The students take over

On our way from Cuba to Bermuda, it was time for a second ship hand over, where we students were able to take over the ship from the adults. This meant that we were in charge of running the ship, as we then covered jobs such as captain, mates as well as watch leaders or engineer.

The second ship hand over started just like the last one over two months ago with the applications. The crew released a job advertisement for all the positions which are needed on the ship.  Every student who was interested in a certain job handed in a handwritten application. It is always a lot of stress to write them, and most of us finished their applications only minutes before the deadline.

On February 20th at 9 am sharp, the captain Johannes and the project leader Jakob announced the positions in the new student crew. Everyone was exited to know which one of us was going to lead us through the next 48 hours. In the end, we cheered on Lenya, our new captain, and the two mates Fenja and Johannes L.  The watch leaders and their assistants were also announced as well as our new provisions team consisting of Lotte, Cornelius, and Leonie followed by the engineer Clara D. and the bosun Lena. There were some extra positions too, like Moritz and Elias, who applied for a job as promoters of culture, and Hannes, the videographer.

The real stress, however, started only then: the new shipmasters had one hour to deal with the tasks from our adult crew. In this hour, the new student crew had to map out every detail for the next 48 hours and create all the plans. For people without a certain job like me, this hour was a welcome break. Yet for the others, it was hard work. Afterwards, the shipmasters presented their plans and the route for the next two days. Then, finally, the captain trustfully handed the ship to our new captain Lenya with a strong handshake.
Afterwards, the fun began: because of an “electronical error” in the Bermuda triangle, Lenya and her mates had to locate our position by sextants and take the speed with the so-called Relingslogge, where you throw something (like our bio garbage) outboards at a fixed point and measure the time the garbage takes to float to the quarter deck. All these activities are really sophisticated and take a lot of time, so in the following days, there was not a lot of time for sleep for the shipmasters.

Another particularly important job on board is the project manager. This position was covered by Lili Sol and Lukas, who did their best to schedule all the activities during the day. However, because of people who were absent on a short notice, their main task was to write the plans (for example for galley duty) over and over again.

Leonie, Lotte, and Conni in the provisions team had to plan our (really delicious) food for the next days and prepare the ingredients for every meal. As if this was not enough, there were also different tasks they had to work on so there was not a break for them either. Like them, our engineer Clara D. and our bosun Lena got a list with things to work on during the ship hand over and they did a lot of work in the background.
Next to all this, the normal sailing everyday life had to go on. That is what the watch leaders and their assistants made possible. Of course, everyone who did not get a special job went conscientiously to the watches, cleaned the ship and worked in the galley.

A highlight was definitely Besanschot-An at the second day, which we finally celebrated traditionally again. There was a yummy drink, cake, and many cultural contributions. Moritz delighted us with a rap about Cuba, and the senior captain Johannes and our doctor Klaus prepared two lovely jazz pieces for violin and piano. There were many more contributions like poems and songs, and everyone felt happy after this afternoon. Only the Lost-and-Found-auction went different than usually because suddenly, there were aquarelle paintings by Klaus up for auction. The prices rose fast and, in the end, Hannes bought a painting for 80 Euros.

On February 22nd, the third and last day, the watch leaders had the chance to really show their knowledge. Because of the upcoming heavy weather, the schooner and main sail needed to be reefed. On top of that, other precautions that had to be done, like closing the watertight flaps in the skylights.
At 12 pm, it was time for returning the ship and everyone, even the captain, was massively impressed by the final position the student-shipmasters had calculated. The difference between the GPS position and the astronomically calculated one amounted to just 1.5 nautical miles!

In general, everyone was pleased by the ship hand over and many had the feeling that this time, everything was more relaxed than the last ship hand over and we all had a good time.