Datum: 18.11.2020
Autor: Cornelius
Position: Santa Cruz de La Palma
Nautische Position: 28° 40,5 N ; 17°45,9W
Etmal: 0 nm (total: 3052 nm )
Because we are going to leave la Palma tomorrow and cross the Atlantic for probably two or three weeks, our teachers decided to give us a last shore leave. But before I keep telling you about this I will explain what a usual shore leave looks like:
How shore leave works
There are two different types of shore leaves. The big difference between those two is that one is planned by the teachers for all students and in the other one, you can decide with your own small group of friends how to spend your day. It is really cool to do both of it, because when the teachers plan something for us, we do stuff we would have never done on our own. Stuff like snorkelling, a bus trip or surfing lesson (my personal favourite one). But sometimes we also prefer to do something by ourselves, because we can do whatever we are up to, as long as we are following the rules and return back on time. But when the students are given the opportunity to do what they want to do, it sometimes ends up with buying sweets (especially chocolate) or going to Mc Donald´s. Although this sounds nice, the shore leaves are way better, if you do something you are not used to do in Germany, like going to the beach, testing out some food or exploring the island.
Our last shore leave before the crossing
My favourite shore leave so far was the one yesterday on La Palma. It was a hot and sunny day so Nora, Kilian, Manasse and myself decided to first go to the beach. There we met some other students of Ocean College, but sadly we could not hang out together because of the Covid regulations. We are not allowed to be in groups of more then six people. Then we went to an old market and tried out some local fruits and nuts, we have never tried before. After walking around in La Palma and visiting all of it, we went again to the beach and watched the sun setting behind the volcano.
An unforgettable experience
From that point on, the real highlight of the day started. After we had eaten a pizza at the beach, we had the great idea to go swimming in the dark. So with big excitement we put our clothes off and ran into the water. As we got in there, we realized something was different in the water. There were many tiny lights. It was not the reflection of the stars in the water. But then we remembered what Nicolas has told us once. It was plankton! And every time we moved our body, they were getting bright as small green lights. There were lots of them, so it almost seemed like in a Disney movie. The other Ocean College group next to us felt almost the same. They had the idea to go in the water with all their clothes on. Although it took us very long to pack our stuff and leave the beach, we luckily arrived at the Pelican on time with big smiles on our faces. Because we will all remember this day for a very long time…
Liebe Grüße an meine ganze Familie vor allem an Pepe, dem ich schonmal alles Gute zum Geburtstag wünsche!
