We woke up at 08:00, we had bacon baps, it was delightful. After breakfast we created a shopping list, which took longer than expected but was quite useful. After that we set of on an adventure/ trek across the dingy streets of Poole. We arrived at Asda before Lewis knew he was told no trolly drifting. We drifted around the isles of Asda gathering our food for the rest of the trip. We, as the people without sunglasses, clambered into the taxi, finding a whopping 50p on the back seat. The others had to walk back to the boat, by the time they got back, all the food had been unpacked.

After that, we had free time in which we visited a local sweet shop and got ice cream. We then had a lunch of halloumi wraps before prepping the boat to leave Poole and head for Guernsey. We left early at 14:15 which meant we were ahead of schedule, causing us to need to slow down later on through the night.

Watches started at 16:00 with Starboard Watch going off watch. We made a dinner of chicken curry which was ready for 19:30. During this time we were joined by a pigeon who first flew into our main sail before settling onto the 1^st spreader on the mast; we named it Pi as on its ankle bracelet it had the first three digits of pi written (314). It then danced with Raff on the foredeck before wondering the deck, we fed it and gave it water before it left us at 05:30 on Wednesday morning.

We had our first watch change at 20:00 and we were joined by some dolphins at 21:00 this is when we had to reduce our speed as we were too far ahead of schedule. Our next watch change was at 00:00, we were originally going to reduce the main sail down to reef 2, but eventually decided not to, we were then rejoined briefly by dolphins at 01:00. Our watch ended at 04:00. We came into St Peter Port in Guernsey at around 06:00. We moored on a pontoon, packed up the sails and went back to bed.

Port Watch (Anna, Lewis, Angus and Ella)

This morning, we were rudely awoken at 4AM only to find that it was our watch on deck for the channel crossing, for the second time. Fully suited and booted, we mustered on deck, to be met with zero stars and having missed the chance to spectate the Alderney Race which was the main reason for the direction of the course. Thoroughly miffed, Pi The Pigeon made an appearance to show us he was in fact still alive. Pi The Pigeon was actually named by the first two letters of the word “pigeon” and not, as previously suggested, by Port Watch. After politely doing his business on the starboard deck, Pi waddled romantically onto the stern, exchanged goodbyes and cinematically flew off into the sunrise (we have not made this up unlike Anna, Lewis, Angus and Ella..). Our night watch concluded with flaking the sail and arriving in St Peter Port, Guernsey.

Our day continued with naps on the foredeck in the sun and being woken by the harbour master asking for money. Despite the small blip in the morning naps, we continued sleeping before moving on to make the best breakfast yet, of sausages, hashbrowns and beans. After everyone else woke up to the delightful smell of a cooked breakie, we consumed the food and had shore-leave. We explored St Peter Port together, or, one hill before everyone didn’t want to walk uphill anymore. We split into groups with some visiting the tidal swimming pool, the gardens, Chandlery, and the local Costa. Snacks were acquired and promptly eaten on deck while basking in the sun – this was not because we thought the hatch was locked, but entirely our own decision.

Dinner was fish and chips, expertly cooked by us again (we’re just that good) after working tirelessly, to send someone else to the chip shop and putting the fish in the oven. We ate on deck as the sun was setting and inhaled vast amounts of peas. Peas contain 5% protein and more vitamin C, per Kilogram, than oranges.

Starboard watch – Beth, Cameron, Raffy, Verity. Out.

We woke up this morning at 0700 and had a delightful breakfast of ready-made croissants and pan au chocolate, heated in the oven. We then prepped the deck to leave at 0900 but was rudely delayed by the French boat moored next to us, forcing us to leave 20 minutes late. We set sail for Alderney, raising the main sail before having to swap the yankee 1 with the yankee 2 (during which Ella fell over AGAIN resulting in another huge bruise) (WE BLAME RAFFY). We also raised one of the spinnaker poles over the side, allowing us to better control the angle of the yankee sheets. We then broke for a lunch of mystery soup and bacon baps. The stay sail was then raised by starboard watch as we cleaned up. Matt then decided we needed to reef the main sail which took a great effort, before deciding he wanted the full main sail back up again (rude). We then reached a high speed of 12knots before mooring to a buoy at Alderney. After we stowed the sails, we then had the great task of blowing up the dingy (unfortunately not in an explosive way) and raising Horatio the engine to carry us to shore (we got very soggy). Once at shore we watched a ketch drift into the distance towards a large patch of mean looking rocks. We explored for a small time before realising there is absolutely nothing here. We terrorised the locals at a café before returning to the boat for a dinner of vegetable stir fry (vegan friendly!!) that not everyone ate (I blame Lewis’ special sauce).

The Better Watch^TM

This morning, we arose to the wash of Alderney Harbour causing the galley to explode violently, which was suboptimal, but luckily, the clanging was substituted for the normal sounds of sea birds. After a nutritional breakfast of dippy eggs and soldiers (perfectly cooked by Raffy) we started the deck prep to continue the voyage and head to Cherbourg, France. With a rather underwhelming wind speed, we hoisted our sails and made an entire three knots, six if you count the tide. We didn’t give up and poled out the yankee two, maximising the pressure behind the yankee. We eventually did give up and motored our way into the delightful port town of Cherbourg where we only just fit on the pontoon. After exploring a little with the background music from the local festival, we headed to customs to get our passport stamps, which didn’t happen; WE WANT STAMPS! After dinner, we plan to explore further the twenty opticians and find a creperie. Perhaps Hugo might have banana on his, which would mean he would consume a further 15Bq of radiation on top of the previous 45Bq he has had today from the three bananas he has already eaten…

The Even Better Watch^TM (Starboard)​