“It Was Like a Fairytale”

Friendly Regatta, Young Mariners Academy in Croatia, Summer 2018.

“Our journey across the Adriatic Sea has come to an end. Looking back at our fondest memories, we want to share them with you.

Living on a yacht fundamentally shifts your daily habits and gifts you a uniquely new experience every single time. Almost immediately, the boat begins to feel like home. It demands new skills—skills everyone picks up remarkably fast. Within just the first few days, both children and adults mastered every single onboard role. Even kids we didn’t expect it from stepped up as navigators, giving orders with such clarity and authority that even adults were ready to line up and follow them without hesitation.

Of course, we couldn’t resist adding a touch of magic—something so often missing in everyday life. Day after day, the kids unlocked the secrets of the Magic Book, which served as our mysterious guidebook. Every morning, we would open a new blank page of the old volume. Using a special liquid the children dubbed the “Revealer” (проявлятор), an intriguing message would miraculously appear on the blank page, hinting at what tomorrow had in store. Throughout the trip, the kids showed incredible ingenuity, persistence, and keen observation as they searched for the hidden liquid capsule.

Driven to claim the prized capsule, the kids even swam across the open water between our yachts to untangle a web of riddles and trade their answers with the adults for the Revealer. Once, a wave even brought us a big blue bottle! Naturally, the kids’ first instinct was to smash it open! But cooler heads prevailed: the bottle was unstoppered, the crossword inside was solved, and another capsule of Revealer was secured.

Magic surrounded us like a fairytale. All three of our boats took on personalities of their own: Galadriel became the Princess, Gandalf was dubbed the Wizard, and our third vessel, Nala, received the codename Lioness. Calls over the VHF radio went like this:

“Wizard, Wizard, this is Princess, do you copy? Over!”

Who would have thought! A sailing yacht at sea can simultaneously be a home, a princess, and a radio station—not to mention a swing, a dance floor, a jacuzzi, and a navigation classroom.

Traveling with us the entire way was our onboard piglet mascot, Moses (Моисей). The kids tucked him in at night, carried him on mountain hikes, and confided their secrets to him during evening candle circles (“свечки”). Sharing your thoughts with friends under a starry sky by candlelight is priceless. There were endless moments of thanking one another for the day, dreaming together, and listening to the Little Prince story read by Shapka-Kustoshka (Шапка-Кустошка) as we watched the sun dip below the horizon.

Alongside Moses, every boat had its own Tuzik! For those unfamiliar, tuzik is the Russian sailor’s nickname for a dinghy used for shore landings. Lowering a dinghy into the water using a winch is no small feat—even many adults struggled with it! Yet, unbelievably, one child could launch a dinghy faster than two adults combined. During our rowing races, the kids didn’t yield a single leg to the grown-ups! With sprays of seawater, cheering spectators, and a fierce battle between the kids’ team and the parents’ team, it was a thrilling spectacle—even though many of the children were taking to the oars for the very first time.

An equally thrilling adventure was the nighttime quest involving the parents. Some of the dads and skippers transformed into Game Masters, while the rest of the parents patiently waited for the children’s team, hidden among rocks and thorny bushes, spontaneously bonding as a team along the way. The kids completed trials that forged them into a tight-knit crew, where even little Masha and baby Mark felt like vital members of the team. In the end, children from all three groups found their ultimate treasure—their parents.

A special story of crew unity was the frantic search for a lost swim ladder! This was no game, but a real-life challenge that prompted kids and adults alike to put on masks, divide the water into search grids, and dive in. It was a tough mission, but the captains believed in success. The photographer Vera caught sight of the ladder with her sharp eye, and through a joint effort, it was successfully hauled up from a depth of 8 meters! The participants were ecstatic, spectators were thrilled, and the Friendly Regatta team cheered for our heroes!

And we had plenty of heroes during this voyage! A tangled flag high above? Brave mom Sonya was already climbing the mast! A propeller issue? Courageous dads and captains were diving under the hull!

The route is completed. We have returned home sun-kissed and happy, carrying home our Participant Diplomas and personal logbooks to record many more sea voyages to come.

What an adventure! At the Young Mariners Academy, children work alongside adults to moor the vessel, handle radio communications, navigate terrain using maps and compasses, and take the helm of a sailing yacht. It was magical, just like a fairytale. And truly unforgettable!”