First things first we got onto the mini bus and headed to the lovely seaside naval town of Portsmouth. We were then greeted by a lovely chap called Chas who baited us by getting our hopes up and making us think that we were going to sail on a Challenger before we were lead to the ketch.

We were shown how everything works on the boat and told basic safety information. We then set sail (without the sailing) and headed across the Solent towards to the Isle of Wight.

We arrived at the port on the Isle of Wight at sunset, just before sundown. We all helped with the parking of the boat and then headed to the showers (well most of us did at least).

Afterwards, we all came back onto the boat and chilled out while we waited for fish and chips, which was lovely. After dinner we washed up, which leads us to right now and me writing this blog.

We are all going to sit down shortly and sort out meal plans for the week and the plan of action for tomorrow.

All in all, I would say that today was a pretty good day and I think most of us are looking forward to another adventure tomorrow! That’s it for now….. Bye! ​

By Harvey

The day started with two people from each watch going shopping for our food for the day, as well as the food for breakfast tomorrow.

Before that, we had a lovely breakfast of cereal and fruit. We then had a nice walk through Cowes and went and sat on the beach for a while. Rosie got pooped on by a bird, it wasn’t a fun experience!

When we got back to the boat, we set off to get some fuel so that we could go out into the Solent. However, there was a slight incident in which Sophie got covered in diesel.

After that was sorted out, we headed out into the Solent, with the aim of ending up in Lymington. We started off only using the engine but we managed to get the Mizzen and the Jib sails up and we slowly headed in the direction of Lymington.

After sailing for a couple of hours, we decided that we were going to head towards Yarmouth instead because the engine was having some trouble and there was a likely chance that we would run aground if the engine failed.

Next, the engine stopped working and so we called for the Yarmouth water taxi to come and tow us towards a mooring buoy where Sophie had to throw a lasso rope over the buoy to secure the boat to it.

We then ended up having to stay the night on the mooring buoy as the engine still wasn’t working. However, the Skipper is working to fix it.

Alex and Ollie are very sad they can’t have a shower tonight, but we will see how tomorrow goes.​

By Rosie

The day started on the mooring outside Yarmouth and with bacon rolls for breakfast. After clearing up, because the engine was still out of action, the crew took the harbour taxi to shore to use the bathroom and buy supplies of food for the coming days as we were unsure whether the vessel would be able to moor alongside.

While we were shopping, we saw that the Skipper had managed to bring the boat into the marina and so after a talk about emergencies at sea and the weather, we had lunch and took a walk to Freshwater Bay where some of the crew went for a swim.

After returning to the boat, we prepared dinner and tidied up around the boat. We enjoyed some bangers and mash and then cleared up. We had another talk about manners and customs and then prepared for bed.

By Piran and Jamie

We woke up and had a nice breakfast of cereal after Sophie and the Skipper yelled at the boys because they wouldn’t get up.

We then got told that an engineer was going to come at 10am to try and see if they could fix the engine so that we could do some sailing. After that, Miss Fazakerley took all of us to get hot chocolates and brownies from the local café ‘PO14’. We also did our food shopping for the day in the Yarmouth supermarket, ‘Harvey’s’.

When we got back to the boat, we put all our food away and did some theory about flares with the Skipper. While we were doing this, the engineers arrived to look at the engine. They worked on it for about three hours and managed to get it working again.

Misha met some divers on the pontoon that were collecting samples to potentially put a turbine at the bottom of the ocean.

We then had pesto pasta for lunch – cooked by Starboard watch. After lunch, we finally went out to do some sailing. We had an aim of reaching Poole where we would stay for the night.

We motored from Yarmouth all the way out of the Solent and then managed to get the Main, Mizzen and Genoa sails out. However, there wasn’t much wind so we didn’t really get anywhere.

We discussed with the Skipper what the best course of action would be and we decided it would be a good idea to turn the engine back on because otherwise it would take forever to make it to Poole.

We then motored along with the sails still up for a couple of hours and when we finally reached the entrance into Poole, we put the Mizzen and Main away. While motoring into Poole, we passed Sandbanks and Brownsea Island.

Finally, we were at the marina and tied up to the pontoon and had supper – Ollie cooked his dirty rice for us, which was absolutely delicious. We did some theory on passage planning then had showers and then went to bed.

By Rosie, Misha, Oli and Harvey

We woke up on a bleak morning. Quick stop at the Tesco to get the pain au chocolate and croissants for breakfast. Next up was to heat them up in the oven.

After a delicious breakfast, we did the passage plan for the day, which we learnt last night. After all contributing to the passage plan as a solid team, we then went out to buy our food for the day.

We then did engine and water tank checks, got the lines ready to go and we were off on our merry way to Lymington. Navigating through Poole harbour, then out by Old Harry Rocks and heading east with the sails up over to the fairway buoy to mark the start to the Needles Channel.

It was a rough passage but then once in the Needles Channel the wind dropped so we put the engine on and the Genoa sail down, the water state became smoother.

Once past the Needles and Hurst Castle, we then dropped the rest of the sails (Mizzens and Main) and motored into Lymington. Meanwhile, Starboard watch was cooking an amazing chicken curry with extremely well-made rice.

Once we had moored up and secured to the dock at Berthon Marina, we ate the curry and then we all had a shower. The showers here are amazing.

By Iona, Piran, Alex and Jamie                                       ​

So the one big thing that we learnt today was that Harvey and Ollie could not cook stir fry even if their lives depended on it and the new Top Gun movie looks amazing.

Back to the blog, the first thing we did today was have breakfast of cereal and toast, we also found out that Lymington have the nicest showers ever. While Starboard watch cleaned up breakfast, Port watch went shopping for our food for today and tomorrow.

Once everyone was back on the boat, we prepared to leave, everyone helped to rig slip lines and untying the fenders etc. We set sail for one of our last adventures before Chas comes for our assessment day tomorrow.

We motored out into the Solent and then headed in the general direction of Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth. On the way there, we practised tacking and gybing, putting the sails up and down and steering/directions etc. We had to follow the list of buoys we put on the passage plan, which included cardinals, Port and Starboard channel markers and special marks. Harvey almost crashed into a Port side channel marker.

When we reached the channel into Portsmouth, we put the engine back on and motored into the quay. We saw a huge super yacht and an aircraft carrier… and that basically sums up today!

By Rosie, Harvey, Misha and Oli​

Woke up earlier than usual to prepare breakfast of bacon rolls to then be accompanied by Chas for our DofE assessment.

We then promptly prepped the boat and did the passage plan for our departure. Before we left port, we took our pub picture. We have been taking a picture of all of us standing in front of a different pub in each of the ports we’ve visited.

We had a lot of squalls pass over us today, so we had very changeable weather. For lunch we had to go off course from our original plan to park up in Cowes and have lunch there.

With very rough waters while alongside we popped two fenders. Having to wait for another squall to pass by, we then set off on our way back to Portsmouth. We had smooth sailing until yet another squall passed over us, in which we had a good helm to get us through the hail.

We managed to get safely into port with a top speed of 9.4 knots achieved by Ollie S. We packed the boat away and then had a debrief from Chas. He is going to tell us if we have passed tomorrow morning.

Then we proceeded to make supper and eat it. After clearing up and writing this blog we had showers. We are now chilling and making the most of our last night onboard.

By Iona, Piran, Alex and Jamie