Many of us find it hard to relax in our daily lives. We are used to running errands at maximum speed through each day and putting as many events in one day as possible. We forget that relaxing is important to keep our body and mind healthy, and to find the happiness in ourselves. It’s important to stop and admire the beauty of nature, find all shades of green in the surrounding trees, or watch the different species of fish in the underwater world. Today was a day to do all of that.

In the morning we set the sails and you all know that you cannot be stressed while sailing on a square-rigger. Sailing pushes you into a slower state of mind; you feel the wind on your face and watch the clouds moving through the sky. Our historian Tom Heffernan’s lecture about the Rastafarian religion was a perfect fit into the slow lazy morning. Listening to a couple of Bob Marley’s songs made us feel the Rasta rhythm and soul of the Caribbean so we were ready for an afternoon on a beautiful beach at Union Island.

This is probably what you imagine when you think about the Caribbean: a long, sandy beach with white sand and few authentic Caribbean beach bars under palm trees and sea almond, blue sky with some little clouds over your head and limitless turquoise clear water full of life. If lying on the beach with a delicious rum punch or pain killer is not your style, you can dive into the crystal clear water and be a part of the underwater cities full of colorful fish, morays, corals, sponges, and thousands of other creatures. Snorkeling is like meditation: you put your mind in a different world and soak in that. You stop to observe a parrot fish at a “cleaning station,” different kinds of damselfish bravely protecting their territory even from much bigger fish than they are themselves, pufferfish looking at you with their big eyes, wrasses not even noticing you, just living their lives. From time to time, if you are lucky you will see a moray breathing underwater by opening and closing its mouth, or an octopus changing colors to be invisible and match the background in the action called mimicry. The sparkling silver of small fish forming a big school for protection is all around you and suddenly you live only in this moment forgetting completely about the other world from where you came. And now you know: this is exactly how perfect relaxation should be…