Challenger 3 – St Albans Sea Cadets

Today we arrived at Portsmouth to begin our voyage. Most people arrived at our unit at about 7:30 however we were hindered by the late arrival of our mode of transport. We then left the unit amidst a very strong rain storm which continued throughout the day. We arrived at Portsmouth at around 1 o’clock to find out who our crew would be and who our staff were for the week. We then came aboard our yacht and had introduction time with everyone that we would be sharing a yacht with for the week. We were then split into our watches and shown our bunks, where we will be sleeping for the next few days. We were given time to unpack our bags and put the things that we will be using over the next few days into boxes that we later put in our cubby holes. We were than given a tour of the yacht and were given the names of the parts and ropes. We were also given a briefing about what to do in case of a fire (ironically, it was heavily raining).

We were than split as watches (which we are planning to actually name something different) to do different things. Starboard watch was given another show of the yacht while Port watch was doing the cooking. For dinner we were preparing Fajitas with chicken and a salad. They came out very good and there were minimal disruptions in our cooking. While Starboard watch was cleaning the dishes after the dinner, Port watch was given a tutorial on how to use the running stays. After all our theory and work, we were given half-an-hour worth of break. We were able to go onto shore and visit the shops for some snacks for our personal stock. We were called back in and started to prepare for bed.

James Hunt, Kamran Grewal, Jakub, Caitlyn & Harley

Today, we sailed from Portsmouth to Poole. On our voyage we experienced Gail force winds, flying pasta, and a ripped sail. We started off the day by listening to the weather forecast and writing down what we heard so we knew what to expect throughout the day. Following on from this we then set off away from the quay and then set the sails. Around about half way through our journey we started experiencing Gail force winds, which caused many people to start feeling sick, hence the words “flying pasta”. After this, we then did a man overboard drill, which involved throwing a buoy overboard and shouting “Man overboard!” We then dropped the Yankee as quickly as possible in order to turn around and get to the casualty in the shortest amount of time possible. Whilst a member of staff was helming, we faced our biggest challenge yet! A ripped sail! All crew were called on-deck due to having to pull down the sail as quickly as possible. We had the entire crew on the fore-deck helping to bring the sail down. Once the sail was down, we had to get it out the way quickly in order for us to put up the new Yankee. Aside from this it was a very successful sail with a delicious dinner. (Mia Harris cooked and wrote this blog with ur homie ben typing it ok and Amanda helped spell gail) (you can delete this last bit)

Ben, Honor, Mia, Amanda & Charlie

The day started with a late wake up because we had been night sailing the previous night. Port watch began cooking breakfast (which was a delicious English breakfast some of which was cooked by Richard) once it was ready both watches sat down to eat. When everyone had finished, starboard watch started to wash up while port watch got the dinghy out of the sail locker and started pumping it up using the foot pump (which took too long). At this time, the other boat was blowing up their dingy. When all dinghies were blown up both boats started getting the crew members that wanted to go up the mast, up the mast.

Once everyone was finished going up the mast we started getting people in the dinghies to go rowing around the area that we were docked in. this is when crew members were allowed to have some shore leave time to explore the Yarmouth (a small area of it as we had 30 minutes) most crew members found the ice cream shop when exploring so we had to buy some. Straight after we got back onto the ship we left port as soon as possible so that we could get back to Gunwharf quays marina in Portsmouth quickly. As soon as we were clear of the harbour we had lunch which was a buffet which had lots of little snacks, sandwiches and crisps.

We had to take off the Yankee 1 and flake it into the bag, however we had forgotten to put a sail tie through the hanks which meant that we had to untwist the sail as it would have taken longer without the hanks in a line. After a lot of time sitting around taking in the view we had a staysail hoisting race. This involved hoisting the staysail in pairs as fast as possible. In this James and Amanda won, Charlie and Honor came second and Mia and Caitlyn came third. The winning time was 29.72 seconds.

After the races had ended we sat around the boat taking in the sights for the last time this week before we came into Gunwharf quays. Once we had gotten into harbour we had cleaning stations where we did a deep clean of the ship by washing the deck and everything else. Soon the challenger 2 came along side our boat so we had to be there to catch their lines. After this the girls went to the showers (while the boys were left behind to keep cleaning). Soon after dinner was ready, we had mash, sausages, peas and onion gravy (which was very tasty). Then once everyone had finished the girls cleaned up the pots, pans and plates whilst the boys got the chance to shower.

When everyone was back we had some shore leave where we all went to Tesco to buy sweets (except from Mia who bought raspberries and blueberries at every opportunity) then everyone just hung out on the deck for the last time…then we all went to bed…eventually.

Caitlyn Harvey and James Hunt