Today we sailed from Portsmouth to cowes we had not much wind so to start with it was slow we basically just went upwind and did some tacks.

Around lunch time the wind filled in and we were able to get the kite up. We did some jibes and then headed back upwind to do some tacks. After that we dropped the sails down and headed into cowes for the night.

After this we cleaned down made dinner which was bangers and spuds. These are my favourite. Then we drew on each other with henna and painted our nails and repaired winches.

Waking up to a bustling Cowes, we finished the final preparations of the boat for the race and said goodbye to proper showers. With our start at 12:20, we left our mooring at about 10:20 to have time to get sails up and prepare ourselves, and also get a view of the faster classes’ starts.

Despite the relatively calm winds, we still got to see the Ultims and other multihulls on two hulls racing over the line, which was fab. We got a good run over the line but lost out to the other Challengers with some unfavourable wind shifts.

Tacking out of the Solent was very hectic and we even got to shout “Starboard!” at the other boats. We also unfortunately lost some time when we changed to a Yankee 2 as the wind died out at the Needles.

Watch systems started soon after at 15:00. Jelly’s watch (Rolex Watch) was on watch first, meaning we got a few hours of sleep. After being woken up just before our watch was to come on, Mike’s amazing stew was served for dinner. Once up on deck, there were still many boats around us.

As the wind picked up to almost 20 knots, we put a reef in the mainsail, again losing some speed and distance to the other Challenger boats who had managed to overtake us in the first few hours of the race. The rest of the evening we spent keeping the boat speed up, avoiding starboard boats, watching the sunset and keeping warm as the temperature dropped for the night.

Music playing boosted morale of my watch but distracted them from the tasks at hand and interfered with communication.

So, first the generator overheated and then we sailed in a straight line for ages, but then the boat started to slow down because it was underpowered. So then we took a reef out so we could go fast again. Then we changed watches and I finally got to go to bed, but I couldn’t get into my bunk and was about to crash out.

Then the other lot were on and we then woke up to a really annoying beeping that we found out was the gas alarm that just wouldn’t turn off. Then I was even closer to crashing out and I wanted to rip the panel out of the wall.

We began our first full day of racing at 6am for Jelley’s watch. Dolphins surrounded the boat, which was a morale boost.

Once lunch came, it was time for Will’s watch to take over. We tacked a few times as well. For lunch we had filled pasta with a tomato sauce, which was absolutely spiffing.

The gas alarm continued to annoy all like a cry from Satan. Luckily, our saviour, also known as James, was fortunately able to eliminate ‘the beep’!!!

Realising that we would not make the tide at Land’s End, we chose the controversial course south of the Scillies TSS.

Unfortunately, our esteemed rivals also chose this route, but staying closer to the islands resulted in them experiencing more foul tide (great success!).

Late into the beautiful evening, we had some extraordinary melodies which hyped us up. One might say that it accelerated us greatly. We had some beautifully eye-catching views as the sun set upon the horizon.

As the darkness began to surround us, we were encapsulated by a vast array of shining stars, like me. With the beep now removed, we were able to get a good bit of sleep, and were not wanting to remove one’s hearing tubes from one’s thinking box.

Yay! Sailing through the Celtic Sea, we tacked back and forth, waiting on the shifts to bring us as far west as possible. It was very shifty and gusty.

Jelley’s watch accidentally hove to and had to tack twice. Then we were meant to have porridge, but someone decided not to make it, so Martha was very upset.

The next watch, we immediately put a reef in and then took it out again as the wind died, and we stayed on starboard tack for the next five hours.

Later in the day, the wind went around to the west – even more than we thought it might (Mike was very pleased) – and we gained ground on Challenger 3, our esteemed rivals.

The green curry for dinner was very tasty, an extra-big dinner to make up for the previous poor portions.

We were pleased to see that CH3 were more east of us, and in tacking back west they dropped down, so we are sailing very close together and looking forward to getting around the rock – and not going upwind anymore. Spirits are high. Yippee!

We beat them around the rock, but, after we poled out y1 they took off and started making a gap.

We slowly made the gap back then overtook them and made a nice gap they started to gain on us, so we decided to hoist are spinnaker on a beam reach we are currently making the gap between us bigger, sun rise is great, watch change now.

Dropped the kite, keeping the distance between us and challenger 3 at around 4 miles heading for our next waypoint, South of the Casquets. Around 10am, we were visited by what we assume is a Rolex helicopter, it circled us for around 5 mins until it moved on to the next closest boat to us.

We later found out that Challenger 3 unfortunately had some issues with their spinnaker during their hoist when it ripped, allowing us to increase our lead.

We then changed watches and Jelley’s watch hoisted the spinnaker which led to some amazing downwind sailing conditions, as the sun was bery much out, shorts and t-shirts all round! brilliant pasta Bolognese premade by Jelley was followed by a flawless spinnaker drop and a cloudless sunset that led into a clear night sky full of stars.

Its currently 0350 and we are roughly 3 hours (20 miles) away from Cherbourg. As the finish get closer, there’s a mix of emotion, relief and pride, but also a slight sadness that this journey is coming to an ending, nevertheless we continued to give our all racing towards the finish try to maintain and increase our lead over CH3.

At around 4.20 we had begun reaching towards Cherbourg, punching through 1-2m swell going about 8knots. As the sun breached the horizon, we got a great view of the French coast approaching, which served as a visual reminder that the end of this amazing race was nearing.

Initially there was some confusion as to where the harbour entrance was as it blended in perfectly with the wall behind.

We crossed the line at around 7, we were met with a camera boat which stuck around to watch our head sails and main drop, after sorting the sails we motored into the harbour victorious over CH3, we were then promptly directed towards a mooring outside of the main harbour where we sat for a few hours, during which the water taxi took us ashore for a customs check in and most importantly, a shower. Which was cold.

Much to our disappointment. Shortly after returning to the boat, we were relocated into an inner harbour behind a swing bridge.

Being our first full day off the boat we took some time to enjoy some pastries for breakfast and some of us climbed a mountain to war museum and took in the views, we shared a boat dinner with challenger 3 with lots of cheese and other French delicacies before we went to a very crowded prize giving ceremony.