Challenger 1 ⎼ Dover Christ Church Academy
Onboard Challengers 1 and 3 this week, we have young people from Dover Christ Church Academy joining us for a five-day residential voyage.
Read the blog below to find out what the young people, aged 12-15, onboard Challenger 1 have been getting up to so far.
Day 1
Monday 26
From school, we took a coach to Portsmouth harbour (the journey was 138 miles) and sailed from Portsmouth to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. We looked round the shops, then went back to the boat and cooked dinner before having showers and chilling for the evening.
My favourite part of the first day was putting my head over the edge off the boat and getting completely get drenched, then getting some rest on the front of the boat.
It’s been really fun so far, however the ride on the coach here took three hours, which was very long and now from all the sailing we’ve done today, I think we’re all exhausted.
We have learnt new things today and are excited to learn even more tomorrow.
It’s been an interesting and adventurous day on the boat, it’s been a great experience for me because I’m having a good time with my mates and I’m enjoying getting splashed by sea water.
By Tommy.
Day 2
Tuesday 27
It’s hard to describe the experience of today. It was windy at some points of the journey, but calm at other points. The water was smashing against the side of the boat some of the time and then others it was really calm. 😕
Today was very fun, we woke up at 07:00 and went up on deck to prepare the ship for sailing. After that was finished and we took off sailing, we ate our breakfast. We sat round the table, one group after another, so there was always somebody on deck, while the others were eating.
After everyone had finished their breakfast, the worst of the day hit, almost everyone got seasick since we’ve barely been on a boat before, so some of the crew had to go to bed and rest. However, me and Billy were able to avoid the seasickness and continued to help on deck with the sailing staff.
We practiced some tacking to get us through the wind that was going at a speed of 23-33mph from a north-west direction. The current was going 30lm going against us.
At about midday, a thunder storm hit and it became hard to sail. Everyone that was on deck became soaked from the storm and sea water that was splashing against the boat and managing to get on deck.
We sailed from Yarmouth to Poole and it took about seven hours with the wind and tide against us. After we got about 30 minutes away from the marina, everyone got up to help put the boat to bed. We docked at around 15:10 and it then took us about 40 minutes to finish putting the boat to sleep.
Just after that, Mason and Alfie went fishing and caught a bass within the first few seconds of the line being in the water. After that, we explored Poole, which is a very nice place. And at about 19:00, we all sat down and ate some fish and chips while the Skipper told us what our jobs are for tomorrow.
Finally, to end the night most of us sat upstairs on the deck having a laugh. We went to bed at 21:30 and then the boys had to get back up because they were too loud, but they resolved the situation and by 22:30, the whole boat was silent.
By Lily-Rose.
Day 3
Wednesday 28
Today we got up very early and prepared our breakfast. For breakfast, we all had bacon rolls, which were very nice.
Then we went up on deck and started to prepare for our long day of sailing. When we set sail, we sailed around the coast which was the North Channel and were kept very busy up on deck.
We did a lot of man overboard drills and practiced our tacking too. As we were sailing into port, we all helped to bring down all the sails and clear the deck.
Once we were in the port, we prepared dinner which was sausage and mash, which was very tasty.
Today was very fun, but very busy. Overall, I think we had a great day today.