Today we arrived on the ship and had a chance to introduce ourselves. We started with the crew and then us; we learnt that our Mate, Sophie, is very passionate about the difference between biscuits and cakes, that our Skipper, Paul does not like throthy cups of tea and many other interesting facts about the rest of the crew.

We then split into two groups and had a tour of the whole ship – above and below deck. We left Portsmouth and headed out through the channel. Some of us took turns helming and making sure we were heading in the right direction.

We arrived in Cowes at roughly 18:30, had sausage and mash for dinner and then washed up and had showers. We then played cards until it was bed time.

By Elizabeth.

Today we sailed from Cowes to Poole. We had the storm Staysail and Yankee 3 up. We went through the Needles, it was very rough and several people were sick.

We crossed Poole Bay and that was more peaceful. Before we left, we repacked the sail locker. We took the Mainsail cover off and everyone got allocated wet weather gear, which we had to wear going through the Needles and across the bay as there was lots of spray.

We also learnt how to use the winches and what not to do, so we can stay safe while we sail to Plymouth.

By Emily and Ellen.​

We left Poole and put up the sails. Today was calmer than yesterday, Main, Yankee and Stay sails up, cruising around 9-10 knots at full pace. The boat was heeling like mad, like full 75 degrees.

We sailed to Weymouth were we spent the night. Once we got there, we packed up the boat and had some free time. Cooking was class, we whipped up a cheeky chicken curry with big Steve. We had a group vote on the fittest crew, Thomas, Patrick, Nelson, and Simon drew in 1^st, fairly predictable.

Sophie discussed her aubergine handling skills while prepping dinner, and Tom insulted an onion. We went over a couple knots (the rope kind) today, man overboard and life raft drills; and the many lovely ways to lose your life at sea, and how to send distress beacons.

The highlight was probably the Michael Jackson lean done during the boats heavy heeling – performed by Patrick.

Muscly strongman, Will, whipped up very delicious jacket potatoes, with many, many assorted toppings, such as coleslaw, and others.

By Paddy and Tomas.

Today started too early, 15 minutes earlier than usual, but still three hours too early. At 07:15 half of us had to wake up and make bacon sandwiches for the lucky crewmates that got that extra 15 minutes of precious bed time. Once we had set sail, Nelson had some much needed sleep after his busy morning running the boat.

We also did some RYA Competent Crew theory and rope tying. There was little wind so we motored all the way to Brixham. Since the wind was mellow, the crew had a hoisting race where team Man and the Mullet, Nelson and Simon, were victorious. In second place came the bodybuilder Watch Leader, Will, and our pink-haired First Mate, Sophie. The Skipper and the other Watch Leader, Steve-O, also had a go with quite an impressive time; their team name was the Baldies.

We then approached Brixham and lowered and covered the sails and went on shore leave where the crew went swimming. We then came back and made dinner which was Spag Bol. The showers in Brixham were the best of any stop on our journey so far.

By Nelson (edited by Riley).

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Today was a good day, big Steve made his special scrambled eggs with bagels. Sophie made us take the experiment of marmite and scrambled eggs, personally I didn’t like it, but Thomas seemed to.

There was little wind today, so we mostly motored with the Mainsail up. I, Thomas, and Nelson sweated the Mainsail up very successfully, with Thomas not almost falling off the boat this time.

We had make your own pasta for lunch, thanks to Willy. I had chicken and ham pesto pasta, which was scrumptious. We climbed a pole.

When we got into Plymouth, we took the Mainsail down. Sam slept for two hours and Patrick and Thomas went to the wrong showers. They were devastated as Plymouth have the nicest showers!

Beth, Patrick, Sully, Tom and Sam cooked Steve’s amazing chilli. It was the best dinner so far!

By Patrick and Sam.

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