Written by Starboard watch – Oscar and Tom

Most of us met at the office, some of us were lucky enough to have had a lie in as we weren’t going to school today. Tom spent the morning petting his dog called Honey. Unfortunately, we were late leaving because Sharon needed a wee (actually she was late because of the road closures) then went down through Amesbury and Salisbury to pick up the rest of the crew.

Everyone was quiet in the minibus to begin with, but the nearer we got to Portsmouth the louder we got. Possibly because Niki was asleep. At the car park we met Erin (watch leader) and Martin (mate) as they brought us some trolleys to get all of the bags to the boat. The trolleys were great fun and we were relieved that we didn’t have to carry all our bags through the shopping centre.

We are on Challenger 2 for the week, and our first impressions of the boat from Oscar are “l quite liked it”, “seems quite small for all of us, but manageable”. Tom said he felt “it was good to be back”. We formed a human chain to get all of our bags on board as we had to pass over another boat as well. We were then introduced to the other two crew, Paul (skipper) and Kitty (watch leader). After discussing which was the best biscuit – obviously it is Jammie Dodgers we spilt up into our two watches – port and starboard.

In these groups we found out about the boat, up on deck we learnt about the safety equipment, the life rafts, where the lines go and how we need to look where we are going as there are loads of bits on the floor we could trip over. Down below we learnt how to use the heads, the hobs in the kitchen and some safety checks for the engine.

Whilst we got ourselves ready to leave we learnt how to put on our lifejackets and use the tethers to clip onto the boat, this was a funny time as lots of us got stuck. Our first attempt at leaving didn’t go well as when we turned the engine on it made a bad eggy smell, but Monkey and James came to the rescue and sorted it quickly. When we were leaving Gunwharf Quays we all had a role, Oscar was at the bow pulling in ropes, Tom was in the sail locker sorting the lines, fenders and other bits.

We then motored to Cowes on the Isle of Wight, during the crossing we learnt how to use the winches, some of us took longer than others to get it, but by the end we all knew what to do and will get to put it into practice tomorrow. We also made many cups of tea and eat lots of biscuits.

We arrived at Cowes just before sunset and  moored up, with starboard side to the dock. We had spent a while tying on all the fenders and running all the lines whilst doing circles outside of the harbour.

Starboard watch cooked our first meal; it was chicken fajitas. Tom said he almost froze his fingers off on the cold chicken. But they soon warmed up. We were obviously hungry as we eat nearly all of it. Port watch are currently cleaning up all the bowls, plates, pots and pans while we write this up, then we are all going for showers.

Written by Port Watch – Nikki and Elsie

We woke up ridiculously early for most people, though for Charlie it was a lie-in. Once we were dressed, we started sorting out the boat to leave Cowes at 8 am. We got the foresails out of their bags and ran lines for them, removed the sail cover from the main, moved fenders, and ran the mooring lines so we could slip them.

We did this really quickly, so we left on time and started motoring towards the Needles. We did this while having breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolat. They were good, but they would have been better warmer.

The adults all got very excited that we found a wreck of a ship that had sunk recently, so only its mast was poking out of the water. It was marked by some wreck buoys, which we were told Rachel and Sharon had never seen on any of their previous voyages.

As we got near the Needles, Sharon had fun doing a double donut (a figure of eight) with the boat while we were washing up, which confused us. Rachel tried to show us it on the chart plotter, but it wouldn’t behave for her.

Before we exited the Solent, we then put the mainsail up to reef 2. Most people were at the front sweating the lines, but Nikki was steering and Elsie was working on the mainsheet with Sharon. Once we got past the Needles, we started the massive journey to Weymouth.

The journey to Weymouth was due to take us about 8 hours, so we passed the time before lunch with some sunbathing on the foredeck and regaling each other with stories. Lunch was filled baguettes, warm from the oven, and we got to make them ourselves, so we each got our favourite flavours, even if they did take forever to cook in the small oven.

We were then visited by a pod of dolphins. We reckon there were about 10 of them; they had a great time following the boat, jumping out of the water, and splashing around.

Elsie, Ruby, George, and Dan all did some knot-tying practice with Erin, learning round turn and two half hitches, clove hitch, admiralty stopper knot, bowline, and figure of eight.

We also got the spinnaker pole up in the afternoon, with all the boys getting harnessed up and climbing out over the side of the boat to get to the end of the pole. None of the girls gave it a go, as they were all too scared. They don’t, at the moment, feel that they have missed out though.

For the rest of the afternoon, we mostly chilled out, had a nap in the sun (mostly Nikki), and had a massive laugh, though we can’t remember what was so funny. We missed the military exclusion zone near Lulworth Cove – which meant that we didn’t get shot and sunk, so we are pleased about that. But we also missed Durdle Door, though we can try and see that tomorrow.

We finally got to Weymouth about 4:30 pm. Outside the harbour, we took down the mainsail and flaked it onto the boom. Then we motored into Weymouth Harbour and moored up right outside the Harbour Master’s office, which means we are near the loos and showers. Nikki says, “It’s the best thing ever.”

Port Watch are currently sorting out dinner, cooking the fish for fish and chips, and Paul has gone to collect the chips from the chip shop.

Everyone else is playing games; they have found a snakes and ladders board and a chess set in the cupboard, but there don’t seem to be enough pieces.

We are looking forward to watching the sunset later from the deck of the boat and a big sleep later with a nice lie-in tomorrow.

Written by Starboard Watch – Lidia and Ruby

Thankfully, we had a lie-in after the early start yesterday, but the morning still arrived far too early. Once we had got up and dressed, we helped Rachel to cook pancakes. They were amazing, and most people had 2 or 3, but some people had 4.

Starboard Watch then prepared the deck. Lidia led this, telling people what to do (which she secretly loved). They managed to get the sail covers off the Yankee, Staysail, and Main, removed the instrument covers, put out the winch handles, and did everything else that needed to happen.

We then had some free time before finding out what our challenge was (that Paul had hinted at yesterday). In our watches, we were given £2, and with that, we had to buy the tackiest souvenir as a memento of our time in Weymouth. These will be judged later tonight by the crew, and a winner will be crowned. Rachel said there is a prize for the winner, but she hasn’t told us what it is.

So, we ventured into town and spent a bit of time looking in shops, but a lot of the time was used buying snacks, some from Greggs! Before we returned to the boat, we went to the RNLI shop on the far side of the harbour, which was a long walk around over a bridge. Some of us got ice creams from Paul’s favourite gelato shop; he was so excited he had two ice creams today.

We left the harbour just before midday and motored out into the bay, where we put up the mainsail and started our journey towards Yarmouth. We all sat on the foredeck and sang lots of songs by Sabrina Carpenter and Shawn Mendes. Lunch was cheese toasties, and Rachel cooked these for us; she wouldn’t even let Sharon in the kitchen to help. Most people had 3 or 4, but George had 9, which made him feel ill for a bit. But it was all okay, as he didn’t throw up, so Maddie was very happy.

We sailed along the coast and went to look at Durdle Door. We thought we saw some seals on the beach, but they turned out to be people, so they got called “seal people.” Further along the coast, we got to Lulworth Cove, where we nipped in, but there were too many boats, so we backed out quickly. The range officer for the army firing range called us and made sure that we didn’t go into the live firing area.

More singing and relaxing on the foredeck occurred until we were told that the Yankee 2 and Staysail needed to be hoisted. So, we did these in our watches, while Ruby was on the helm, making sure we went in the right direction. We also had birthday cake from Rachel’s dad and some popcorn that got everywhere.

We have been seeing lots of flying penguins, but the adults didn’t believe us. When they appeared again, we were told that they weren’t in fact penguins but either Manx shearwaters or guillemots; the adults couldn’t decide.

It seemed to take ages, but Oscar and Dan were taking turns to navigate us to the Needles, missing the buoys, lobster pots, and some other boats. The boat is large and hard to see over, so Oscar had to stand on the high side to make sure we didn’t crash. Once past the Needles, we took the foresails down and motored to near Yarmouth, where we took the mainsail down and flaked it. It took much longer than yesterday, but we don’t know why.

We moored up quickly in Yarmouth and set about cooking dinner. It was chilli con carne, which most people enjoyed, but a lot of people were still full from lunch.

We have asked for a bedtime story from Martin, our new chief bedtime storyteller. We have asked for The Gruffalo—fingers crossed.

Written by Dan and Maddie – Port watch

Dan was the first person awake this morning, he managed to enjoy the calm and quiet for a whole 15 minutes before everyone else was woken up with a variety of children’s songs. We had time for a shower and Yarmouth wins the award for best showers of the week. They even had hair dryers!

We had breakfast of bagels and scrambled eggs. To get the toaster to work we had to run another line and that came through the ceiling. Sharon did amazing eggs and she was pleased as they didn’t stick to the pan. We left starboard watch to clean up while we got the deck ready for the day. Then we helped sort out the halyards for mast climbing. Not everyone was brace enough to have a go up the mast, but everyone got involved with sweating the climber up. Lidia, Nikki and Tom went once each, but George and Oscar went twice. Using Rachel’s GoPro we tried to take selfies from the top, looking down on the deck or of the wonderful views from the top. We are looking forward to seeing them on Facebook later.

We were given a bit of free time in Yarmouth and we used it to go shopping, the town is much smaller than Weymouth, no Greggs! So, we wandered around and bought some sweets, then Tom got himself a posh coffee from PO41 which is Sharon’s favourite coffee shop on the whole of the Isle of Wight, and she has been very excited about going there. Dan got a very nice lychee drink, with jelly cubes in it.

We left Yarmouth at midday and headed down the Solent towards Cowes, we put up the main sail, lots of good work to get it up as it was really hard work. Tom and Dan worked really well together and managed loads of it. Port watch then put up the Yankee 2, which was significantly quicker than the main. Which was surprising as we were all very tired. It was then time for lunch, we made our own wraps. Dan said he made the best ever wrap, even better than Sharon makes and she has one every day for lunch. After lunch starboard watch put up the staysail and we were then complete.

Today was full of song, we sang nursery rhymes, we sang pop songs, we sang rock and roll songs, we sang old songs and some new ones. We didn’t sing any rap songs though which Dan was sad about. Paul tried to play a music video on Martins phone but didn’t know it was connected to his hearing aid, so Martin got a shock.

On our way past Cowes, we saw the Red Jet doing a man overboard drill, it was fascinating to watch as they were trying to pick up a pretend person in the water but kept going around and around and around. We hope they were able to get it.

Now we had all the sails up it was time to learn how to tack the boat, this means turning it through the wind and its hard work. Everyone has a job, either on a winch or at the wheel. Some lines need to be released, some pulled in, there’s a big order to it. We tacked about 10 times, so we got used to it eventually. Dan really loved it when the boat leaned over – he gave it a double thumbs up. But with the leaning it also made it harder to stand and he nearly fell over but saved himself at the last minute.

We then did a man overboard drill, which meant we had to take all the fore sails down really quickly and turn the boat to go back and collect it. Nikki got the job of collecting “Bob” our pretend person from the water and getting him back on board. There is room for improvement, but we felt it was a good effort from everyone given it was the first time we had done one.

It was starting to get dark so we motored into Cowes, having dropped the main and flaked it. It seemed to take much longer than yesterday as the sail kept getting caught on things. We didn’t know that while we were doing all of this, Rachel and Sharon had cooked us spaghetti bolognaise for dinner, Dan gave it another double thumbs up, he was the first to finish his, stating “it was amazing”

We have been planning for our night nav that we are leaving for shortly. It was fascinating, looking at all the dangers, the routes, planning distances, looking for different light sequences. Dan is sad that this is the last night on the boat as he doesn’t get to go out much and do cool things like this, he would 100% come back tomorrow for another voyage. But he is looking forward to tonight’s bedtime story, still hoping for The Gruffalo as last nights was Jack and the Beanstalk.