Challenger 4 – London Nautical School – XF240429A
London Nautical School join us for a voyage from Portsmouth to Plymouth. Follow their journey below.
Day 1
Monday 29 April
We started off the day with a quick rundown of the ship as well as introducing ourselves to the captain and crew. Once we got to know each other we were given a brief on how to properly equip our life jackets and keep ourselves on the boat and not in the water. We then swiftly set sail leaving Portsmouth behind with Yarmouth in our sights! After we left the channel and made our way into the Solent, we were given a tour and brief of the ship. Then we took turns controlling the helm for a smooth sail to Yarmouth. Once outside Yarmouth, we had to wait for the ferry to leave before we went in. Once we were docked the cooking began! On today’s menu was chicken fajitas which were exquisitely prepared with music and singing echoing through the galley. ON TO TOMORROW!!
Damir, Tamani and Mario
Day 2
Tuesday 30 April
Woke up early at 6 and left Yarmouth towards Weymouth, we had cereal on the go with some Cheerio’s going for a swim since today was very windy, we got the Yankee sail out and hoisted the Main with one reef There was an onboard disco with some of JC’s moves being put on the LNS Instagram account. Additionally, Malik our dear friend was about to puke but he managed to hold himself back from vomiting on our faces because he is a real gentleman. A few sailors had a nap on deck due to the early start.
Some sailors were feeling a bit under the weather and revisited their breakfast where we sailed and got to Weymouth, meeting up with Challengers 1 and 2 , JC was very eager to steer the ship into the port since it’s his first time being on tall ships. We had a discussion about LNS and how it has changed during our time there as well as finding out our teacher is far more experienced than we initially thought. The TS Royalist was nearby, and we went onshore to play pool, buy a milkshake/ ice creams with exotic flavours e.g. taro and banoffee pie, sunk pints in a non-alcoholic bar and had fish and chips for dinner. Finish the 2nd day with a nice hot steaming shower.
Day 3
Wednesday 1 May
Today was a rollercoaster, to say the least! It started with our usual early morning routine followed by enough bacon to feed a village. The excitement didn’t end there, however, because we were visited by a family of dolphins which was followed by a runaway bucket which was quickly turned into a man overboard drill. After rescuing the bucket we learnt a few new knots, some quicker than others. With a quick game of top trumps, we soon arrived at Brixham to see Captain Jack Sparrow‘s ship (the first replica of the first ship to circumnavigate the world). We then quality tested the local ice cream (8/10 close to Weymouth but creamier) and took on the challenge of finding a “tacky” item that is under 2 pounds that satisfied the captain’s description. After a very convincing saleswomen oversold one of us on a bracelet we explored the rest of the town. To end the day our two on board master chefs cooked up a not so traditional Jamaican curry chicken. Yummy.
JC & Damir
Day 4
Thursday 2 May
We got up at 8 today and made scrambled eggs for breakfast. We had talks about navigation and charts as well as discussing with the skipper what to do in case of a man overboard. Then we got the deck ready, had lunch and left about 13:00 and left Brixham but prepared dinner before we left. Before we did our first tack we had a lesson on different types of flares. We got all 3 sails out and had to tack for the first time all trip, we saw dolphins and had a beautiful sunset whilst sailing. No one was seasick today and we had a talk on flares where we were rewarded for correct answers with cookies and there was a heated debate on who was entitled to the cookie. We got into Plymouth around 9 and reheated chilli for dinner which port watch served whilst an interesting debate on the curvature of the earth and its contents ensued. It is off to bed now for the final time, as it is our last night on board.
