The story so far…

Freya – At 12pm today, all the crew members met at Gunwharf Quays and took lateral flow tests before boarding Challenger 3. After picking our bunks and getting fitted with our foul weather gear, we swiftly left Gunwharf Quays and motored upwind towards Yarmouth, each having a go at steering through the wind and choppy sea.

Once in Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, we all put the deck to ‘bed’ (away) and split up into our Port and Starboard watches to finish off the jobs for the evening. Starboard watch yanked on the number two sail, and then went for an enjoyable shower, returning back in time for the spaghetti bolognese that Port watch had made. Lots of cups of tea and biscuits were enjoyed!

Tom C – We left the berth at Portsmouth, on a north-westerly course towards Cowes alongside the Wightlink ferries in a decent-sized swell that the Skipper would insist was ‘unavoidable’, and around the tip of the Isle of Wight, towards the calmer waters outside Yarmouth where we berthed for the night next to the ferry terminal.

Docked in Yarmouth our watch experienced a 4-star bathroom facility before heading back to the boat. Our watch was responsible for the first evening’s dinner and the newly joined-in house chefs cooked up a authentic artisan spaghetti bolognese, which proved popular among the ship’s company using a fine array of local ingredients from the delicatessen. 😋

Better late than never…

Jasmine – We had an early start for a very tired crew! We stumbled out of our bed for our first onboard breakfast. The table was filled with teas, cereal and everything that belonged on a bagel or toast. We left the harbour at 8:30 and set a course for Weymouth.

I worked as a ‘sweater’ (pulling on the sails) alongside Lydia to help hoist the main sail, which was exhausting and we were soon taken over by another two pairs of sweaters, one after each. We arrived into the harbour a little later than we expected but we were all just relieved and excited to get a good night’s sleep! 😴

Lydia – waking up to the voice of Dave shouting down the length of the boat for us to get up was not quite what these exhausted teenagers had in mind, but we staggered out nonetheless! It was a speedy breakfast followed swiftly by all hands on deck to get the boat ready for the day ahead.

We motored out of Yarmouth a little after 8:30 to be greeted by a calm sea and sunshine. Soon the wind picked up and sails were hoisted, much to the amusement of those not doing any work! The Skipper, Tony, kindly mentioned that a group of 12 year-olds had managed to get it up twice as fast as us! 😏

We motor-sailed for a while, but that was quickly discarded once both the Yankee and Head Sail were up. We ‘heeled’ (tipped) at quite an angle, we headed west to Weymouth, putting in a few ‘tacks’ (turns) along the way. It was an exciting day for us, with many taking a turn at the wheel and one brave person even going up the mast! We motored into Weymouth harbour at around 4:30pm, and after a brief walk around the town, we made dinner and then collapsed into bed completely exhausted.

Coastal Capers…

Another early start today. We set off for Lymington from Weymouth at 8:00. We followed our passage plan, which we had planned last night. We’re getting a little better at our sail hoist… hoping to get better than those 12-year-olds by the end of  the week!

There was less of a wind today and calmer seas so, we managed to sail for a few hours but motor sailed for the rest. Today we also set up and climbed the spinnaker pole, which was pretty exciting. Once moored up in Lymington, we had a quick trip to Tesco and then made one of the better meals of sausages and mash, Starboard’s turn to clean up, which was unfortunate for them as we managed to burn the sausages a bit.

Waking up a bit later tomorrow though because of low water so that is nice for once!

Emilia and James