Challenger 3 – Wiltshire Scouts
Joining us onboard Challengers 2 and 3 this week, we have two groups from Wiltshire Scouts.
Read their blog to find out what they’ve been getting up to since they started their TSYT adventure on Sunday (31st).
Day 1
Sunday 31
A bus., a train, a boat. Although, we haven’t actually done any sailing yet because we motored to Yarmouth this evening. The tide was about to turn so we quickly left Portsmouth and headed out into the Solent. We were surrounded by racing yachts sporting brightly coloured Spinnakers. Some of us didn’t like how flappy some of them were.
On our way, we had a deck briefing at the pointy end aka the theme park, while getting periodically soaked as the nose dived into the water. In the cockpit, one of our watch leaders taught how to use the winches without losing any of our fingers. We had fun tying knots and watching the ferries go in and out of Yarmouth as we waited for Challenger 2 to go into the harbour.
After entering the harbour and mooring flawlessly, we had a debrief of the day and a tour of the heads and galley. All of us were starving so everyone was almost silent while eating our fajitas. After a discussion about our favourite biscuits, we bought enough biscuits to last ourselves for the week if not longer!
We are all really excited for tomorrow and we’ll all sleep very well tonight!
By Astrid, Kitty, Luke and Lilly.
Day 2
Monday 1
Howdy
Sleep rating : 6/10 Toilet rating: 2/10 Food rating: 9/10
Teachings for today
Tacking: 8/10 Gibing: 8/10
The tacking was great fun and good practise for us to get more experienced and we were able to comprehend the speed we managed to achieve!
Most of us slept sound and we woke up before 08:00. For breakfast, we had cereal and for lunch we enjoyed a choice of pasty with baked beans. For our dinner we had spag bol and we’re hoping to have a good night’s sleep!
By Isaac, Gethen, Oliver, Trystan and Charlie.
Day 3
Tuesday 2
Some of us got very wet while other people who stayed in the cockpit stayed reasonably dry, but we all had a great day sailing.
Before leaving Lymington, while we waited for enough tide, we all had a turn climbing the mast, which was awesome. The mast is 95ft tall so it was quite windy at the top, but it was worth it for the view.
After sweating up the Mainsail, we sailed out past the Needles where we had lunch, although some people didn’t eat very much as it was quite choppy. After a lunch of delicious pasta and tomato sauce, we sweated up the Yankee at a sub-optimal angle of about 25-30o. Those people who weren’t occupied with being seasick played a game of I-spy.
After bouncing towards Poole for a while, we reconvened to flake the Yankee and Mainsail in front of Old Harry Rocks. We made our way into Poole Harbour, passing Brownsea Island and the many yellow ferries taking people back into Poole, and moored up at about 17:00.
After clearing up the deck we beat Challenger 2 at putting our banner up. We don’t have to cook tonight because we’re going to have fish and chips, which we’re all really looking forward to!!
By Lilly, Luke, Kitty and Astrid.
Day 4
Wednesday 3
The morning’s sleeping was adequate. For breakfast we had crumpets and cereal. After, we were given an hour to find the tackiest item in Poole (the winner will be decided tomorrow). Then in the remaining time some of us went to the arcade.
After that, we had a quick visit to the RNLI to see the lifeboats, which was fun. Then we set sail and anchored outside of Old Harry for the night and some of us went for a nice swim. We had sausages and mash potatoes then finished off the evening with a little bit of fishing.
By Charlie and Gethen.