We were Up early with a 6-hour drive ahead. We arrived in Portsmouth and headed straight to the docks where we saw a Navy Air Craft carrier (one of two in the UK!) leave. How exciting!!!

Next up we made our way over to Challenger 4 as our boat (Challenger 3) was its way home from maintenance. Sue (one of the TSYT Skippers) gave us a brief introduction to onboard safety measures while we waited for our boat to arrive.

At long last she was here – Challenger 3. Sat with our bags on the pontoon we were anticipating the adventure ahead. Unfortunately due to the time arrangements we didn’t manage to sail on day one but we got stuck straight in with the cooking and unpacking of the boat – a delicious meal of fajitas were serve by the Starboard watch.

Bedtime came early tonight – we were all shattered and ready for bed (little did we know the tiredness was only about to increase).

POW! The sun rose on day two aboard Challenger 3. Today was the day we sail from Portsmouth to Cowes.

After a nutritious breakfast and kitting up, we headed above deck where the fun began… Straight away we unpacked the sails – Yankee 3 and the main sail ready for action for later on in our journey. Taking it in turns in the snake pit pulling and tying the lines, and time for the final safety briefing before we set sail. The lines were removed from the pontoon and the fenders were lifted – this is where it was all hands on! After motoring out of port it was time to hosist the sails, half doing the sweating (pulling the ropes to lift the sails) and half in the snake pit which is when all worked hard to really set sail. Getting close to reaching port in Cowes, we all agreed we wanted to be at sea for longer – the tacking began, this is fighting the wind condition and direction by changing the sail positions. Although the sea sickness began to set in for some, others got stuck in spending time at the helm with the Skipper and Mate and winching as the boat rocked vigorously and vertically from side to side.

With cold, wet hands due to the rainy conditions, we all decided it was time to head into Cowes port. Everyone worked together to pack away the sails, tidy the lines and get ready to arrive back. We got back in and it was our turn (Port Watch) to cook. A hearty, warm, much needed meal of sausage, mash and gravy was served. And now here we are, all warmed up and rearing to go for the rest of the week ahead!

This is Lucy and Lola from Port Watch! The past two days have been an introduction to our sailing experience and we’ve been adjusting to life on deck by taking part in the main activities: cooking, cleaning, sleeping and sailing. Getting used to everything requires a lot of determination, strength and will power – It’s all so different to life at home – But we’ve made it a full two days and can’t wait to continue!

Ahoy there!

We must say, last night we slept much better than on our first night on board. It makes sense after our first full day of sailing and sea air!

Today has been steadier, but we’ve still had plenty to do. Starting off the day with a scrambled egg on toasted muffin breakfast, superbly prepared by the Starboard watch, and then heading out into the rain to do some sailing. Although it was very wet, the weather conditions weren’t Baltic, so we believe most of the crew was a little warmer today than they had been.

Helped and directed by our brilliant Skipper (Ian) First Mate (Anna) and enthusiastic trainee Watch Leader (Kitty), we managed to hoist the Yankee and Stay sail. After doing this, we sailed across the Solent, carrying out multiple taks and jibes along the way. We did this for about 2/3 hours before heading back into port in Cowes, upon where we had a delicious lunch of pasties and beans, which the Port watch prepared whilst we moored the boat and sorted out everything up top.

After a hearty lunch, warm and dry, we made our way into Cowes for a tour of the lifeboat station. It was interesting hearing and seeing behind the scenes of the RNLI, the charity which is always there to try and bring us to safety whenever we experience trouble on the waters.

We had a little gander around Cowes before having to be back at Challenger for 17:15. At 18:00, Starboard watch started to prepare dinner, and made a lovely chicken curry (tofu for Anna) with rice and naan bread, which most people enjoyed.

Whilst the day sails away! Day 4 has just come to an end. With 8 hours of seeing the big blue sea we learnt new skills, found new friends and found new versions of ourselves along the voyage.

We started the day by waking up at the dawn of the morning, and the port crew made a well fueled meal. Then we went to set up the boat to get ready for the long journey ahead; at half ten we first hit the deck, getting the sheets and fenders ready to depart.

What felt like an hour that turned to be only half an hour (which was a surprise as on our 2^nd day of voyage it took us an hour and a half) we hoisted the main sail up, showing the determination of our team. One of the main skills we learnt was how to rescue a man overboard where we all worked as a team to rescue Bob! Which was a demonstration dummy where we used the Dan buoy to understand how to work under pressure as a team in certain circumstances.

Then as the journey continued, we finally achieved our most wanted mission getting all sails up. As the wind was particular low. It was a long journey through the north passage where we had multiple moments of passage sailing to admire the view of the eroded landscapes where we saw the infamous- the needles- after we lost sight of the Isle of Wight we continued our voyage through the north passage.

Which were we all had to watch out for the traps that could ruin are expedition, the lobster pots that had an image from a buoy to a milk carton. After avoiding all of them we began to lower the main sail where we saw the end of our 8 hour journey and the harbour of Poole.

Evening there, my fellow sailors!

Today was a hard but interesting day, it all started at 0700 hours, where the alarms broke out with the sound of sirens, as the day before was a long sail most of us were absolutely shattered so even with the alarms only a third actually rose from their bunks.

Starboard Watch was on it with breakfast and toasted up a plain but delicious batch of crumpets, which everyone dug into. The spread supplies were running low but everyone was able to take advantage of what remained.

After everyone was finished, we all suited up for the day ahead which included a 4-5 hour sail from Poole to Yarmouth, this was a nicer sail as it was a great start as we had a sunny morning with calm weather, where we motored out of the port, when we had finally left the port we began to hoist the sails. This started by hoisting the main sail which involved sweating and some sailors in the snake pit grinding, then it was the turn of the Yankee sail which was the same set up

After that we set off into the sea! Where we were sailing with the wind to the rear of us, then we had lunch which we cooked underway (jacket potatoes!) We practiced knots afterwards and attempted a jibe which was successful, from then on we made our way to Yarmouth and got out the rolling fenders to protect the hull, while we were moving we had to look out for lobster pots as well!

We finally took down the sails and got ready for dinner!

Today we started at 6am, as we were restricted by the tide, this was because we needed a certain depth of the water to leave the harbour. However, this meant that we had to get up and out on deck as soon as possible, this was challenging task because we were all tired however despite this setback we had a clean departure from Yarmouth at 06:50am, this allowed us to leave without any issues with the boat and at a perfect tide, the speed of departure this allowed us to spend more time practicing core skills such as our knots, and even having breakfast on-the-go whilst we were sailing.

Even the sailing had its troubles however, due to the decreased amount of wind we could not utilise all of our sails, this lead to us using the motor for part of our journey today.

We arrived at Cowes’ Harbour at 11am and this allowed for us to deeply clean and prepare the boat for us to leave tomorrow and ensure it is prepared adequately for the next crew to use. This downtime also allowed us to pack the majority of our bags allowing for our early leave tomorrow and also putting most of the boat away, this was in preparation for our night-sail task. This preparation included our planning the course for the night-sail itself.

We then did the night sail although had to motor for some of it. This was because we could look out for lights such as cardinals and how many times they flash. We also looked at the lights on the boats and told the person helming what they had to look out for. We kept following the cardinals until we arrived at Gunwharf Quays at 21:50pm.

Then this morning we have cleaned the boat for the next people.