On our first day on the Challenger, we set sail from Portsmouth to Lymington. On our journey, we learnt a few knots, we were split up into two watches and had tasks set for each watch. Some of us even got to steer the boat.

Our watch made chicken wraps for dinner. The best part about the day was getting to relax on deck as we sailed to Lymington. However, I should’ve brought some long trousers as I burn easily. The most annoying part about it was how hot it gets below deck, everyone managed to get to sleep fairly easily in the end, even when a few of the adults were snoring!​

By Joey.

Xavier: We set sail from Lymington at 09:00, during our sail we were taught how to tighten and make knots, pull the sails on as a team and more. The main three things were the hazards onboard, how to make a log for the ship and check the status of the ship, for example, check if there is more water than normal, check the motor and check if we’re heading in the right direction.

Ricky: Today, I learnt how to put up the sails with my teammates, also when we were ashore me and my friends went to the beach it was so much fun. I hope that on over the next few days I continue to have fun and learn new things each day. On the other hand, we had to wake up really early at 07:00 and work, the issue with this is that we had to wake up really early and we were really tired even though we went to bed at 22:00. However, we still had lots of fun and a great day as this is a once in a life time opportunity.

Mrs Holmes: I’ve had a lovely day and steered the boat. We had a call to say that dolphins were spotted on a nearby boat so we turned back, but unfortunately, they weren’t there any longer. We will be keeping our eyes open to see if we can spot anymore over the next few days.

Kailane: Today was very warm to begin with, but as we went out to sea, the temperature of the weather changed and it became windy, so we all had to put our jumpers on to keep warm. The funny part was when we were trying to put the sail up and we had to shout ‘two, six, heave’ but Mr Lima was one of the only people shouting it out!​

Today was a thrilling day. First thing, we all helped each other climbed up the mast. We all had our part to play, at first I didn’t want to do it because I was too afraid, but in the end I climbed up all the way to the top of the mast and it was worth it, because everyone clapped when I went all the way up!

Before we left, we all went ashore for 30 minutes, then we left Weymouth at 12:00. We sailed for a bit, then the boys and Brooke jumped in the water and had lots of fun. However, Ricky had to wear a life jacket and he was looking funny, so we all laughed and took some pictures to remember this epic moment.

After that, we met Challenger 4 to exchange pork pies for mini rolls and they were a nice group to get along with. Later in the day the boys, Mrs Holmes and Mr Lima, climbed the Spinnaker pole above the Solent with their harnesses.

Meanwhile, I steered the boat. We had dinner and we ate burgers with salad, then we took lovely pictures of the sunset. Brooke even saw dolphins eating jellyfish.

Finally Challenger 4 met us again and we had a conversation between ships, we sang ‘Sponge Bob square pants’.

We arrived at our final destination, which was Cowes on the Isle of Wight. We tied up to a mooring buoy and to do this we put Tomas over the side in a harness to put the mooring lines on. Overall I had a divine day!

By Mya.

Today the some members of the crew woke up at 04:00 to see a wonderful sunrise. Afterwards, we undid the lines holding us to the mooring buoy and started sailing.

It was really HARD to put up the sails, but with effort and teamwork the crew managed to put it up. Then we headed to the Isle of Wight, there, the crew took a shower and went to buy some groceries and souvenirs, two members of the crew bought a crystallised jellyfish.

At 13:30, the crew had to come back to the ship. Not long after that, we started heading to Portsmouth, on the way we saw lots of classic yachts. They were enormous and they were really cool.

Once we got to Portsmouth, we tidied the boat and had an amazing curry for dinner. Then, we had some time to chill and mix with the other crews. Without a doubt the best experience on this day was that our crew became friends with the members of Challenger 4.

By Ipsen and Xavier.