Howdy, we’re Port Watch and this is our blog for the first day of the voyage.

Today, we entered the empire of the Challenger yacht. We were amiably welcomed by the Skipper, Mate and Watch Crew. We were educated on the fundamentals of safety and briefed about the mechanisms of the vessel, before we went up on deck to set sail for Cowes.

We accomplished the ‘man overboard’ procedure and learnt indispensable ‘rules of the road’ – including avoiding a colossal tanker and car ferry. The nitty-gritty principles of the winch were instilled and we learnt and demonstrated the etiquette of formulating a meal in the galley of Challenger 3.

It was proper freezin’!!

Lots of love,

M-dawg, R2trappy, H-dizzle and Thomas.

Here is our blog for day two in the form of a Haiku…

Seven thirty

Up and early; toast and bagel

Scrubbing up the heads

Up and down

Rope pulled tight; sail boat leaning lots

Reached very high speed knots

Learning lots

Cardinals; follow them or knot

Always drinking tea

Sailing fun

Lots of wind; made it splashy

Cooked sausage dinner

No love,

The King, Lidzz, SEB and Hannah (or Starboard watch as they are also known).

After waiting for the nursery boat to depart, we finally set sail under the power of the Yankee sail.

‘Twas a turbulent Wednesday for the crew on Challenger 3. The saviour: beans, cheese and baked potatoes – with a side of sea water as we gobbled our sustenance in the cockpit. It rocked and rolled more than Elvis Presley’s soul.

In terms of visibility, could we see? I’m a frayed knot! Pulled up in our fresh ride to Hamble with an adequate amount of time to do some navigation practice and our fellow Port watch member, H-dizzle, was like a broken record talking about the football: Liverpool vs Milan.

FYI – Wordle of the day was Caulk.

Sincerest regards,

The best watch (Port).

Recipe for day four!

Ingredients:

1 x swede

1x butternut squash

1 x marrow (optional if Skipper)

Do not include pears

15-20 knots of wind

1 x sun

2 x sails (Main (reefing necessary) and Yankee)

Instructions (Destructions):

Listen to crew argue about bungs

Eat other food for breakfast

Hoist Mate up mast to retrieve main halyard

Depart Warsash

Hoist sails

Go up Southampton Water (dodging big boats)

Come back down Southampton Water (head towards Challenger 4 to wave)

Then shelter to drop sails

Return to Cowes and moor

Prepare for night nav

Do night nav

Go to bed

No love,

The bester watch (Starboard)