Challenger 3 – Channel Adventure Empowerment Voyage – 16-25 – XF712
Young people aged 16-25 join us for a voyage of empowerment around the Channel. Follow their journey below.
Day 2
Sunday 31 March
Before we left at 4:30ish from Yarmouth, we had planned out an April Fools prank for the neighbouring Challenger 1, we hoisted a towel with two bananas on it up their back stay and placed a nicely decorated banana on their deck saying ‘find my friends, banana #3’. They were to find the other two bananas which were actually on the towel ‘flag. We had decorated 2 other bananas as chavnana and piratenana to send to them to make them believe that there was actually 3 bananas on the boat.
We left Yarmouth just after 4:30, so we could get the good tide to head towards Weymouth. It was very cold at the time and the wind made it worse, but it wasn’t too bad. We hoisted the main which was a lot of work, then moved on to the staysail and the Yankee 2, which were a bit easier. We sailed through the morning; being rewarded with a beautiful sunrise after rounding the needles over the Isle of Wight. Some of us had naps on the way there on deck (highly recommend the snake pit) which was needed after the early morning. We had bacon rolls for breakfast while underway, then took the scenic route after passing Old Harry along the coast to see the Durdle Door. We arrived at Weymouth in good time and decided to anchor outside the harbour, after unjamming the anchor for lunch. We then motored into Weymouth Marina for 15:40.
After arriving in the harbour and getting moored up safely, we had some free time. During this time Spud (Mark) had a Kebab and 4 ice creams and Anna won a tank. We then had chilli for dinner, which was an experience. We calmly discussed where to go next, as the weather was bad we couldn’t make it to Alderney and back so ended up going to Brixham.
Day 3
Monday 1 April
Yesterday we made our meal plan with an argument (friendly) then had an early night to wake up at 7.30 in the morning we got straight on deck prep then we had breakfast then finished deck prep then we got shopping while some doing comp crew did some dingy rowing then we had lunch. We will be leaving for Brixham at 14:30 to make the tide at 16:00 were estimating arrival at dark o’clock (22:00) we will be doing tea at sea and will probably go to sleep after putting the boat to bed.
Day 4
Tuesday 2 April
Today we embarked on a long steady cruise that turned into a bumpy not so steady cruise. This included a very wet, windy and cold trip being unpleasant. With a sea state of 7/8 it got very bumpy, luckily we hit a max speed of 13.8knots. This made the journey shorter than usual however made a lot of the crew seasick. The total trip took us 7 hours following an hour faffing with the anchor in the dark. Most of the trip was spent with Alex’s questionable helming techniques. From 13 crew we sailed with 9 at most for the majority of the trip however morale was high through the rough ride. After arriving we found that our berth had been taken this led to the anchorage of the yacht offshore outside of the marina.
Day 5
Wednesday 3 April
Today we woke up at 8:30, and came into port at around 11, we were finally free a little while later. We had a lunch of hot dogs and then experimented with the man overboard equipment, learning how to properly use it. After that we were split into our watches, given a budget of a tenner, and released into land to buy costumes for a nautical-themed costume competition. The judging categories were: swish, local, creative and presentation. The winners were the starboard watch, with a row on the dinghy and two free bar stools. Afterwards, we had some free time in which the starboard watch had to spend all of it putting away their dinghy, they won some novelty magnets. For dinner, we had fish cooked on the boat and chips bought from a local chippie. We may play some games later.
