Cultural Diversity and Freedom at Sea Young people from 8 different countries; Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, UK and France, have set the sail from Bergen (NO) to Esbjerg (DK) and Rostock (DE). It has been their challenge to sail the ship together, as means to exchange cultures (in the broadest sense) and develop themselves. The group has been together for 14 days and done many activities, both ashore and at sea. The participants were divided in watches, as the vessel sailed for more than 24 hours in a row. When the participants were on watch (in the group on shift) they were responsible for all aspects of sailing the vessel; sail handling, navigating, steering, lookout, safety, cooking and cleaning. As this is a real life activity, they experienced the cultural differences and similarities in all that they have done. The participants also challenged themselves to cross boundaries, they never expected to cross. Besides sailing, the participants, guided by the mentors, organized debates, games and other activities around the theme of cultural diversity & freedom. As examples: they had discussions about politics, as the rise of the right wing parties in Europe. The participants also played a game called: the pride and prejudice game. The participants also had some fun games like for example differences in national foods, values, schools, rules, etc. Even though the games might look like fun, they contributed a lot to the exchange. They opened up the mind for similarities and differences between the participants and opened the route for the more serious debates and exchanges. They were also a great opportunity to practice organizational skills and with that to fulfill some of the goals of the participants. Combining this sail training program with the cultural exchange activities, created an unique possibility for the participants to learn about themselves, teamwork, and intercultural differences and similarities. The participants did not only learn about responsibility, teamwork and leadership skills, which each of them translated into personal goals for the exchange. Mostly the participants experienced how to work and live with a multi-cultural group of people. Getting to understand each other and working on the vessel together made it possible to really experience the differences and similarities in their cultures. Important to mention here is that the participants were not only from different nationalities. There were also "cultural" differences because of their backgrounds. Some coming from a financial deprived background, others from a geographical isolated area and yet others have handicaps of health issues. The fact that the group was at sea for a longer period, was a huge benefit. Being alone with the group without distractions of others was great to experience and made it possible to investigate many subjects in more details, for example some debates could continue for days, with new insights coming up each day. All countries were represented in each watch to make sure the exchange of cultural values was maximized. The methods of Sail Training, developed by the STAN, one of our partners, and the method of Clearing, were used to facilitate the learning process. These methods focus on learning to take responsibility, team spirit and norms & values. A natural process of exchange was facilitated and intensified by the methods. Enhanced with personal goal set before the exchange, the learning was maximized.