Things have changed - Ocean College

Ship: Roald Amundsen
Date: 08.02.2026
Position: 2155,1‘ N 08503,4‘ W
Course: 355°
Etmal: 127 sm
Average Speed: 5,3

Today is Sunday, which means it’s egg day. Whenever it’s a special day like this, we are especially grateful and happy. For lunch, we had potato gratin with steak. Steak is very rare on board, so everyone is extremely thankful when we get it.

In the afternoon, one of our officers gave a presentation about the ship „Passat„. The presentation lasted over an hour and was very interesting. He told us about the history of the Flying P-Liners, as well as the general history of the Passat herself — her journeys across the oceans, through two world wars, and how she eventually became a museum ship.

In the evening, we still had many leftovers from lunch, so we were able to enjoy a warm dinner as well.

During the day, we realized that our standards for happiness have changed. We are now grateful for things that might seem a little strange to others. So I asked a few people what unusual things they are grateful for here on board.

These were their answers:

We are grateful for…

… when it’s laundry day.
… when the water tastes neutral.
… when you manage to sleep through the whole night.
… when you don’t fall out of bed because of the healing and rolling of the ship.
… when the deck is dry.
… when we don’t have to do a maneuver during watch.
… when there are leftovers you can eat at night.
… when you use a freshly cleaned toilet.
… when you sleep in freshly washed bed sheets.
… when you see land after a long time.
… when fresh fruit is delivered on board.
… when we finally eat meat.
… when we stop sailing and can jump into the water.
… when we have school on deck.
… when we receive letters from home.
… when there are leftovers from lunch in the evening.
… when we don’t get wet during watch.
… when the Großstengestagsegel isn’t set so we can lie on it.
… when you make yourself a bowl of cereal and there is just enough milk left so you don’t have to open a new carton.
… when the milk carton has a cap.
… when the crew is happy with the meal.
… when you have afternoon galley duty and there are no burnt pots.
… when the food is delivered on the expected day.
… when the food delivery isn’t on a phone day.
… when you ring the bell for lunch and come back dry.
… when we are allowed to applaud the crew, because they managed to prepare their food by themselves while we weren’t there.
… when you have a nice watch leader.
… when the beanbag is completely free.
… when you have galley duty and don’t have to go into the stores.
… when you finally throw up after three days of seasickness.
… when you have Backschaft in the afternoon and the galley isn’t a complete mess.
… when the weather is bad and you don’t have to observe Reinschiff on deck and in the mess.
… when your laundry comes back clean and not dirty.
… when you can see a beautiful sunset without clouds.

As you can see, during our voyage we have become grateful for many things that most people would consider normal.

That means we always have something special to be happy about every day — even if it’s just a small thing.