“What is the plan for today?” – “Überraschung!”

Ship: Regina Maris
Date: 17th of February 2025
Position: Marina Hemingway
Geographical Position: 23°05.276’N, 082°29.946’W
Etmal: 0 nm
Total: 7,782 nm

If there is one thing we have learned during our journey so far, it is that you can’t plan anything on a sailing ship.

No matter how hard you try, something unexpected always comes around the corner and throws off even the best-laid plans. By now, we’ve all gotten used to that. After almost four months, you learn to be spontaneous.

To minimize potential disappointment, the teachers have developed their own strategy: They reveal the planned activities as late as possible. So, whenever you ask too early about the plans, the only answer you get is: „Überraschung!“ (And yes, I know how to translate that word into English, but the German version has far more style and fits better in this context! ;))

On this Monday, the students started their day without any clue about what was going to happen. Again, the only answer given was: „Überraschung!“. They didn’t know anything when they woke up, they didn’t know anything when they got on the bus, and they didn’t even know anything when we were already on our way.

The only thing they did know was that today started really, really early…

Well, early is relative. If you ask a member of the Bravo Watch, then 6 a.m. isn’t early. From personal experience (as I am a member of Bravo Watch right now), I can tell you that waking up at 6 a.m. today was not difficult at all – at least compared to 4:30 a.m., which we have to do every day at sea.

But of course, there are also the other watches and many people who are not exactly early birds. On other days we’ve spent on land, it has happened more than once that certain people were still in bed two hours after wake-up.

So, as one of the only people with an alarm clock, today it became my duty to wake up everyone else – a typical watch leader task. 😉

I hope the students had as much fun as I did this morning… but I’m not so sure about that. The first song played was, of course, „Santa Maria“ (an inside joke on our ship to annoy people). Then we continued with several math songs and even a Disney song in Latin (greetings to my Latin teacher!).

By 07:00, when our bus left, everyone was actually awake and on board. So, we set off to an unknown destination. Even our tour guide (the same one we had for our day in Havana) was part of the „game“ and called today’s plan a “Überraschung.”

Many people were still a little sleepy and used the bus ride for a nap. After a short break at a famous viewpoint, where we bought souvenirs or listened to a band playing „Guantanamera“, the time had finally come to end all the wondering and guessing. Well, at least partially.

Our tour guide announced the first „Überraschung“ of the day: We were going to visit a cave!

Inside, the cave was very dark, wet, and surprisingly warm. Luckily, there were no living dragons or other monsters, so nobody had to be afraid.

Some people whisper that during dark and lonely night watches, stories are told about the „Jungbrunnen“ – the fountain of youth – and the idea of living forever. Without expecting anything like that, we actually found one of these legendary fountains inside the cave. Another „Überraschung“ on this day full of surprises…

And of course, we took the chance to wash our faces with the magic water. So, if you believe the legend, from now on, we will stay the same age forever. Whether that’s a dream or a nightmare – well, opinions are divided.

After a chaotic group picture (have you ever seen a group picture that wasn’t chaotic?), Maxim „lost“ a shoe and had to leave the cave with only one. Just another completely normal day at Ocean College. 🙂

We then headed to our final destination and finally learned the rest of today’s plan. The secret „Überraschung“ was a beach day at one of the most beautiful beaches in Cuba!

In free-shore-leave groups, we all had the chance to spend the day however we wished. Many groups left the beach for a while to find lunch, while others stayed. We went swimming and relaxed on the sand. Even though we’ve seen many beaches by now, this one still felt special. The sand was almost white, and the water displayed every shade of blue, from a very light turquoise to a deep, dark blue.

It is almost impossible to describe in words, true understanding only comes from seeing it yourself.

However, we knew this would be our last proper beach day, so we tried to enjoy it as much as we could. I just hope no one got a sunburn after all those hours in the sun, that would be the kind of Cuban souvenir you don’t want to take home.

The bus ride back was spent in many different ways: some people slept again, some listened to music and some just joked about meaningless things (e.g., „Birnenzwiebeln“) or had deeper discussions.

Every now and then, the silence was interrupted by the excited exclamation „Begeisterung!“ – this happened every time the bus reached exactly 42 km/h. If you don’t understand why, don’t ask, it was a long day…

After dinner, finally, the day held no more „Überraschungen“. We watched a movie and then went to bed.

So yes, sometimes even a sailing ship and its crew experience a day where everything goes according to plan. Let’s see what happens next…