Started from Ipswich Beacon Marina. After we had boarded the boat we placed our bags downstairs into the bunks, was an interesting experience watching everyone try to identify their own bags.

We then sat around the table in the saloon and did a bit of an into and greet with the crew and getting to know one another so we can feel more settled in.

A rough plan for the week was given to us by our skipper of the boat and the first mate. Once becoming familiar with the plan, we were split into groups with a dedicated watch leader for each one, the two crews consisted of groups of five cadets, a St John youth leader and a crew member.

We then went with our groups to look around the upper and lower decks to familiarise ourselves with the facilities we will be living in for the next week.

We then set sail!! Removing the lines and fender from the pontoon, the crew members were very helpful as this was very much as learn as you go sort of experience.

Afterwards we swapped the lines and fenders from Starboard side to Port side ready to secure in Ipswich lock before heading into more open water.  The lock was opened and the process of taking in the lines and fenders was repeated.

Sailing under Orwell Bridge was a memorable experience for us all as josh happened to scream the entire way approaching and going under the bridge fully believing we were to hit it, bear in mind the Challenger One is 92ft high and the Orwell Bridge is 141ft high off the water (plenty of clearance room).

We sailed 2 hours down the coast to dock in Harwich, the weather along the way was first overcast and eventually warm and sunny, Calm waters was good to ease us into the experience of being on a boat.

Many of us were able to truly learn the scale of cargo/container ships. Lines and fenders were secured onto the pontoon on the Starboard side.

Once the boat was neatly packed away, we spent the evening relaxing, having showers then sat in the saloon getting to know one another.

In bed by 10, can safely say everybody fell asleep very quickly after such an exhausting yet exciting day.

Woke at 06:30, prepared to set sail, and left the dock at 07:10. After a slight mishap with Alice being so excited she let the stern line off before everyone else was ready!

Once we were successfully underway, we had breakfast and did a brew round (Very important!!) Whilst Port Watch (Seas the day) was cleaning up from breakfast and brewing many cups of tea.

Starboard watch (Knot fast enough) started learning about different knots, specifically the Round Turn and Two Half-Hitches and the Bowline, the Starboard watch then attempted to teach Port watch, however despite Kitty’s best efforts, Josh still couldn’t teach Paul, luckily Paul already knew the knots.

After that we hoisted the Main sail at 09:12, then the Stay sail and Yankee 2 at 10:40. Once we were sailing out of the estuary we did some more practice of knots, then talked over the MOB Drill, we then had some very hot lunch.

After lunch we did a very immersive Man Overboard Drill at 13:00, we then reflected on what we had done well and what we could do better.

We dropped the main sail at 14:00 and came in under motor, we dropped Stay sail and Yankee once we re-entered the estuary. We arrived back at “Historic Harwich” at 15:20 and started packing the boat away shortly after.

We finished at roughly 16:00. We then went and got Ice Cream! Then we had some free time in which a lot of us tried to find a beach, though mainly unsuccessfully.

Then we split up and one watch began cooking dinner, and the better watch began writing this log 😊.

Woke early at 0615 to set off for Oostende. At around 08:30 the main sail was put up. We put the yankee 2 up and turned the engine off at 09:25.

We were all very groggy but excited to go abroad and learn new skills. We had bacon butties (A ship favourite) and a round of hot drinks for breakfast. Yummy 😋.

At around 08:30 we put up the main sail. The long journey was a big test for all of us but undoubtedly some people…

Tilly our in-house Jacket Potato maker had it harder as a mystery person forgot to turn off the oven, so half our jacket potatoes got burnt to a crisp. We moaned about how hard it was to make the potatoes as we were at a 45-degree tilt -a first for many.

At 14:05 we had put the Yankee 2 down and the Yankee 1 up which was quite a task indeed (tears were shed). As we were in the North Sea at this point, we were being rag dolled across the boat while taking down the main sail at approximately 18:40.

Attempting to use the loo was like a James Bond movie remake having to tether ourselves to the wall. At around 19:30, we moored in Oostende and struggled to find the check in, Bezoerkers! We then ate a lovely dinner of spaghetti Bolognese “HUZZAH!”.

On Tuesday we had a very big but welcome change to routine in the fact that we did not go out onto the open water and sail but rather stay ashore to explore the place we’ve all been waiting for…Belgium!

We were all very excited for the food (especially the chocolate) and being able to experience Belgium and compare it to back home.

However, we needed to get checked in at the police station so we could legally enter Belgium.  We walked quite a while from the port and arrived at 0900.

We also went up 2 flights of stairs, down 2 flights of stairs and there was a small group who went in the lift with a scared Josh aboard (he failed to mention as we entered the lift just how scared he was) who stopped at every floor (the place felt like a Tardis everything looked the same, we were very unsure of where to go).

After that we finally found where we needed to hand-in our passports.  Then we took a small wander to the town square where we made a quick detour to a very VERY expensive chocolate shop.

After Adi had spent £63.50 in the shop, we looked at all the little shops along the streets in our groups of around 4 as Paul and Josh allowed us to explore the streets of Oostende.

The aroma of fresh food filled the air as pizza, coffee and many more wafted around.  We decided to go to a very Belgian, exotic and traditional restaurant…McDonalds.  After we all finished our 3-course meal we decided to walk back into the main square area where more shops were.

On the way, we got slightly distracted by a cat café, I say we, but it was really Tilly who had a tiny fit at the cuteness of the cats through the window.

As Tilly dragged us into the cat café, we were introduced to every single cat by the very friendly owner who, very helpfully, told us which ones might scratch suddenly which did scare the life out of Adi, but I put a brave face on and decided to stroke the cats, the kittens were definitely a group favourite.

Whilst Tilly was getting her shoelace chewed off and Ethan with a sleeping cat in his life, we ordered some drinks which were, quite frankly, very nice but the amount in a cup was scarce, especially for the price (however we concluded we were paying for the experience not the food).

After stopping for some iced coffee and gelato, we popped into Jack & Jones which turned so long that it wasn’t a mere pop-in but rather a buying of the whole shop.

We then had to leave to go back to the square for 1430 so we could all go to the beach.  However, some of us had no suitable clothing so opted for extremely bright swimming trunks so we definitely were not going to lose them.

We then went for a splash around in the sea, riding the waves however the whole beach was very quickly evacuating the sea which baffled us as we had detectives trying to find out what happened.

We then decided to cover two of our brightly covered short wearers with sand to turn them into mermaids.  After taking a few photos, we travelled back to the police station to check-out then headed back to port to get washed up for face-painting tonight.

Before bed we turned Josh into Mike Wasowski and Batman, Paul into The Joker, Kitty into a dinosaur and Martha into a version of Hello Kitty if she was put into a horror movie.

Then we all went up on deck to use hairspray which some of the crew didn’t want to use green as they were very scared of being turned into Shrek for the rest of their lives.

Josh’s head is still dyed red 2 days later, as well as his once white pillowcase.  After all this enjoyment we had to turn in to regain energy for the long sail tomorrow.

As we left Oostende Tilly, Poppy and Jade were put onto the Bow to hank on the Yankee Two, despite the Bow only going up and down 2 ½ meters it felt as though we were falling back into the sea much further.

Many screams and shrieks were shared between the three, Matt found this hilarious and called us ‘dramatic’. Josh succumbed to the wrath of the sea and fell on Adi very hard; it traumatised him…

Whilst Josh tried to sleep, Alice accidentally kicked the window open as she and Poppy slid across the helm floor due to the steep 45-degree angle of which we were at, unfortunately it opened right in Josh’s face waking him from his recovery sleep, at this point Josh was traumatised as well.

Ironic as a few minutes before they were checking on Josh through that window to make sure he was okay whilst he was sleeping like a baby.

Poppy and Alice then laid down in the helm instead, as it was a safer bet instead of sitting which led to a foot in Josh’s face only moments before, speaking to Skipper and Kitty having a little girl gossip (yes Matt, you are part of the girl gang now) Josh was once again traumatised for the second time in the space of 15 minutes after hearing the various girly things that had been discussed.

We claim we have created a new song called ‘We are sailing on the North Sea’ which is yet to be streamed to Spotify, YouTube Music and Apple Music (copyrights pending).

We were all very surprised when Kitty told us the waves were slight when we whole heartedly believed we were in a treacherous North Sea storm (like the clips on YouTube and TikTok).

Some music was put on by Matt which made it feel less scary (hard to feel scared when listening to Bob Marley, The Dualers and Eek-A-Mouse…) we had a good sing song and chat as we sailed along.

Finally, after many unnerving hours positioned on a 45-degree angle leaning on the Port Side we were in sight of Harwich once again.

By this point Josh had emerged from the depths of his recovery slumber and was horrified to learn he had slept through at least half of the journey. He thought we were joking until turning to face the Bow and seeing the familiar coastline we had left behind only days earlier.

His only response to that was shouting into the wind ‘Honey, we’re home!’. Once in shallower waters we lowered the anchor and had a games evening played Charades, Cards Against Humanity (family friendly edition of course) and Dobble.

After a once again exhausting yet exciting day we all headed to bed ready for a calmer morning the next day.

Seas the Day were in charge of breakfast this morning, some very delicious pancakes were made by Aaron (thank you!).

After a very chilled out morning eating breakfast and anxiously finding out results of some of the young people on board (very well done to Adi for achieving a Grade 9 in his maths GCSE, even more impressive seen as he is only 13, all of us are very proud).

We got the upper deck ready for a sail into port after putting the yankee and stay sail up and down a few times to allow some of us to have a go at leading a group task we sat altogether on deck to learn/practice some new knots.

After a few goes we managed to tie them successfully, going from the smaller sail ties to the bigger mooring lines was definitely a challenge.

Knot fast enough were in charge and they were definitely not fast enough seen as they started to prepare lunch at 12 and two hours later it was finally ready.

Everyone was happy with the lunch that was set out by the end of it, despite being borderline ‘hangry’.

Mast climbing began after this; Knot fast enough were the first to attempt to conquer the 92ft mast. Martha set the record of climbing the entirety of it in 2 minutes and 41 seconds.

No one else got anywhere near that time. Even though many of us were nervous we still attempted the climb at the minimum.

Jade and Paul did particularly well conquering their fears and giving it their all.