The parents and friends of 25 Dutch teens breathed a sigh of relief when the 200-foot Wylde Swan schooner they used to cross the Atlantic docked in the northern port of Harlingen in the Netherlands Sunday morning. The teens, aged 14 to 17, got stuck in the Caribbean during the pandemic when their flight from Cuba was grounded after they completed an educational tour. Led by a crew of 12 adults, the students sailed 4,350 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, crossing off items from a “bucket list” including a mid-ocean swim and surviving the Bermuda triangle, according to the Associated Press. Christophe Meijer, who runs the Masterskip company that organized the educational voyage, said all the students were monitored for COVID-19 to make sure no one was infected. “The children learned a lot about adaptivity, also about media attention, but also their normal school work,” he said.“So they are actually far ahead now of their Dutch school colleagues. They have made us very proud.”
