Our beliefs guide us in all that we do
Transformation
We are witnesses to the transformative power of experiences at sea and their importance for our emotional and intellectual development.
Curiosity
We need to know and understand more about the sea today and we will do everything we can to bring it closer to you.
Respect
The sea teaches us respect for what is stronger than us and the importance of extending respect to the natural world.
Beginnings
My grandmother Cristina von Waldenfels arrived in Ibiza in 1955 and built the still existing Hostal La Torre in 1964. It is in the rocks at the foot of the hostal that I learned to swim and started snorkelling. The sea urchins of Punta galera and the octopi near Cala Gracioneta are my earliest memories at sea. I also remember my grandmother at sunset beginning to prepare dinner for her guests as the sun began to disappear near Sa conillera and the fishing boats returned to port with their rhythmic engines and the seagulls chasing their overflowing catch. It all seems so perfect and unreal now. And yet it is a perfection I wish I could share with everyone.
From an early age I cared for underwater animals and creatures that were not mine, felt angry when the sea was less than perfectly clean due to our lack of care. I feared the monstruous waves of winter yet I felt fascinated by them. I swam out of the water petrified by what I had seen through a mask I took when my parents were not looking. Huge rocks, seaweed and a jellyfish. I did not get back in the water for weeks.
Ecstasy, trauma, respect, fear, the sea has given me all of these. And the part of good I have in me comes largely from what I learned at sea.
At the age of 50, I had a realisation: that I had a message to share with children and young adults about how to enjoy life more fully with the sea.
Our family Boat trip began as my desire to share the importance and impact that the sea has had on my life even as I was far removed from it in places where there was no sea. The sea goes with you.