Today we arrived at the boat. The minibus took me (Teddy), Lewis, Tony and Kingsley from school all the way to Portsmouth Harbour, where we boarded the boat that we are to live in until Friday.

Tony was worried that he might be sea sick (he was fine). Kingsley actually did throw up, but he’s also fine now. The toilet was quite confusing, but we go to grips with it in the end.

There was supposed to be six of us but we only have a four-man crew. As soon as we got on the boat, we picked our cabins and helped ourselves to some food and drinks. We learnt about how to correctly wear our  lifejackets and about the ropes on the ship. We untied all the ropes from the pontoon and learnt where to put them when we are at sea.

We started our journey to Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. Lewis took to the wheel for a few minutes as well. When we arrived, we docked up to the pontoon and immediately started cooking dinner, which was sausage and mash. Tony and I were peeling potatoes and Lewis was on the carrots.

Kingsley was still ill, so he watched from a distance. I’d say we did a pretty good job overall. The dinner, everyone had mixed feelings about, but the people who didn’t like it as much were still feeling the effects of seasickness. It was good for the first night!

See you tomorrow, The Tenacity Crew.

Today we woke up at 07:45. Tony woke up at 06:30, didn’t get any sleep and was tired. Then we had breakfast, which was cereal and toast. Kingsley took ages to eat ONE piece of toast.

Then we went up on deck, brushed our teeth, than came back down. We sat in the boat for an hour covering safety briefings and the wind scale, which was around a six.

We then set off and set the boat ready for sailing. We all saw a navy submarine, which was very lucky and it was very cool. We also saw lots of big ships. When we were sailing, we all learnt what ropes to pull or let go, and we all got to steer the boat. It was very tiring.

Tony and Lewis clipped on and went and sat at the very front of the boat and let their legs dangle over the side of the boat. Their shoes got DRENCHED. Then, we started to make our way into Lymington Marina. We all helped to tie the boat up.

We then went to go shopping, but to our surprise, the shops were all closed, because of the Bank Holiday. It was surprisingly not a waste of time, because the ice cream shop was still open, so we all had ice cream (we all had Oreo and a few other flavours).

When we got back to the boat, we could still make a chicken curry for dinner. We all helped with Kingsley cutting the chicken, Tony and Lewis chopping the onions and Teddy cutting the peppers.

We are now writing this blog while we wait for the curry to cook. After dinner, we will have our showers and then it will be bed time.

By Kingsley and Tony.

Today we woke up in Lymington and almost immediately after finishing breakfast, we went down to Tesco to pick up some snacks and our dinner.

We got started on learning the ropes (literally), which we all joined in with. Then we untied the boat from the pontoon and started sailing. We sailed through The Needles and out of the Solent, and we sailed close to Bournemouth as well.

We learnt about calling for help using flares and torches. A surprise Dutch navy ship interrupted us as we all stopped to take pictures.

For lunch, we had soup and rolls, which were very welcome after all the sailing. Next, we arrived at Buckler’s Hard and we even saw a seal on the marsh.

After we docked the boat we had our pizza and Lewis and Tony washed up.

We all had showers and now have gotten ready for bed in preparation for another working day tomorrow!

By Teddy and Lewis.

Today after we ate breakfast, we went to the toilets and washed. Near the toilets at Buckler’s Hard, there was a rescued parrot and we thought the parrot would talk to us, but it only squeaked and whistled at us.

We then went and saw the houses that the ship builders used to live in and had a cheeky morning ice-cream. We then went to the boat and set sail for another long day of sailing.

We left the Beaulieu river mouth and sailed round the Solent and towards Southampton. We saw another Dutch navy ship while we were out there. We also heard a May Day call happen in our area, it was interesting, and great to hear that it was completed successfully. The Coastguard organised the Lifeboat to go to a sinking yacht and they took it in tow.

Unluckily, after Lewis was saying how lucky we were to have seen all we have over the past few days, we had a little bit of engine trouble, which Paul (Skipper) and Dave (Mate) had to sort out before we could go into harbour for the night. This meant that our arrival into Warsash was delayed by a few hours.

While the engine was being fixed, we did catch sight of some cruise ships leaving Southampton, which was good. Paul and Dave thought we had to be at the fish and chip shop by 20:30 before it closed, but it closed at 21:00, so there was no need for us to run all the way. Lewis bought a super sour pickle just to add. The fish and chips were very nice, but the portions of the so called ‘small chips’ were HUGE and none of us ate them all.

After dinner, it was 21:00 and it was almost bedtime. Now we are ready to go back to Portsmouth tomorrow.

By Teddy and Lewis.

Today we woke up in Warsash and had breakfast. We went to the Co-Op after breakfast and picked up some food. Then we looked at some charts and the tides with Dave , and then we were on our way out to sea again.

We made our way up the Southampton waters. We saw some large oil tankers, cruise ships, cargo ships, and even saw a giant Royal Caribbean cruise ship as well. Then we exited Southampton waters and started sailing again. We saw a Belgian navy ship in the East Solent, which was very lucky considering how much we had seen already.

We sailed to Cowes and docked up. We went for a walk through the town which was very pretty and we also went to the beach and saw the most exclusive yacht club in the country, which is even allowed to fly the St George’s Cross. Outside of its headquarters, there was a line of bronze cannons that you are not allowed to touch and they fire blanks sometimes.

We skimmed stones on the beach as well and we found some good rocks to skim. We then walked back and had showers. After we were clean, we had dinner, which was pasta bolognese.

Now we are going to do some night sailing back to Portsmouth. The night sailing was good, but it was cold. When we got back into Portsmouth we had to wait for three large ships to go by before we could cross over to our marina. We finally tied up at midnight and now it is time for bed.

By Teddy and Lewis.​