Challenger 1 – Merseyside Police – Chief Constables Challenge
Day 1
Saturday 22
On Day 1 of our challenge, we woke up at 08:00 and had the opportunity to explore Portsmouth. After a few hours of wandering around and bonding with our crewmates, we headed back to the boat. We set sail to Cowes at roughly 16:00 and every member of the team helped by either lifting the fenders or pulling lines.
After being the last Challenger to set sail, we managed to quickly raise two of the yacht’s sails, which was harder than it sounds but we managed to pull through.
After a good half an hour, we spotted Challenger 3 and made it our mission to pass them. We succeeded at our goal, as we later flew by them and lined up while singing “We Are The Champions” by Queen. They congratulated us and stated that they would “catch up”, reminding us that the crew on all four Challengers have the same goal: TO WIN!
After the sun set, we docked in at Cowes (on the coast of the Isle of Wight) and settled down for a while. For dinner, we indulged in fajitas – a classic among the 72ft Challenger yachts, which Starboard watch slaved away to make for us.
After we cleaned up the saloon, we were granted some time to tour the town. It’s going to be an early start tomorrow, GOD HELP US ALL!
By Ryan, Mathew, Pip, Elisa and Harley.
Day 2
Sunday 23
We woke up at 07:00, the weather was drastically bad, so we got into our foul weather gear. We put the three main sails up to catch the wind, while the other group prepped bacon barms (rolls) for our breakfast. At this point, we were traveling the seas at quite a speed and many people started feeling ill. We all shared a friendship bucket for our seasickness.
Once we started to feel better, we continued to sail from the Isle of Wight towards Weymouth. Joe forgot to take out the garlic bread, which we all savoured with satisfactory joy.
As we were coming up to Weymouth, we saw some dolphins, multiple rainbows and a storm closing in on us! Once we docked at Weymouth, we folded all three sails to make them look pretty and get them out of the way. After that, we cleaned the deck and had a bit of free time before tea, so we went into the portside town before coming back to dinner (which was spaghetti bolognese).
Lastly we showered, cleaned up the dishes and wrote this blog. 😊
By Clare, El, Luke and Harley.
