The 25th – some recaps

Ship: Johann Smidt
Date: 25.01.2026
Position: Nearby the coast of Panama
Nautical position: 09°23,7’N 082°09,8’W
Etmal: 19 nm
Total: 6863 nm

“All Hands, All Hands, alle Hände an Deck, aufwachen, jeder muss mindestens zwei Hände mitbringen, aufstehen, alles, was sich bewegt, an Deck!”

Have you ever been woken up like this? Since today, the second day on board after staying in Costa Rica, it has become our everyday life again – and it has been like this for three months now…

Yes, on January 19th, the first day of our Expi days, we should have celebrated halftime, but somehow the big party was canceled. We all overslept it, separate from each other, not on the Johnny surrounded by water, but stressed by packing, bus connections and reaching the next accommodation.

Still, it crossed the mind of every one of us: halftime – three months are over! But nobody really had the time to follow the idea. But now?

Even if a lot has changed and we now know our home very well, a lot has reminded us of our arrival and settling in Scheveningen in the last few days:

Euphoria when seeing the Johnny – only this time with everyone together from the speedboat instead of with family on the pier
The overwhelming arrival on the ship and the bag chaos everywhere – only this time we knew that we weren’t entering a storage room, but the girls’ twelve bed cabin and that there are really mattresses and beds under all the bags
The overload of how to set everything up – we will probably always be helpless at the beginning of the chaos
Announcements by Josi and Helena regarding the “Backschaft” – only this time because we have all forgotten again that you really have to set knives and cannot skip washing more dishes, you have fresh ingredients again and therefore tomatoes and cucumbers have to be cut
You learn how to set and recover sails, how sailors’ knots work again – yes, the country air harms seafarers; you become very, very forgetful 🙂

Today we left at 08:00. The first person had nausea after ten minutes and another five minutes later the first person was vomiting. It didn’t take long before more than half the crew hung over the railing and vomited. We were driving with the engine. With increasing waves, the number of seasick people on the ship also increased.

Wait a minute – do you recognize this? Does that sound like a day in the Caribbean? Of course, that wasn’t the beginning of the day today, but that of exactly three months ago on October 25th, 2025.

Exactly three months ago, the journey started for us, the way off to Latin America. And today, the return journey, because the destination, the longest stay in one country, Costa Rica, is now over.

It feels strange. Even if we try to make ourselves aware that half the glass is still full, it is just becoming less and less time that we are going to spend here. Now it’s back to the cold; soon the “Ölzeug” will come out again. Maybe the daily reports will sound like the excerpt here again.

But today was not announced to us as being quite fun. Those who are always affected by seasickness got really scared, because we all expected to lie flat again with strong waves on the way to the sheltered bay.

But so far everything has been going smoothly – not only the “All Hands” at 06:00, when we were able to show how well we can set and recover all the sails, but also the subsequent departure. This time, instead of a strong storm on the North Sea, we had lots of sunshine and a breeze that we could even use for sailing. Nobody hung over the railing yet – only tiredness sent people to bed.

And so we were able to enjoy Sunday as normal, with Nutella, the “Stille Stunde” and “Schüliversammlung”. With fresh fruit, shanties and current politics. A wonderful first day at sea!

And if the Caribbean, palm trees and turquoise waters will always remain the most beautiful destinations, the second half certainly has so much to promise – with lots of beautiful moments we can spend all together, shore leaves and lots of “Backschaften” with one or the other baked potato…

Greetings:

Anne: Ihr Lieben zu Hause, ich hoffe, euch geht es gut, auch wenn ich es nicht geschafft habe, mich in Costa Rica bei allen zu melden, ich habe an euch gedacht! Dieses Land war so unglaublich schön, echt schade, dass man nicht so schnell wieder dorthin zurückkommt, aber auf der Johnny ist es auch echt wieder heimelig, ich habe ein super tolles Bett erwischt, das wird eine coole Zeit! Und Omi: Happy Birthday zu Deinem Geburtstag 🥰😘! Ich bin mit meinen Glückwünschen etwas zu früh, ich hoffe, sie erreichen Dich passend, ich habe Dich unglaublich lieb und werde morgen an dich denken!

Cecily: „❤️😘🤪😉🧎‍♀️🙏

Liv: Ich wollte fragen, ob ihr mir eine neue Powerbank (meine wurde verschlampt) schicken könnt. Hab‘ euch unfassbar lieb und in drei Monaten sehen wir uns wieder!!