Mascha

Date: 20th of March, 2024
Geographical Position: 35°00.3′ N 046°19.6′ W
Etmal: 190 nm
Total: 9683 nm
Ship: Regina Maris

Walking down the stairs backwards. Being on the toilet while the lid is falling on your back. Always looking from what direction the wind is coming from so you can throw your organic waste in the right direction and have it not land in your face. Welcome aboard the Regina Maris!

The morning fish

My day started as soon as people from the previous watch woke me up. If you think they do that gently, I have to disappoint you. One time a dead fish was the first thing with what my day started. With that, I don’t mean that I just saw it while they were holding it in front of me – no, I wish. They quite literally threw it into my face! The best way to start your day, I would say! 🙂

Best watch – Charlie watch

In the four hours of the watch we talked about the star constellations until the sunrise, making jokes about something that happened the day before and steering to Canada sometimes instead of Germany… But don’t worry, we will not land in Canada even though I really would like to see this place at some point in my lifetime.

Because I am on the Charlie watch at the moment, our watch has the most exercises and we always have something to do. At least that is what we are saying when somebody wants to give us another exercise.

Lecture of life for our hobby experts

After watch and lunch, school started for me. For class, it is always a challenge when you write on an iPad as it will always fly off the table first. But not only our school stuff flies off the tables, it has occurred more than once that our cups filled with water fell from the tables because some ‘hobby experts’ left them there.

Lecture of life for them: Always have a look at your cup or your food and this not just because they will land in the lost and found otherwise.

A door to another world

When you want to get out of the messroom to the main deck during a school break, for example, or just because you want to get an apple, you have to open the water-tight door. When the weather is not good, it is like opening the door to another world. Inside, people are playing cards and outside the watch is running around, setting sails while one wave after another is crashing into the ship.

I will never get used to that magical feeling. Even though we have really good weather during our second crossing of the Atlantic, we also had days where we had 45 degrees. Sliding from the left to the right side or bumping into each other by accident is pretty funny.

The latest news

Everybody is now talking about the fact that the countdown starts today – one month is left. Like every day on the Atlantic, we have our regular watches and classes. We elected new student speakers in the student meeting today, which are Onno, Mattis and Adrian. We also have a birthday child which is the last one on this journey 🙂

Happy birthday Tobi, and congratulations to Onno, Mattis, and Adrian!

P.S.: Mascha: Hab‘ Dich lieb Sissi! Mir geht es gut Mama & Papa!

Sanch-Man (Sanja): Happy Birthday Patrick 😘💞🥳

Date: 07.01.2024
Position: San Blas Islands
Etmal: 47 nm
Total: 6087 nm
Ship: Regina Maris

Time flies on board

When somebody asks me which day of the week it is, I often don’t know the answer because for me time on board feels timeless. The only day I always know is Sunday because of our weekly deep clean. I hate and love this day at the same time because on the one hand, there is Nutella for breakfast and on the other hand there is a vacuum cleaner waiting for you to clean your cabin.

Normal Sunday?

But today I was very sad because we had no Nutella anymore. So the only thing I was excited for on this Sunday morning was when we arrived during deep clean next to the San Blas Islands.

When I saw them from far away, one of my first thoughts was that they looked like some islands out of the Avatar movie “The Way of Water,” but as soon as we got closer to the islands, it surprised me because it was not how I had expected them to be.

Turkish Bazaar on Regina Maris

Houses next to houses. That was how the islands looked like. As Justus said, “the people who live there use every space they have.” As soon as the people living on the San Blas Islands saw our Regina Maris arriving, they went on their boats, came to us on board and showed their handmade things which they wanted to sell to us.

Our ship really turned into a Turkish Bazaar and deep clean got forgotten for at least an hour. Some of us bought bracelets or other colorful stuff. After this hour of talking and trading with the inhabitants they went back on their boats and we finished deep clean.

Best comes last

After hours of work, there is mostly a happy end. Our happy end was on a beach of one of the San Blas Islands, playing volleyball, snorkeling in the crystal-clear blue water and walking around on the beach.

For me, it felt magical as soon as it got dark and all the stars shined bright on the night sky. But some of the boys destroyed my magical moment because they threw me into the water. So all in all, I would say the best comes last.

Fun fact at the end

As the caption already said, we had an endless Sun(day). Because some of us were too lazy to use sunscreen and obviously don’t do as the teachers instruct us, I see every day some Austrian flags walking around (which Emma is really happy about because now there are more Austrians :)). We all love sunburns!

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Greetings:

Darja: Alles Liebe zum Geburtstag, Papa! Hab‘ dich lieb!

Mascha: Musste heute viel an zuhause denken, vermiss‘ euch!

Datum: 04.12.2023
Geographische Position: 19°41.8’N 022°42.6’W
Etmal: 207 sm
Total: 2487 sm
Schiff: Regina Maris

Der allererste Workshop auf der Regina Maris behandelte das Thema „Nähe und Distanz“. Als wir das Thema vor etwa sechs Wochen behandelten, wusste ich schon, dass ich mich eines Tages auf dem Boot mit diesem auseinandersetzen würde. Allerdings habe ich dies meinem „Zukunfts-Ich“ schön in die Schuhe geschoben. Heute durfte sich mein „Zukunfts-Ich“ zum ersten Mal mit dem Thema beschäftigen und ich möchte meine Gedanken mit euch teilen.

Nähe

Für mich sind die Menschen hier an Bord wie eine zweite Familie geworden, ohne die ich mir meinen Alltag nicht mehr vorstellen möchte. Jeder hier trägt mit seinem Charakter seinen Teil zu der harmonisch herrschenden Stimmung bei und obwohl es sich mittlerweile so anfühlt, möchte ich zitieren, „als ob man sich seit Kindheitstagen kennen würde“, können wir alle trotzdem immer noch viel Neues übereinander erfahren, weil dies ja nicht der Fall ist. Neulich beispielsweise hat mir jemand nach der Watch eine Geschichte aus seiner Kindheit erzählt, die mich wirklich sehr zum Lachen gebracht hat. Für mich war das eine kleine Erinnerung daran, dass jeder seine eigene Geschichte mit an Bord bringt und man noch viel über die Leute erfahren kann.

Distanz

An manchen Tagen wird es mir manchmal aber auch zu viel, dass ich rund um die Uhr von anderen Leuten umgeben bin. An solchen Tagen wünsche ich mir dann Distanz oder einfach nur einen Platz für mich alleine. Wie man sich vielleicht vorstellen kann, ist dies nahezu unmöglich auf einem Schiff mit knapp 50 Leuten. Einen Platz für sich alleine zu finden, ist wie die Suche nach der Nadel im Heuhaufen. Mit etwas Glück findet man dann aber doch mal einen Platz für sich, und dann heißt es einfach nur: Stille genießen.

Heimweh

Oft vermisse ich in solchen seltenen „stillen“ Momenten dann mein Zimmer zuhause, welches ich mittlerweile dreifach zu schätzen gelernt habe. Aber ich vermisse nicht nur mein Zimmer: In Gedanken bin ich bei meiner Familie und meinen Freunden, deren Anwesenheit ich vermisse. Dieser Gedankengang geht durch den ganzen Alltagstrubel an Bord der Regina Maris bei mir leider manchmal unter, weswegen mein Heimweh nicht so oft „hochkommt“ wie bei anderen. Trotzdem würde ich in manchen Momenten viel dafür geben, für einen kurzen Moment in den Armen meiner Eltern zu liegen.

Glücklich & zufrieden

Am Anfang ist es meiner Meinung nach schwer, ein Maß zwischen Nähe und Distanz zu seinen Mitmenschen zu finden. Mit der Zeit findet man dafür allerdings schnell ein Gleichgewicht, stößt an seine eigenen Grenzen und traut sich jeden Tag einen Schritt mehr aus seiner Komfortzone heraus. Gerade bin ich super glücklich und zufrieden, weil ich diese Erfahrungen machen darf und so viele neue starke Freundschaften geschlossen habe. 🙂