Before we arrived in the New World, we had crossed the Atlantic Ocean. For more than four weeks we had not seen any land. I had a great time. I did not expect that time would pass that fast, but in fact it felt like I only had been at sea for one or two weeks. Even though most of us did not want to arrive in the New World because they did not want to finish this great part of the journey.
Then there was an ‚all hands‘ on deck maneuver. Everybody was really excited, because this was the maneuver to berth. And suddenly you could hear the call: „Throw the Anchors!“ But it was night so we could not see the islands that clearly.
After the maneuver we met on the poop deck. In the middle of the circle of our crew there were two bags. There was cold Coca Cola for everybody. During the next half hour we were sitting at the poop deck and we were talking and celebrating that we had passed the 5000 nm mark, crossed the Atlantic and anchored successfully. It was this sort of moment when we really felt like a big family. It was almost as emotional as climbing to the Top of the mount Teide.
I had the first watch from 5 to 6:30 am so I was the first person who saw the sun rise behind Palm Island. When the sun had risen completely, the island looked like the perfect Caribbean island.
When everybody had woken up, we could see beautiful colored water. The color was something between blue and green. All around us were islands. Some of them were bigger, but there were also sweet little ones. You cannot imagine how wonderful the beaches were. The sand was white and everywhere one could see palm trees. It looked like in pictures in travel prospects, but it was real.
As soon as we were ready with packing the sails and cleaning the ship, we were allowed to jump into the water and to snorkel to the next island – Palm Island. When we arrived, we could not believe what we saw. This was so fantastic! Some of us fell on their knees to kiss the sand or just enjoyed the view.
On the same day we arrived in Union Island, where we celebrated our arrival in the New World in ‚Lambi’s Bar‘. The contrast from Tenerife to the Caribbean was very present. When we first went on the island we could not believe it. The houses looked exactly like the photos in traveling brochures and we found coconuts in the middle of the city.
When the dinghies drove to Lambi’s Bar in the evening, all of us looked different. Clothes like nice shirts for the boys and dresses for the girls had never been worn on the ship before.
Then we went inside a big restaurant, which was open and only a ceiling protected us from the rain. After a short period of time the buffet was opened. Most of us jumped up and ran to the buffet. The food smelled delicious and after the main meal we could also eat cake and fresh fruit.
After that everybody was not hungry anymore. Detlef began to dance with Jordana and within some minutes all of us came to the front. From then on nearly everybody was dancing. But many of us could not dance and so we began to dance in a funny way. But no one cared because it was such a happy evening.
After that evening we went back to the Thor with our belly stuffed.