before the games, who would play without knowing what the game was about. Then it was „Let’s get ready to rumble.“
 
Heave away (4 persons)
When we saw the rope, we knew what it was all about: rope pulling. Four people from each team, including the teachers, competed against another team. We were able to put our strong sailing arms cough cough to the test.
 
Team Charlie 1 with Jakob had everyone holding their breath. The opposing team was also a little worried. How could they win against this team when they had a real sailor?  But it was exciting! First they were in the lead. But then, with the trick of a figure-of-eight knot at the end to prevent the rope from slipping through, the Alpha 2 team joined forces and went for the jugular. The Oberlarrys pulled their opponents over the line in one go. Was that fair? 4 adults against four teenagers? But they were also able to analyse the previous rounds, where to stand and how to pull.

Drehwurm (3 persons)

Those who don’t get dizzy quickly are best at the mini-game „Drehwurm“! The aim of the spinning worm was, to spin around a bottle ten times and then run a distance of around 10 metres, where Johanna stood, and back again. The time was stopped to see which team with all three candidates was the fastest.
The first team was the poorest. They didn’t know what tactics to use and the call „Make a protective wall so that no one falls into the water or the pier wall“ was also encouraging🤨 But it looked funny how everyone had a bit of trouble running straight without falling down. With loud shouting, the „victims“ of the respective teams got better and better. Tactics such as a quick counter turn before running or concentrating on one point like the dancers of ballets were worth gold.

Breitmaulfrosch (1 person)

The aim of this game was to see how many marshmallows you could get into your mouth. Criteria: No chewing, no swallowing and you still have to be able to close your lips.

One person from each team was asked to step forward. Thomas was the first to go. When he took the first marshmallow in his hand and started to crush it, we all thought „Oh God, is this going to be good?“. Yes, it was good. Thomas set the bar at 15 marshmallows. The next team, „Die 6 beschränkten Werwölfe“, set the record at 16. But the record of 22 marshmallows was broken by one at the very end of the evening by Tobi.
 
Unfortunately, we couldn’t play all the mini-games and challenges due to the weather. The games „Hoppel Hase Hans“, „Zielwasser“ and „Back to Costa Rica“ were then postponed to another day.

About today

The day started shortly after breakfast with a happy hour. So this time it was really only 1 to a maximum of 2 hours of cleaning. As there were still job interviews, as in the previous days, we had a program for the day in split groups. One group stayed on board and prepared nervously for their interviews, the other went to the museum. In the afternoon there was another Workshop on Communication and gender sensitive language.
 
P.S.: Luis: Nachträglich alles Gute zum Geburtstag Phoebe! 🙂