This project has been set up around a Youth Exchange onboard the Dutch tall ship Gulden Leeuw. Participants from The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, France, Hungary, Finland, Malta, The United Kingdom sailed together with an additional few from Oman and Australia from Aalesund (Norway), via Kristiansand (Norway) to Aalborg (Denmark). Besides daily involvement in sail training to learn how to sail the Gulden Leeuw, we all participated in day-to-day program of intercultural learning activities. Both the sail training and the intercultural learning was geared towards a common goal: to discover as much as possible about ourselves, each other and the 10 (!!) different countries we had onboard. The 59 participants (age 15 to 27), of which some are living with geographical, financial or health obstacles, stepped onboard the Gulden Leeuw for a 17 day journey. By living and working together in an international team, they have experienced cultural differences and similarities all day, every day. They had to adapt to this new environment, but after a few days and some important life lessons, developed a new sense of respect and tolerance towards each other, bringing us closer together. Clear communication turned out to be key in this process. This not only means they have all made new friends from all over Europe and the world, it just as much means they developed skills and competences such as teamwork, communication, problem solving and leadership. The latter mostly due to the main working method used onboard, the Sail Training Program, which is set up in such a way that participants got more and more responsibility of tasks or parts of the ship as the trip continued. Combining this method with the daily program of both serious and more fun intercultural learning activities such as country presentations, national dinners and, the group’s favorite, ‘murder game’, amplified the participants their learning experience and sped up the process of becoming a very close group. Being out on sea on a ship was of course another significant element regarding that matter. Being away from our normal everyday life and environment, without cell-phone reception, stuck on a boat with people they just met, it created space to open our minds, let go of opinions, push boundaries and discover things they would have never thought of back home. Learning to sail a ship like the Gulden Leeuw comes with all kinds of different tasks, that bring about just as many different challenges and thus learning opportunities. For some of the youngsters, coming on board, actually joining a project like this, was already a challenge in itself. For others, climbing the mast meant they had to (voluntarily of course!) overcome their fear of heights. Yet others struggled to get up in the middle of the night for their watch duty. Seasickness did as well get the better of some participants for a while, which meant some other participants had to work a little harder whilst also taking care of their sick shipmates. Facing personal challenges, overcoming issues in an international environment and solving problems with people that were strangers 3 days ago were essential parts of the life on board. The partner organizations that set up this project know from previous experience and research that all the crossing of (personal) boundaries will have a positive and lasting effect on the perseverance and self-esteem of the youngster that took part in this Youth Exchange. It is safe to say this program had a huge impact on the participating youngsters, who have developed many new competences. They have furthermore also all experienced in their own way that they are capable of a lot more than they believed before stepping on board a ship for 17 days, with people they had never met.