"It was like a fairy tale."
“This is the end of our journey in the Adriatic Sea. We remember the most interesting events and want to share them. Boat life itself changes habits and each time gives a new and unique experience. Almost immediately, the boat feels like a home, requires new skills that you learn very quickly. Both children and adults mastered each of the ship's roles in the first few days. Even those guys from whom we did not expect this, becoming navigators, gave commands so that adults wanted to build up and in friendly rows go to fulfill them.
Of course, we could not help but add to this a little magic, which is so lacking in ordinary life. Day after day, the children unravel the secrets of the Magic Book. She became a kind of guide. Every day we opened a new page of a big old book that was empty. With the help of a magical fluid nicknamed “the manifestor” by the children, an intriguing record appeared on the empty page, hinting at what would happen tomorrow. During the shift, the children showed their ingenuity, perseverance and observation in search of a liquid capsule.
To take possession of the cherished capsule, purposeful children even swim over the sea space between boats to unravel the chain of riddles and exchange for them the “manifester” in adults. And one day, a wave brought us a big blue bottle! Of course, the first thing the kids wanted to do was break the bottle. But the offer was rejected, the bottle was opened, the crossword from the bottle was solved, another capsule with a “manifester” was mined.
Magical elements surrounded us, as in a fairy tale: all three of our boats received their names: the boat “Galadriel” became “Princess”, “Gendalph” we called “The Wizard”, the third – “Nala” received the “code” name “Lioneous”. So they contacted on the radio: "Wizard, Wizard, this is the Princess, get in touch, come in!" Who would have thought! A sailboat at sea can be both a home, a princess and a radio station. And swings, a dance floor, a jacuzzi and a navigation class.
All the way with us traveled the piglet Moses. The children took him to sleep with them, took him on a hike in the mountains, told him their secrets on a candle. Share your thoughts with your friends by candlelight, sitting under a starry sky, is priceless. You can endlessly thank each other for the day, dream, listen to the fairy tale of the Little Prince, staring at the horizon at sunset.
Besides Moses, we had Tuzik on every boat. Who doesn’t know, the ace is an inflatable boat that is used for landing on shore. Putting an ace on the water with a winch is not easy. Not all adults did this task! Incredibly, one child lowers the ace faster than two adults. Our children did not concede to adults a single stage of racing in paddle-races! A lot of splashes, a lot of fans, the tense struggle of the team of children against the team of parents is an exciting sight! Although many of the children sat down for the first time.
No less exciting adventure was a night quest with the participation of parents. Some dads and captains even turned into Masters of the Game, and the rest of the parents steadfastly withstood the expectation of a team of children in stones and spiny bushes, spontaneously “commanding” along the way. The children underwent trials that helped them become a more cohesive group, where even little Masha and little Mark felt important to the team. In the end, all the children from all three shifts found their treasure – their parents.
Special attention, of course, deserved the history of universal team building in the process of finding a lost ladder! And this is not a game, but a reality that motivates children and parents to arm themselves with masks and, dividing the sea territory into squares, start diving and searching. The challenge was not easy, but the captains believed in success. The sharp eye of photographer Vera caught the stairs. Together, the stairs were raised from a depth of 8 meters! The participants are happy, the audience is delighted, the Friendly Regatta team applauds the heroes! We had a lot of heroes during the trip! Is the flag confused? Brave mother Sonya is already climbing the mast! The screw problem? Brave dads and captains dive under the boat!
The route was covered, we returned home tanned, happy, having a participant’s diploma and a personal logbook for recording our further sea trips on the yacht.
What an adventure! In the "Academy of Young Navigators" children, along with adults, participate in mooring, organize talks on the radio, with the help of a map and a compass, navigate the terrain and themselves take the helm of a sailing yacht. It's magical, like a fairy tale. It's unforgettable
Friendly Regatta, Young Navigators Academy in Croatia, summer 2018.
