Long voyage: Sailing classrooms back home

Tears of farewell and joy flowed abundantly at the weekend, both in Kiel and in Wilhelmshaven. In both places, tenth-grade students returned from a long-distance cruise that had taken them across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. They were greeted at the docks by their families and numerous friends, who happily embraced them after their almost seven-month absence.

For the "High Seas High School", the sailing classroom of the Hermann Lietz boarding school on Spiekeroog An anniversary voyage came to an end when the brig "Roald Amundsen" moored at Bontekai in Wilhelmshaven. For the 25th time, students had sailed across the Atlantic on a traditional tall ship with a professional crew and accompanied by several teachers.
Within 190 days, they left 13,000 nautical miles in their wake. There were no mobile phones or internet on board. Instead, in addition to the usual lessons, the programme included seamanship, baking and much more.

The sailing project was founded by the boarding school in 1993. The reform pedagogical convictions and principles pursued there, combined with the school's focus on sailing, had once strengthened the idea of setting up a sailing project that involved the responsible involvement of the pupils.

A very similar approach is pursued by the "Classroom under Sail" (KUS) at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. For the tenth time, the university sent tenth-graders on a voyage. This time it was 34 students from all over Germany who travelled on the three-masted topsail schooner "Thor Heyerdahl" for 183 days, covering 12,480 nautical miles. They arrived in Kiel at the weekend, from where they had set off in October. The KUS participants also learnt the nautical trade on board alongside school lessons, but also experienced a lot and saw a lot of the world.

Already on 14 April the "Ocean College" returned. This is also a Caribbean cruise on a tall ship designed for schoolchildren. The project was initiated by a teacher and a pupil, among others, who were previously involved in the "Sailing Classroom". The current premiere cruise on board the three-masted schooner "Regina Maris" ended in Amsterdam.

Before the cruise is after the cruise: applications for the 26th voyage in the 2018/19 school year of the 'High Seas High School - The Sailing Classroom' are still possible until 30 April 2018. The Ocean College is also still accepting applications for the next voyage, which starts in October. However, applications for the next KUS cruise closed at the end of February.