The crew were super welcoming and engaging when we arrived. This was very comforting for people who haven’t sailed before.

We quickly picked up knots and steering techniques, and there were loads of biscuits!

It was a lot of fun to be on a boat with so many people and to develop basic sailing skills together.

Today we enjoyed many activities that helped us learn about sailing the yacht and working as a team. We relied on each other to complete successful tacks and learnt how to tie knots that help us to secure the ropes.

We also took it in turns to steer the boat, and we all enjoyed taking time to get a hang of the control.

It was a fun experience that we all felt good about and were challenged by.

Today we had an amazing day starting early at 06:00, as we were aiming to set sail by 6:30. Sadly, we were slightly tired meaning that for about 15 minutes we were rather drowsy and this delayed us a bit. After a short talking to by Ian, we were on track and left Poole harbour at 06:45.

With the sun above us and a gentle breeze with partial cloud coverage, we were heading at a steady speed towards Yarmouth. After just passing out of Brownsea Island, we were ordered by the Skipper to start to prepare the Mainsail, we flowingly got this up in the record time of 47 minutes. With the wind still reasonably calm and the sea getting slightly choppier, we then removed the motor and were fully being pushed by the wind.

Throughout our journey, multiple people got to steer and everyone got involved in various activities whether it consisted of pulling the sails up or being able to cook in (fair to say) harsh conditions.

We then finally arrived in Yarmouth where we then quickly tidied everything up ready for what we thought would be a gentle swim.

During the cleaning up of the dishes after lunch, in true Monkton fashion, everyone had to join in for a quick dance including the Skipper who has got some great moves!

As we got onto the stony beach for swimming, we were all slightly concerned as the wind picked up and there was an extremely strong current, however we all pulled through and whether it consisted of just dipping your feet in or going in for a full dunk, we all enjoyed it very much, even though it was very cold.

Now we are getting ready for dinner, which is chicken fajitas and I am sure it will get devoured while doing some night time navigation preparation.

By Tomos.​

Today we ate;

40 sausages

2kg mashed potatoes

Apple pie

Suspicious stew (claimed to be baked beans)

Baguettes

Ham

Cheese

Corn flakes

Custard

Weetabix

And millions of biscuits.

These were needed because we did so many activities, like racing to put up the sail, climbing the mast, finding bob (fender), tacking, changing the Yankee, Stay and Main sails.

Plus, meeting the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire who visited our boat whilst we were mast climbing . He was shown around by Olivia and Edward.

And now we are going on a night navigation, yay!

So all in all, we have had a great and filling day!!

By Ruban and Crown.​