by Kai on 14th April 2018
Heading Home. A topic, we think about with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it makes us happy because we can see our families and friends at home again, but on the other hand, we are going to leave our new home, the Thor Heyerdahl, and our new family aboard, what is quite sad.
When I think about home, all memories, which we have been gathering for six months, are so vivid again. Was it not only a month, since we have left Kiel to start our journey? Or two weeks ago, when we jumped in the blue waters of Madeira and had our first breakfast outside? Or last week, when we had our first lesson on deck in the sun of the southern Atlantic? When we arrived in the New World, discovered the rain forest in Panama, lived history in Cuba, found shelter in Bermuda, when we had winds with hurricane force, sailed the “wild” northern Atlantic with mild weather, went whale watching on the Acores, had stormy weather on our way to England?
I realized in Falmouth last week for the first time, how many things have happened, since we have left Falmouth for the first time. This time, Falmouth was so familiar, but it was like ages ago since we have been there. Arriving there in November last year, the journey had rarely started and we were looking forward to discovering all the things that we were told will happen. Now in April, we are looking back upon all what has happened, what we have experienced and have felt. But at the same time we are looking forward to what will happen at home, what has changed and what has not, with the same excitement.
In a bit over one week, we are arriving back home physically, but psychologically we will stay here with everyone else, who has experienced the same indescribable things with us. In only two weeks we will be separated and physically spread all over Germany. But in our minds we will stay together, have a new big family, people who can really understand what the six months felt like, what it really means to be on the wide ocean and how we feel about all the memories.
Our journey will end, that is for sure. But the memories will stay. Deep in our minds the journey will go on. The memories will be a link. The link to the journey and all the people we have met, places we have seen and feelings we have had. When I am at home again I will physically lay in my bed, but in my mind I will wander through a thick rain forest, swim in blue water next to white beaches, stand on deck in a dark and stormy night. And surprisingly, I will miss the feeling that because of the waves I nearly fall out of my bed and the sound of the waves.
These feelings can be seen within almost everybody’s eyes in these last days. But in contrast to this, are many people, especially in this last week, really enthusiastic to do things again that have become normal for us over time. Here and there you can hear, ‘my last galley duty’, ‘the last Sunday breakfast’, ‘oh I have to climb up the rigg for one last time’. It is beautiful, how these unforgettable “normal” things have become special again and how we make the best out of our last days together aboard the Thor Heyerdahl.
We have experienced so many unforgettable things on our journey, but I am sure that we will experience as many things at home, which will stick in our minds and write our own history, our own life.