After travelling from afar afield as Leicester, we met the rest of our crew and boarded our home for the week, the ketch. Some of the crew took a while to adjust to the tight quarters, but we are starting to find our way round.

After unpacking and participating in our safety briefing, we set sail from Portsmouth Harbour heading for Cowes. We learnt to raise the Staysail and raced each other (which I won in 22 seconds).

Everybody had a go at either helming or working the Headsail. As an icebreaker, we tied ourselves together and were challenged to free ourselves (we would not be good in an emergency).

We had fajitas for dinner, before playing the games mafia and boat murder, as we watched the sunset over Cowes.

By Peter and Sofia. ​

The day started at 08.30 after a lovely night’s sleep, we had cereal for breakfast followed by nice warm showers. We then set sail for Studland Bay. Due to the unfavourable tide, we were due in for a six-hour trip (which felt more like two).

Much of our time was spent playing games and icebreakers, with a particularly high octane brain game that had us all laughing.

After we left the “needles”, we hoisted the Main, Mizzen, Stay and Jib sails and we caught some wind and sailed at approximately 4 knots into Studland Bay.

When we arrived, we dropped anchor and had sausages for dinner before getting an early night.

By Riley and Freya.

After having breakfast, we raised the anchor and set sail from Studland Bay to Lymington. There was a weak tail wind, so most of the time we motored.

There was some confusion concerning our berth booking however the issue was resolved and we made it to the mooring at around 14:00.

The weather was pleasant and we had soup and bread for lunch. We had some free time in Lymington where some of us went into the town centre and the others went on the inflatables at Lymington Seawater Baths.

For dinner we ordered food from the fish and chip shop thanks to our selfless Skipper and Mate, which was followed by some rowdy games including mafia, spoons and Irish snap.

By MJ and Fin.

We started the day in Lymington, where we slowly sailed our way across to Beaulieu which had an amazing entrance with a very aesthetically pleasing trail that we sailed down inland.

Before our trip outwards we had some spare time, so James the Mate allocated jobs for us all including: taking the rubbish out, cleaning the deck, shipping for provisions and many more.

On our travels, we had points at which there was little to no wind, therefore we indulged in some games together, including Pictionary and charades.   

Once we arrived at Beaulieu, we disembarked the Ketch and explored the nearby surroundings which included some a bathroom, shower facilities and even sofas in the waiting room for the showers, which were used well by Eric and George.

When we arrived, we had chicken bites to eat which took forever to cook (I’m saying one hour plus) but were very delicious. The weather got increasingly hot as the day went on so most of the crew decided to head for the shower.

After this, we indulged in a dinner of satay beef with rice which was quite nice and the whole crew thoroughly enjoyed, then we played our daily round of games which obviously includes mafia and spoons.

By George.