Our day started bright and early at 6:30 am. We all got to school at 7:45 and were excited to leave.

Unfortunately, our journey took around 4 hours due to traffic. Despite this, we stopped just south of Oxford for a short break where some of us had lunch at KFC.

At around 2PM we arrived, feeling excited to board the ship. We were all warmly greeted by the crew as they were all extremely welcoming. The crew ran through all the safety protocols before we embarked on our journey.

As a team, we all helped to get our boat ready before leaving, and we finally left at around 4:30PM, all feeling excited. At around 5:30pm we split into two groups.

The first group helped the dock the ship once we reached Cowes. Whilst the other group helped to cook pasta and mince for dinner. It felt rewarding to eat such a nice meal knowing that we cooked it ourselves.

After dinner, half of us helped to wash up and clean after dinner whilst the other half had a shower and freshened up.

Next, we were finally able to unpack and make our beds for the night.

Finally, we took part in the recycling challenge for Cross Key Homes as we began to investigate how recycling and being sustainable is supported whilst sailing. At last, we were able to sleep after an exhausting yet fun day.

By Dawyn & Danians

We woke up at 7:30 and got breakfast ready, cereal and toast. After this we prepped the deck and set off on the motor, enjoying the view and heading towards the needles. Shortly before we passed the needles, we put the main sail up which was a great team effort 😀

Later on, we put up the foresails and enjoyed sailing around while occasionally tacking. The wind made the boat lean over and we all sat on the side with our legs dangling off, being inside was very dystopian and many people felt sick because of the heeling.

When we came back close to where we were anchoring it was a group effort to tail all the sails down especially the main as we struggled to find the correct parking space to anchor down. However, after we anchored our group went down to start cooking dinner, which was curry, having to prepare the sauce, rice, naan bread and chicken and halal chicken.

We did this with cheesy pop music, and it was vibes 😀

Now I am writing this blog, we will probably play cards and then go sleep! see you tomorrow 😉

By Greta, Adil & Efosa

Our day started at 7:30 again to the noise of the generator.

We all had croissants of breakfast then half of us helped clear up whilst the other half helped to set up the deck.

Whilst waiting for the ‘dingy taxi’, Skipper gave us a useful insight into the hazards that we may face whilst at sea; even though unlikely this still prepared us for any emergencies.

At around 10:30 we set off on the ‘dingy taxi in two separate groups as there wasn’t enough room for all of us at once. Whilst waiting for the other group some of us played a bit of water polo at the beach. After all of us had successfully arrived we set off to Monkey Beach to have our BBQ; however halfway we stopped for a break and had some ice cream.

Whilst the crew were preparing the BBQ we headed back to the main beach for: swimming, tug-of-war, water-polo and football.

After an eventful afternoon, we were able to settle down back at Monkey Beach and enjoy the BBQ along with students from other schools.

At 4pm we were dropped off by the dingy taxi again back to our ship so we could prepare to sail to Poole.

Once we arrived, we safely parked the boat to the pier, and we were also the first of the 3 Challengers to come and park. Then we had 30 minutes to go to the shops and buy what ever we wanted. We got back to the boat and then half of the group started to cook whilst the others help up on the deck.

We all sat down and ate our well-deserved dinner and then one of the groups help clean the dishes and the others went to showers.

Finally, we all sat down and played some uno and went to bed.

By Dawyn & Danian

Today, we woke up at 7:30 am and started to make breakfast for everyone, today it was bacon rolls.

After this we helped set up the deck so that it was ready to undock, shortly after starting our journey to Cowes. As we were making our way to Cowes, we took part in some rope climbing over the water.

This involved pulling ourselves up the rope to touch the pole which went out over the side of the boat.

Later, we then put up the foresails to begin sailing. Throughout the sailing we tacked quite a few times. As expected, the boat did have a slight lean on it making us have to walk on the high side.

Paul, the Skipper, then gave a pipe to Challenger 1 so they could use it to inflate their dinghy. After this there was a MOB practice which caught everybody by surprise.

We then docked at Cowes and had about 40 mins of free time.

Shortly after, we retuned and began to prepare dinner (sausage and mash). After dinner, we cleared up, had showers and finished up with a lesson on how to navigate at night. it is now time for bed, and this will be the last time we sleep on the boat this trip.

By Efosa​