Saying farewell

Date: 12.10.2025

We were woken up by the sweet chords of a guitar.

This was how our first morning on the ship and new home, the Thor Heyerdahl, began – everyone was immediately very excited. The former KUSis were the ones that had taken over the first harbour watch for us, had woken us up and had prepared our breakfast. Thank you very much for that!

After we had had breakfast, Ruth (the head of Classroom under Sails) informed us about the schedule for the day, which started with cleaning up the ship. We had to wash the deck, tidy up our rooms and prepare the sails. We had to finish our final preparations by 9 o´clock so that we could then say farewell to our loved ones for the next 6.5 months.

After walking across the gangway to do so, we suddenly stood right in a big crowd of parents, friends, and the press. There we were, looking out for our parents to say goodbye. The following thirty minutes were very moving and full of mixed feelings because on the one side, we were very excited for the journey ahead of us, but on the other side, we had to leave our families and friends behind. Then, a loud noise from the ship – the typhoon – reminded us that it was time to go aboard. One last kiss, hug, and some wise words before the official farewell ceremony began.

During this ceremony, our newly formed music group played a very overwhelming song before Ruth and Detlef gave a speech. After the whole crew had introduced themselves, the head of the KUS organization gave another speech. Then, a member from the AlumniKUS organization, that helps students to afford the project and organize meetings of former KUSis, came to wish us luck and told us what to look forward to. Following the speech, we presented our prepared song. On top of that, the parents had prepared a song and a speech that were very heartwarming.

Afterwards and while everybody was watching, we were sorted into watch groups and did an emergency exercise. One final photo was taken, one last goodbye said and then – we were finally off!

Some of our loved ones followed us along the pier as we were set our sails until we were out of sight. We had finally started our journey across half the globe. It felt very relieving because this was the moment we have all been waiting for since being accepted for KUS 25/26.

While sailing away from our parents, we were introduced to the basic aspects of sailing on the Thor.

Sadly, we had to stop soon because we were not allowed to pass the north-east-sea channel (NOK) this day. However, our mood was lifted when we were able to climb up the rig, from where we had a breathtaking view of the Thor and Kiel. For our daily round of coffee and cake, we had a very nice cake made by Kora´s parents, which filled us up until dinner. Afterwards, we all fell into our beds and snoozed off, except for the ones who had to go on night watch. It was a very emotional, exhausting and exciting day. Some dreamt of the goodbyes, some of the new experiences and some of the crossing of the NOK tomorrow.