Adrian

Games, High Seas and special evenings

Date: 25.02.2024
Position: Marina Hemingway, Cuba
Etmal: 0 nm
Total: 7382 nm
Ship: Regina Maris

Evenings on a “normal day”

If you see that we have a voyage of six months you might think that we have a lot of time. But most of the time is filled with activities like being on watch, having school or going to some educational institutions (at last we are a school ship).

Schüler:innen vor Schulschiff Regina Maris

So, there is not that much free time. Mostly the free time is in the evening which is also the time a lot people like the most. When we have a “normal” day at sea the tables are filled with people who are playing games like Monopoly, Watten or other card games.

But I would say the really great evenings are on shore or at anchor. (Editor‘s note: teachers might have a slightly different opinion about this…).

Evenings on shore

When we are on shore we have a lot more options to figure out a good plan. At this point it is really good that we can plan with the teachers so that everybody likes the plan.

Our teachers are also very open for suggestions from our side. Also, something that we are doing quite well is the spontaneity with which we are planning.

When the teachers had a plan and they see that we don’t like the plan that much they often crash it completely and do different things so we can have a great time. They are literally making the impossible possible.

Meeting High Seas High School

Today, we also met the people from High Seas, another organisation like Ocean College. Some days ago we already met some other people of them and showed them our ship.

And yesterday, the others of them came and we had a great barbecue and showed them also our ship and talked to them. Also, in comparison to them we really can decide a lot on our own.

Also, our rules are not that strict so for us more things like hitchhiking are possible which helped us really and we all had fun.

So, our evenings are every time planned that everyone is happy because everyone could decide what to do.

Short summary of yesterday:

In the morning and for lunch we stayed on the ship to make everything seatight and ready for the Ocean. In the afternoon we prepared everything for the people from High Seas High School who came in the late afternoon and we had a lot of fun during the evening.

The day was a really good example for a great evening where we planned really a lot of it.


Greetings: Adrian: Viele Grüße an meine Familie
Lenara: 🎉Alles Gute nachträglich zum Geburtstag nach Leipzig.🎉

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Pura Vida – Surfen und Spanisch

Datum: 18.01.2024
Position: Jacó
Etmal: 0 nm
Total: 6325 nm
Schiff: Regina Maris

Gestern sind wir nach gut zwei Stunden Busfahrt in Jacó Beach an der Pazifikküste angekommen und viele haben den ersten Tag am Surferstrand sehr genossen. Nach dem doch recht kühlen Klima in der Hochebene von San José war es nicht so schlecht wieder Temperaturen von über 30 Grad zu haben, was wir sowieso von den letzten Wochen in der Karibik gewohnt waren. Dass wir für die Zeit hier in einem Hostel in Betten mit eigenem Pool schlafen, hat viele auch nochmal begeistern können.

Surfen im Pazifik

Heute hatten wir dann den ersten vollen Tag mit Surfen und Spanischunterricht in der Sprachschule. Der Tag ging für einige sehr früh los, denn um 06:00 ist die erste Gruppe aufgestanden und ist nach etwas Obst bei einem frühen Frühstück zum Surfen aufgebrochen.

Nach ca. 90 min surfen durfte die erste Gruppe dann auch frühstücken gehen. Die zweite Gruppe hat erst gefrühstückt und ist dann zur Surfstation gelaufen. Nach einer kurzen Theoriestunde zum Liegen auf dem Brett, Aufstehen und Ausbalancieren, ging es auch schon aufs Wasser.

Surfen am Pazifik

Die Wellen waren ziemlich perfekt für uns Anfänger und nach etwas Übung konnten auch viele schon recht gut auf dem Brett stehen. Neben uns Surfern sind auch kleine Mantarochen die Wellen geritten, was bei einigen ein Highlight des Tages war.

(Anmerkung aus dem Office: Weil jedes Jahr die Frage aufkommt: Diese kleinen Rochen sind hier immer am Strand und es gab noch nie irgendwelche Vorfälle mit ihnen.)

Spanischunterricht mit Swimmingpool

Nach dem Mittagessen mussten wir auch schon wieder ziemlich direkt zur Sprachschule, die 10 Minuten Fußweg entfernt ist. In der Sprachschule hatten wir dann von 13:00 bis 16:00 Uhr Spanischunterricht. Ein weiteres Highlight des Tages war das Schwimmen im Pool der Sprachschule während der Pause.

Ich meine: Wer kann schon sagen, man war in der Unterrichtspause im schuleigenen Pool schwimmen?

Nach diesem doch sehr anstrengenden Tag sind viele schön früh ins Bett gegangen, um morgen zum Surfen fit zu sein. Pura Vida steht übrigens sowohl für „Hallo“, „Tschüss“, „Wie geht‘s dir?“ und für so ziemlich alles bzgl. Begrüßung und Verabschiedung.

Pool bei Ocean College

Zitat des Tages: Wenn man eine Beziehung anfängt, fängt man sie mit allen an. Lasse Beck, 15 Jahre, Single

P.S.: Adrian: Viele Grüße an meine Familie.

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How to sail the Regina Maris

Date: 14.12.2023
Geographical Position: 13*35.9’N 037*26.7’W
Etmal: 167 nm
Total: 3569 nm
Ship: Regina Maris 

Now that we have been on the Atlantic crossing for six days and the wind allows us to sail, we had to learn how to sail a big ship like our Reggie for more than one day. To understand how to sail we first had to learn that there are two different ways to use the wind. 

Sailing like an airplane

The first way to sail is like an airplane uses the wind to fly. Every wing is a bit curved so the air that goes on the top of the wing has to go a longer way than the air that goes beneath it. Because of this the air on the top has to go faster to reach the end of the wing at the same time as the air that goes under the wing.

Also, the air that goes beneath it has to go slower to „wait“ for the air on the top. On the top of the wing Unterdruck develops and on the other side a Überdruck. The Überdruck pushes the wing forwards and the Unterdruck pulls the wing forwards. When we have our sails in the right positions, we can use this technique to sail.

Pushing

The other way of sailing is to get pushed by the wind. This technique is very simple, the wind is just blowing from behind in the sails are pushing us forwards. We are using this technique mostly on running courses or brought reach.

Courses

Very important to understand how to sail is to understand how to trim the sails to the wind. For this we have different courses. You can imagine them like hours on a clock:

12:00 In the wind: No sailing possible

13:00 Close Hauled: Sheets are very tight, sails are very near to the ship

14:00 Close Reach: Sheets are tight, sails are near to the ship

15:00 Beam reach: Sheets are a bit loose, sails are a bit out

16:00 Brought reach: Sheets are very loose, sails are almost all the way out

17:00/18:00 Running: Sheets are loose, sails are all the way out

On the courses from close hauled to beam reach can we sail with the technique like an airplane and the courses brought reach and running are just working with getting pushed by the wind. Anyways, brought reach is the fastest course to sail on. On this course the wind comes from half behind and pushes in every sail. Because of the wind coming from half behind no sail covers an other.

Jibbing

When the wind comes directly from behind (running course) it’s mostly faster to sail on brought reach. For that you have to do jibes. A jibe is when you’re putting all your sails from one side of the sail to the other and turning with the stern trough the wind. When your turning with the bow through the wind to go upwind it’s called tacking. 

Sit down and shut up

We did today two of these jibes and it was quite funny. Every gaff sail (the big ones schooner, main, mizzen) has two ropes to secure the boom (the big steel tube at the bottom of the sail) which are called sheet and preventer.

The sheets are for pulling the sail more in or let them more out to put them in right position to the course and the preventers are for securing the boom from swinging over the deck. So, the preventer is very important.

ropes on board of the Regina Maris

That’s why just the crew handles it. We first pulled all the sails by the sheets as tight as possible so that they almost can’t move even without the preventer. Then, we had to sit down and shut up because the crew secured the preventer on the other side of the ship. Our helmsman had to turn the ship with the stern fast trough the wind.

After that the crew let the sails with the sheets on the new side more out. Now, we can sail with a good speed and some more knowledge across the Atlantic.

P.S.: Adrian: Viele Grüße an meine Familie 

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Stabilität des Schiffes

Datum: 10.11.2023
Position: Roscoff Hafen
Etmal: 0 nm
Total: 463 nm
Schiff: Regina Maris

Stabilität des Schiffs

Nachdem wir unsere letzte Etappe von Calais nach Roscoff (nach zwei Tagen auf See und wieder viel Seekrankheit) alle einigermaßen gut überstanden haben, wollten einige heute wissen, wie viel unser Schiff an Seegang eigentlich aushalten kann. Dazu hat uns unser Captain Michael erstmal die Extreme erzählt. Alle haben mit einigen Grad an Krängung gerechnet, aber wir waren alle sehr überrascht, wie unglaublich viel Schräglage die Regina Maris haben kann, ohne umzukippen.

Für jedes Schiff wird ein Diagramm zur Stabilität aufgestellt. Dabei wird immer von den schlechtesten Umständen ausgegangen, also sind zum Beispiel für das Diagramm der Regina Maris als Parameter eine Tankfüllung von 10% (bei dieser Füllmenge ist das Boot am instabilsten, da die Flüssigkeit am meisten Bewegung, aber auch noch viel Kraft hat) und Windstärke elf (von zwölf) gewählt worden. Zudem ist das Schiff unter Segel und nicht unter Motor.

Jedes dieser Diagramme sieht folgendermaßen aus: Auf der x-Achse ist Krängung in Grad angegeben und auf der y-Achse die Stabilität des Schiffes. Wie man an der unteren Abbildung sehen kann, steigt die Stabilität mit steigender Krängung bis zu einer bestimmten Gradzahl, danach nimmt sie wieder ab. Die Regina Maris ist also bei mehr als 100° Krängung noch einigermaßen stabil.

Diagram zum Dreh- und Druckpunkt der Regina Maris

Böen parieren

Auf jedem Segelschiff gibt es einen Drehpunkt und einen Druckpunkt.

Diagram zum Segeldruckpunkt des Schiffes.

Der Punkt im Rumpf ist bei der Zeichnung der Drehpunkt, der Punkt in den Segeln der Druckpunkt (1 und 2 sind beides Druckpunkte). Im Fall 1 sind alle großen Segel (Gaffelsegel) gesetzt. Bei einer Böe von der Seite würde sich das Schiff in den Wind drehen, da der Druckpunkt 1 hinter dem Drehpunkt liegt. Wird nun das hinterste Segel (Mizzen) geborgen, verschiebt sich der Druckpunkt und befindet sich dann bei der Position 2. Somit dreht sich das Schiff nicht in den Wind, sondern vom Wind weg und verliert somit nicht viel an Fahrt. Mit dieser Technik können wir nahezu jede Böe parieren.

Ziemlich unsinkbar

Mit diesen beiden Wegen, Winde zu parieren, ist das Schiff so gut wie unsinkbar. Wir müssen nur im „Submarinemode“ sein, das heißt, dass alle Türen und Fenster wasser- und luftdicht verschlossen sind, denn wenn Wasser in das Schiffsinnere eindringt, sinkt es. Das Einzige, was uns wirklich schaden und gefährlich werden kann und das Gefährlichste, was einem auf einem Schiff passieren kann, ist Feuer.

Doch auch, wenn es vielleicht gefährlich erscheint, mit einem Segelboot über den Atlantik zu fahren, sind wir uns mittlerweile eigentlich alle recht sicher, dass uns wenig passieren kann, wenn wir auf das Bootinnere aufpassen und Dinge wie Wasserverlust oder Feuer frühzeitig erkennen und beheben können. Und selbst wenn wir es nicht selber merken, haben wir immer noch eine sehr gute und verlässliche Crew.

P.S.: Adrian: Grüße an meine Familie Wilma: Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Marie🎈🥳!

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First Deep Clean and Free Shore Leave

Date: 24.10.2023
Location: Scheveningen Harbour, Netherlands
Distance Traveled: 27 nm (total distance)

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning!

Right after breakfast, we started the day with the first deep clean of our beloved Queen of the Oceans. The watch teams had to clean various areas of the ship. At some point, we just started helping wherever it was needed.

A little bit of chaos

Alpha Watch began by cleaning the heads (toilets) and showers. It all started a bit chaotically because we couldn’t find the cleaning agents and towels at first and weren’t sure how to start. Finally, after a little while, we figured it out. Even though some of us were really shocked by how much hair and dirt can collect in the drain, we managed to complete the task.

It’s mopping time

At the same time, Bravo Watch was trying to clean the mess room, but they had some trouble getting everyone to move out so they could mop the floor. Finally, it was „mopping time“ (and yes, we had a good laugh about that quote from Thomas). Meanwhile, Charlie Watch was busy cleaning the deck. One thing is certain: they did a fantastic job, even if they did shower everyone who went out of the front door while cleaning the Poop Deck (the deck at the back of the ship). From our perspective, everyone did an excellent job, and we are very proud of ourselves!

First free shore leave in The Hague

After lunch, Thomas announced that we were going to have our first free shore leave today. We were all very excited to have the chance to explore The Hague on our own, and we left the ship full of anticipation. Some of us took the tram, while others decided to walk.

HFC and KFC

After our group (Joshua, Aurelius, Aurelia, Julius, and Adrian) took the tram into the city, we searched for something to eat. Right in front of us, we saw HFC (Halal Fried Chicken). We initially went in there until we spotted KFC about ten meters away. So we switched from HFC to KFC and got our food there. After that, we took the tram back and headed to the beach. The wind was perfect, the view was great, and you could see the sunshine through the clouds. With KIZ playing at full volume, it was absolutely amazing.

The results when you leave without a plan

Our group, including Jane, Mascha, Emma, and I (Darja), decided to walk and just follow our mood, which led us to discover the biggest sunglasses in the Netherlands (in our opinion). We also accidentally found what we would call a Thai Village, entered a Christmas paradise, and indulged in a lot of waffles.

The biggest sunglasses

It all started when we were heading to the beach. Suddenly, Emma spotted some big blue sunglasses standing randomly on the beach, and we fell in love with them. So, we all ended up taking a close look and some photos.

Waffles number One and a Thai Village

Then, out of nowhere, Jane came up with the idea of searching for some waffles since we all wanted a snack. Happy with our plan, we started walking toward the nearest waffle-serving restaurant. But just a few minutes later, we had to change direction because we saw a cozy-looking, tiny street that was magically attracting us. Suddenly, everything around us had something to do with Thailand, including Thai massages, restaurants, and flags. We still do not know why, but it did not bother us because we found some Stroopwafels there. Highly recommended!

Christmas paradise and waffles number Two

Fueled by our little snack, we continued walking. Right in front of our destination, OMA TOOS, we had to change our direction one last time due to a Christmas shop. We all wanted to see what was inside, so we ended up entering a Christmas paradise. If you need any kind of Christmas decoration, you will probably find it there. We all got really excited and got into the Christmas spirit, even though it is still October. Eventually, the anticipation of the waffles won, and we finally made it to OMA TOOS. After enjoying some delicious waffles, this time the classic ones, our group made its way

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