Before we arrived in the New World, we had crossed the Atlantic Ocean. For more than four weeks we hadn’t seen any land. For me it was a great time. I didn’t expect the time to pass that fast, but in fact it felt like I only was one to two weeks on the ocean. During this time we got a routine in our daily life. You knew when you had to do something and when you had free time.
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: „Land in sight!“ But because it was night, we couldn’t 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. We couldn’t see what was inside because a towel covered it. After a short speech by Detlef the towel was put away and we could see what was inside the bags. There was coca-cola for everybody. In the next half hour we were sitting on the poop deck and we were talking to each other while we were drinking our coca-cola. But then we had to go to bed because the next day we had a lot to do.
The next morning everybody was surprised. When you woke up, you could see beautiful colored water. The color was something between blue and green. At some places it was more green and a few meters ahead there was a brilliant blue place. All around us were islands. Some of them were bigger, but there were also sweet little ones. You can’t imagine how wonderful the beaches were. The sand was white and everywhere you could see palm trees. It looked like in pictures you can see in travel prospects, but it was the reality.
As soon as we were ready with preparing the ship, we were allowed to jump into the water and to swim to the next island – Palm Island. When we arrived, we couldn’t believe what we saw. This was so fantastic! Of course we went swimming and played a lot with the others. And we also found many coconuts. Our boatswain Simon helped us to open these. When we went to the other side of the island we met an indigenous person. He had a big knife with him and so he opened all the coconuts for us.
On the same day we arrived in Union Island. Everybody was looking forward to the evening. The pupils were running around and were dressing up. On this evening we had planned a visit to Lambi’s in order to celebrate the arrival in the New World. When the Dinghies drove to the coast all of us looked different. Clothes like that were never worn on the ship.
Then we went inside the big room, which was open and only a ceiling saved 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 ice cream.
After that everybody wasn’t hungry anymore. Detlef and Ruth began to dance and within some minutes all off us came to the front. From now on nearly everybody was dancing. But many of us couldn’t dance and so we began to dance in a funny way. For example, we went shopping, cleaned a room or we heaved a rope. This was really amusing. After a great time we drove back to the Thor.
In the next days we visited Union Island, drove to the Tobago Cays and swam and dived a lot. In this time you could notice the difference between here and at home. It isn’t just the environment, also the feeling and the way of living of the people there is different.
I think arriving in the new world was a whole different experience to the time before but there were also similarities, for example, we still had watches on the ship.