We woke around 7 am and were woken up to the sound of the generator powering up, much to our delight it was cereal for breakfast and we quickly scurried into the galley to get our bowls. After breakfast we split into our two watches – port and starboard, for the rota of one team prepares the breakfast whilst the other waits and then cleans the dishes afterwards.

After breakfast had finished we prepared ourselves and the boat to leave Studland bay near Old Harry for Alum Bay. On our journey to Alum bay we were briefed on the MOB Procedure, followed by us doing a mock up emergency and using a dan bouy as a target for practice. Once we had lowered the sails in a semi-speedy way we positioned ourselves upwind to be blown towards the casualty. Once collected we talked through how it went and then steadily motored in towards Alum Bay where we moored up for around 4 hours whilst the port watch tidied up the sails and the starboard, prepared our evening meal of sweet and sour chicken with rice with a sight of HMS Protector, an ice breaker ship.

Shortly afterwards we were briefed on our night navigation and knowledge of the local features including channel markers and cardinals to be able to plan our route. Around 9.30 as soon as we had admired the sunset, we got changed and hoisted the anchor in preparation to leave. As soon as we were leaving we clipped ourselves in for Captain Sam’s reassurance in the dark, to slowly motor out to sea to begin our route. Once slowly spotting our first marker, we turned around and spotted our markers on our route and took it in turns on the helm. We didn’t spot it at first but a thick wave of fog was rolling in off of the sea, coming pouring over the land towards us. Seeing this our route was cut short as we made a quick dash for Totland Bay to anchor up for the night.

Kieran

On today’s voyage we embarked on a 7 hour journey across boat filled seas kissed with the morning sun. At the crack of dawn our fresh faced crew got ready to face day 2 we set sail at 10 hundred hours prepared and ready for the journey ahead. Once we had left Gunwharf quays our group were anxious to start. We lifted the sail and we were off. We weaved through like-minded sailors heeling through the waves. After refuelling our squad sweated the yankee and flew across the Solent. We reached our destination eager to disembark our motley crew enjoyed sightseeing in Yarmouth. Later on that evening the watch cooked excellently and everybody was content.

After a long train trip, we arrived at Ports mouth Harbour,got our bags on board and did safety briefings  and met the crew for the first time and did our introductions

Our bunks were allocated and we were issued with waterproofs and lifejackets, after a Lifejacket briefing we cast off the mooring lines and headed out into the Solent.

We stared learning about the yacht had practice at helming and started to learn about the different types of rope their uses and we learnt some knots.

The skipper told us about marker buoys for the channel and where to steer.

We headed back towards Portsmouth to moor up for the night and started preparing our evening meal, which we all helped with, Bangers and Mash for tea !

After we had cleared up we had some free time and had a walk around Portsmouth, we pretty tired by then and settled down in to our bunks which were surprisingly comfortable.