Day 5

Today was our day off!

We all dispersed and did a variety of activities – some choosing to hit the duty free shops whilst others enjoyed sightseeing on the island.  Bill cooked a fabulous meal for us all – rice and beef in burgundy wine and stuffed peppers for the veggies on board – which was ready for 6.0p.m.  We all managed to get back on time with the exception of a few (they know who they are!!)

Everyone stayed onboard for the evening as access to St Peter Port was by dingy only. However, a few managed to negotiate a lift ashore to rehydrate (again, they know who they are)!  A couple of the female crew, namely Mandy and Shaista, didn’t miss the opportunity to acquaint themselves with a pair of very rich sailors who were in a million pound yacht en route to the Caribbean for the winter months – we tried to persuade the Skipper to change his course but he refused to entertain the idea!

The crew that stayed behind enjoyed playing cards and ‘singing’ – there are photos and video footage to illustrate their talents!!

 Shaista and Mandy

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Day 4

After a good French breakfast, showers and some essential housekeeping we left Cherbourg at 11.58 a.m. with the engine running. The sails had been brought up from below, ready, for a moderate north-easterly wind, good visibility and calm sea would allow us to sail most of the way to St. Peter Port. Making good speed with the sails, two onboard were seasick, so were clipped on and hauled to the low side of the boat. Others, meanwhile, did their utmost to keep themselves busy or distracted amidst warnings, “don’t look down just keep your eyes on the horizon!”

Meanwhile the Spinnaker pole was put up, although there are no spinnaker sails onboard, to provide sport for those daring enough to monkey-climb up it. Six of the crew made it up the rope, but only one (Jack) made it all the way up to spinnaker where he sat and viewed the boat from above, making a descent that would not have been out of place in a Bond film. Arrived St Peter Port at 19.45 p.m., where the harbour master guided us in to a pontoon and we tied up. Supper was ready by 8 p.m: bangers and mash, some banter and bed.

Ji, Mandy and Shaista. 

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Day 3 so far…

Disaster strikes! Some of the crew arrived at the shower block in Cherbourg early on a windy morning only to find that the water had been exhausted by the early-rising frenchmen and Raju! A smelly crew returned – dry towel and shower gel in hand- to a fresh french breakfast that had been purchased locally that morning.

By Jack, Harry & Shaista

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Day 2

Day 2 began early at 6.30  with mist still lingering over the hills in the distance. We prepared the boat for the cross-channel voyage to Cherbourg and slowly motored out of Poole harbour making countless Bacon Butties on the way. Unfortunately there was a distinct lack of decent wind in the morning, nevertheless we hoisted the mainsail in a vain hope of catching some wind to motor-sail.

Leonardo whipped up a quick lunch of pasties and beans on the go while the crew were eagerly learning the essentials for the competent crew RYA qualification. As expected, the wind picked up noticeably after lunch, after wrapping up in yet more layers we hoisted the two remaining sails – the Yankee 1 gib and the staysail. The boat keeled past 5 degrees for the first time on the voyage and some of the crew wondered what they had gotten themselves in to.

At around 6 BST we arrived at the idillic French port of Cherbourg. We agreed to go our separate ways to find dinner in Cherbourg with some opting for a seafood platter and others eating in what was locally known as “Kebab Alley”. Most of us returned to the boat within the curfew of 11.00 BST, with the few that didn’t providing some raucous evening entertainment!

By Jack, Harry & Shaista

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Day 1

We have all discovered muscles we had forgotten we had. We are coming together as a crew but still getting used to close quarter living.Camping experience is useful.
A grey, damp Sunday but this morning left west Cowes in a glorious sunshine. For some of us just sailing is the biggest pleasure. Today we talked about what we each wanted to achieve. This ranged from learning to cook, to becoming competent in sailing skills. We just hoisted the main sail!

By Ted, Jason & Christine

Day 4

We had a good start to the day; it was a lot better than other mornings as we had a early night the day before. The weather was good with a sunny cloudless day and a northerly wind that pushed us towards the Solent and it lasted for most of the day.

We travelled towards Southampton to have a look at the upcoming boat show preps. Later in the day the wind lightened up a bit so we took all the sails down except the main sail and started the engine, which we kept going until we anchored in Osborne Bay.

As we have anchored we must have anchor watch every hour and a half all night. Though the pairing for the watch has not “officially” been released we have a “sneaking suspicion” that I am with Luc and Harry is with Roxy. For dinner we had fish and rice but the vegetarian had Quorn sausages and rice, with second helpings for some.

Harry Chambers Age 14 & Patrick Carroll-Sharkey Age 13

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Day 3

Today we went sailing the sun was beautiful and we all had fun,  we started at 10 o’clock, we sailed around the Solent, and have docked in the Hamble. For lunch we had soup and crusty bread. Beth’s Thai curry was tasty. Going back to sailing everyone enjoyed it, and all felt like extreme sailors. The waves were crashing over the bow, were all looking forward for tomorrow!

We hopefully are going to go to the Needles and stay over night on Anchor.

Rhianne & Holly, Aged 13

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Day 2 

Today started early at 5 o’clock with lots of shouting and moving around. The day started well with strong winds pushing us into high speeds. All was well until we struck a patch of stormy weather. The rain lasted nearly all day until late afternoon where it brightened up a little.

Despite the bad weather that lasted most of the day are spirits remained high and all crew members worked hard to achieve the goal that was to change into dry clothes.

Harry 14

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Day 1

Had a great time starting to get to know each other and the sailing vessel, we have had our safety brief and are all looking forward to getting out on the water! The Volunteers, First Mate and Skipper are all extremely friendly! We lost at the Runner Race but we succeeded at the Fajita cooking!

Charlie Thorn 14 & James Hazell   15

Day 3 

We got up and got changed into sailing clothes and had breakfast which was scramble egg and bacon. Then we got the yankee, storm and main sails up to get ready for another working day, we put or wet weather gear on and life jackets on the we all headed up to the deck and collected the ropes, the we set off to sea. We stored all of the ropes in and put the in the sail locker, when we stored the ropes we put the main sail up and turned the engine off.

After tea we had some birthday cake as it was Lydia’s birthday.

Luke

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Day 2

Today we were supposed to wake up at 0730, but like I said we were supposed to. Most of us woke up nearer to 0600 and might have woken up a little earlier, woops. We then all started with breakfast and had our crumpets; I looked after them when I was in the oven. Today started by setting up the boat ready for sail, we took down the tall ship flag and set sail.

As we got further into the Solent we set up the stay sail and the yankee sail and turned off the engine. After that we sailed up and down the Solent learning how to use the winches and how to tack the boat. it’s becoming a lot easier to learn the sailing terms now I’m using them In a practical, hands on approach. After we learned how to tack we learnt the procedure for man overboard, this proved very useful even though we sailed over the dummy. We must have been sailing for a good few hours, but in the end we had to dock in Cowes, we then learnt how to throw the mooring lines and, I quote Steve, “put the boat to bed.” Now it’s tea time so I’m not going to say anymore, good bye

Amelia Gardiner

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Day 1 

We arrived at the ship at 13 hundred hours.  We came to the saloon area and got to know everybody. After meeting everybody and becoming friends, we went up to the deck to be split into our different watches, to learn about the different parts of the ship. We learnt different nautical terms. We were then shown how to wear our wet weather gear and secure our life jackets.  Our staff explained how the life rafts work and what to do in a man over board situation. We then went to have a look around the Gunwharf quays shopping centre and we went to Tesco’s and in total we spent 10 pounds between us. After words we had a shower then had spaghetti bolognaise for tea and had some down time. By the end of the evening everyone could really feel the ships movement.

Lydia Stephens & Christina Trinder

Day 4

”A fat pirate and a sheep walk into a cheese ‘baaaa’-‘argh’…. They walked to the cheese counter and said ‘if this counter explodes will there be any chedd-argh?’ And then the gent at the cheese counter replied ‘no, there will just be de-brie!’’

Starting the blog off with a shout out to Grandad Charnley – glad we’ve got an avid follower #efficient.

As always we were woken by the sound of the generator, but within minutes we were up dressed and tucking into our plates of scrambled egg and bread (the best scrambled egg challenger 2 has ever seen – well done Eibhlin) #efficient.

After breakfast we made it up on deck to begin prep and enjoyed the morning sunshine. We were joined by a guest today, (or were we?) the invisible man – John – with his ever watching eye as he ceased to stay still for more than a minute #efficient.

We spent the morning tacking and gybing followed by a fabulously glamorous sail fashion show #notsoefficient. We were treated to a lovely lunch by Port watch, warm baguettes with a selection of fillings #betterthansubway.

During the afternoon we learnt some new skills e.g. reefing, Sam now knows how to tie a bowline knot (still unshowered #gettinstinky). The day was filled with baaaaanter, especially in the Snake pit and with the ‘gents’ #dan and ‘lads’ #colin. Sam was happy because he was helming.

The evening featured even MORE banter. After 4 days of strenuous pumping Callum has finally left the toilet (he didn’t realize directions 4-6 only had to be repeated once #neverendingtoilethumour #notefficient). Custard banter from Lindsay and Callum was without a doubt the highlight of the evening (aside from being anchored in the middle of the ‘ocean’). This evening we are all fully psyched for anchor watch, the boys being the gents they are offering to do a 5 hour shift (although this plan was abandoned by King Julian).

The crew of Challenger 2 would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to the staff on-board, King Julian, Lindsay, Dan the gent and Colin the lad, it has been an amazing week which wouldn’t have been the same without you!

We would definitely recommend this experience to anyone else interested, not only is the sailing incredible but the opportunity to live on a boat and meet lots of new people.

Written by the Crew of Challenger 2 

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Day 3

‘Cheese factory explodes in France… – Nothing left but de Brie.’ 

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Day 2

‘What is a pirates favourite cheese? – ChedARRR’ 

After being told that breakfast was at 0800, we were all woken by the boys who woke up at 6am to shower – fun, fun, fun. Therefore, we were all finished with breakfast before 8am and got stuck straight into getting the boat ready to sail.

We rigged the mainsail, the yankee 3 and the storm stay sail (bright orange). We set out from the harbour using the engine until we were far enough to hoist the sails and let nature take us on our course. It rained profusely and we all soon got very cold and wet, but this didn’t stop us from learning how to tack and gybe our way across the Solent. We also learnt the differences between types of tack and gybe depending on the direction/degree you are facing, i.e. broad reach or close hauled.

Port watch made beans and Cornish pasties for lunch! Then we learnt what to do if someone falls overboard and carried out a practice, followed by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the equipment used to save/help a man overboard. We continued sailing for another hour and then began to take down the yankee 3 and the storm stay sails and finally the main sail. Finally we prepped the boat to enter the port at West Cowes, our new home for the night. Once tied up to Challenger one we finished tying everything off and cooked sausage, mash and onion gravy for tea!

Hannah & Beth

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Day 1

‘What do you call a cheese that isn’t yours? – Nacho Cheese!’ 

Unfortunately we could not sail straight away and our first night was spent in Portsmouth Marina. However, this was actually quite useful as it allowed us to become acquainted with our new home and crew – hence the ‘cheesy’ jokes. We had a safety brief below and above deck. Then we had the running back stay training followed by a competition between our two watches. We also hoisted the stay sail so we could see how the sail is rigged and flaked away at the end of the day. After a terribly strenuous first day we sat down to a lovely home cooked meal from King Julian. Afterwards we had showers and a wander around Gunwharf Quays, learnt some awful card tricks and tucked in for an early night.

Hannah & Beth

Day 3

We woke up at 7.30 and had very tasty bacon sarnies for breakfast at 8, served by the starboard team!

After preparing the boat for sea, we set sail at around 10 o’clock, for a day of fun-filled sailing adventures around the Solent. Compared to yesterday, the weather turned out to be perfect; with a nice steady breeze and good sunshine throughout the best part of the day Some of the crew had a go at the helm, which was a great way of sailing from a different perspective.

We also had a go at race-tacking as we approached Southampton water, putting our teamwork and winching skills to the test! The strong tide and shallowing depth eventually got the better of us, resulting in us taking down the mainsail, stay-sail and yankee and popping on the engine to motor into Hamble, where we moored up against Challenger 3. After putting the boat to bed, we enjoyed relaxing and chilling in the sunshine on the foredeck. Sausages and mash for dinner during a thunderstorm – time to baton down the hatches!!

Lauren & Sophie

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Day 2

We woke up early and set sail, prepared for wet weather and headed towards the Isle of Wight. In 56 mph winds we practiced gybing, tacking, hoisting the sails and man overboard drill. After parking at the marina we dropped the sails, tidied and had dinner.

Anna & Rachel

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Day 1

Due to the engine breaking we stayed in Portsmouth and practiced runners and received our kit. In the evening we enjoyed fajitas and played a fun game of cards. Once exhausted we went to bed ready for an early start.

Anna & Rachel