Reflection time underneath our sails

Datum: 22.12.2023
Position: Atlantik
Nautical Position: 27 °24’4N.016 °57’5W
Etmal: 76 nm
Total: 2091 nm
Ship: Pelican of London

Departure without issues

Today we left Santa Cruz and Tenerife. This has been the first departure without any problems, so we are still crossing our fingers. We were able to leave at about 10:30 which led us to eating lunch on the Atlantik.
You could see people wrapping presents and drawing Christmas cards all over the ship or the messmen taking fresh baked cookies out of the oven, so we all can feel the Christmas air.

Behind the scenes

Another big talk ist the hair dyeing which Fred and Ole started, so now many people got purple highlights in their hair.

Right now we’re also playing a game on board, which is called „murder“. There you get the name of another person and have to „kill“ them, by telling them „your dead“ when you’re alone with them.

Even though we started only last evening, there are already only about five people left.

Reflection interviews

I intended to do a video about self reflection, since were starting our talks with the teachers in the next days, but unfortunately were too far from land for it to be possible, so I wrote the Interviews down for you:

„What do you like most about our live on board?“

Rosalie: I just really really liked sailing and enjoy the peaceful and quiet moments on the ocean.
It isn’t very peaceful or quiet here but for me it’s still very enjoyable.

Fredi: Mostly I enjoy being with my new friends on the ship and talking with crew members.
And also I love the sailing and the view on the sea.

Sophie: I really like that you always know where you have to be, but you can also hang out with your friends on the poopdeck. For example today, I did Christmas cards together with Fredi and we did lots of drawing.

Klara: What I love is, that everyday is different for us. On the Atlantic there will probably be more of a routine but now there’s always something new. And I also like the order and structure of our day.

Anna L. : I kind of expected the unexpected and thats meeting it very well.

Fredi and Sophie: Also we expected to be sailing a lot more, like 4-5 months but now were mostly on land.
But it also gives us chances like seeing Marokko. So not always having a plan can be grand as well.

Greta: I really like that we are all working together so much as a team and also what has to be done for sailing, so setting sails or climbing.

Gregor: I really like living around so much nature, because your getting up with the sunlight and sleep shortly after the sunset. So being so close to our environment and actually seeing the climate change.

I also enjoy teaching the lessons here, since I have to teach everything two times which gives me the chance to really improve my teaching skills.

Jih: I just really like helping out and contributing to something.
Sail-handling is the most fun part I suppose, but I miss watch-keeping, which is probably really weird.

„What do you want to do after OceanCollege and how is this Journey helping you?“

Rosalie: I don’t have big plans for my life but i wanna do my abitur and with all the impressions here it will for sure help me to choose, what I wanna do. So maybe I’ll find something that catches my eye and im gonna study architecture or something like that…

Klara: I don’t really know what to do afterwards but OceanCollege has surely helped me to become more open minded to do great things in the future.

Anna L.: I love the navigational part and I am pretty focused on learning it, because after OC I probably want to study it and become like first mate, second mate or maybe even captain.

P.S.: Lou: Hallo ihr alle❄️ Ich hoffe ihr habt alle ganz tolle Weihnachten und ein wunderschönes neues Jahr.

Ich hab schon angefangen Geschenke für alle zu bunkern, also freut euch schonmal.

Das Wichteln scheint auch echt gut zu laufen und ich finde es ist schon ziemlich weihnachtlich.
Hab euch lieb ☃️☃️🎄

P.P.S.: Fred: Hallo ihr Sudis, ich wünsche euch allen frohe Weinachten vom Atlantik, ich hoffe, ihr habt ganz viel Spass und ein frohes Fest und grüsst bitte meine Klasse 🙂

P.P.P.S.: Teresa: Die Weihnachtsstimmung ist hier nicht ganz so krass aber ich wünsche euch allen ganz zauberhafte Weihnachten. Hab‘ euch alle ganz doll lieb. Jäsmin, ess‘ Lebkuchen für mich mit😘😘