Text Author: Florian Wilken

While Ursula, Florian's girlfriend from Brasil, and her daughter Helen visited the Wildlife-Team in Martinique in January, Helen, who is 7 years old, made friends with various other children from different boats that were docked in 'Port de Plaisance Harbour' in Martinique close to the WILDLIFE catamaran. Even though the children could not talk to each other in a common language (Helen only speaks portuguese), the communication between the children of different ages was flawless. There are international communication tools for children after all, such as Barbie or jumping on WILDLIFE's trampolin and laughing together while doing so.

Sometimes we would sit down with the children and look at the different animal books such as the 'Guide to Marine Mammals of the World' or the 'Field Guide to Tropical Marine Fishes' by the National Audubon Society. The children loved picking their favorite animals and trying to paint them, including worldmaps of the range where the animals live. While doing so, we would tell the children of our experiences with dolphins and whales on our North Atlantic Crossing in December 2002 and they listened eagerly asking all sorts questions ranging from the apearance of the animals to their speed while swimming with our catamaran. The "why's" and "how's", especially of the 5 to 9 year olds, sometimes never seemed to stop.

A few days later Florian was marking the 100 meter anchor chain, which the WildlifeSAIL-Team had laid out on the dock, when some of the same children, who had spent several afternoons and evenings on the WILDLIFE catamaran, came to help paint the depth indicators on the anchor chain. Even after more than 2 hours, the children did not tire, and only when the 80 meter mark had been completely painted, did the children go back to their boats to play.

The curious and interested manner of children is very refreshing and reminds us of the curiousity for new things which we should always maintain within ourselfes.