24 June 2021 – Day 4

This morning the sun was shining again, setting stage for the rest of our day. After some
coffee and delicious breakfast, we were ready to start the day. The first exercise constituted
different mental and psychical spaces, a specific method to open up the concept of
knowledge. This method was developed to grasp something what you call ‘tacit knowledge’:
things that you cannot learn from a book but knowledge that is more intangible and
unconscious. Our session was about what we can learn from nature. For that purpose, we
shared stories from our personal life and used the common time to really listen to each other.
It was very special to have such deep dialogues and talk on such a personal level. After all, by
sharing and listening about the intimate stories on our connection with nature enabled us to
dig deeper into one shared story. After this exchange, we took a moment to transfer the tacit
knowledge more specifically to our research and make it explicit. Consequently, we all took
some time for ourselves to process and reflect on this experience.

After the morning session we had a quick lunch and headed to the ‘Sea Ranger Services’, a
social company based in Den Helder. One of the crewmembers is doing her research on the
franchise opportunities of the Sea Ranger Services and moderated the meeting. We had a very
warm welcome and could ask everything we wanted to know. We found out that the Sea
Ranger Services and Sailing For Impact actually have a lot of similarities in our respective
approaches. For instance, both pursue the approach of learning from nature and believe that
we, as humans, can truly make an impact. We split up in two smaller groups to share what we
could learn from each other when it comes to educate impact makers. Next, we also explored
how one can enlarge one’s impact. The Sea Ranger Service later showed us their ship and we
were able to talk about how a ship serves as a learning environment. It was truly inspiring to
see the passion and commitment they have for what they’re doing, like we also experience
during our expedition.

Afterwards, we really had to hurry back to our vessel because we were leaving at 3 PM to sail
for Pampus, a small island in the Ijsselmeer. The wind was very light and so we progressed
slowly. Underway we came across a group of seals, sunbathing on a sandbank. Luckily, the
sun stayed for the rest of the day, so we could enjoy the evening on the warm deck of our
Aldebaran. It was almost like if the quiet weather and the smooth pace of the ship mirrored on
the way we interacted with each other. Inspiring good in depth talks about our research, and
enough space to reflect on our journey..

Written by Marolise Vrij