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Challenger 3 – Cross Key Homes, Nene Park

By Tall Ships - June 20th, 2019 | Posted in Voyager blogs No comments

Day Three

Today we sailed from Weymouth to Yarmouth Wight, it was quite a chilled day as we were all much more comfortable with how to put the sails up and down and the general functions of the boat. Everybody took charge of a specific role, Aimee was in charge of navigation along with Dieter, they had to learn how to plan a course using a map, Steve G was in charge of sails, Alice was in charge of deck prep, Luke was in charge of breakfast along with George, and Connor was in charge of cleaning. This was a great experience for all of us as we were running the boat with little help from our skipper, mate and watch leader. In the afternoon we put up the emergency tiller, this was to practice steering without the wheel in case of an emergency. We then learnt about flares and which ones we should use for different scenarios, this was interesting as we didn’t even know there was more than one type of flare. We arrived in Yarmouth at around 3pm and we went ashore to explore, there was a limited supply of shops unlike Weymouth. We then went to bed at around 10 which was later then before as a treat for doing so well working as a team.

Day Two

Today was our first full day with a basic idea of sailing. We started in the morning with an early rise at 7 and followed our rota to complete our tasks ready to set sail at 8, we ran slightly over this deadline and actually set sail at around 8:30am. The weather started off dry but as the day went on the rain began to gradually start, so we all went down to put on our oillys. We sailed from Cowes to Weymouth which meant we didn’t arrive back at land until 3:30, this journey was over 50 miles. There was a moment during our hard day sailing where some of us managed to sneak off and go for a nap after a hard and tiring morning, falling asleep on deck with the movement of the water beneath us sending us to sleep was beautiful and something most of us have never experienced before. We were awoken to the smell of lunch which was pasty and beans. When we got to St. Auburns head which was about half way, we reached a rough patch so the boat was bobbing up and down causing some of us to feel seasick! After we got through this patch we were back to smooth sailing and we all worked as a team to put the main sail down and put up the spinnaker pole, we then climbed up attached to a harness. This was great fun and again something most of us have never done. Finally we arrived and again put the boat to bed, we then went for a stroll around the seaside town and came back to fish and chips which was great. We went to bed at 9:30 after a hard, packed and long day.

Day One

It was a great but tiring day, leaving school early and arriving at 1 o’clock. Firstly we put our bags on the boat and we saw the departure of the HMS Queen Elizabeth II which was really cool to watch. We then learnt the different parts of a boat, then we got shown to our oillys (waterproofs) and how to put on our life jackets properly. We sailed out, leaving Portsmouth at 3 o’clock which was really exciting. After learning how to use all the winches properly the captain showed us how to put up a sail properly and how to take it down safely. Some of us was able to steer the boat which was really fun. We then docked at Cowes at the Isle of Wight where we had a leisurely walk down the beach, and before we knew it, it was dinner time! Mrs Calver’s team made us a lovely spaghetti bolognaise and it was delicious! Some of us then went to have a nice hot shower before we went to the boat and set up our sleeping bags. We then all went to our beds at 9 o’clock where we all crashed on this fun day of work!

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