Journalist Charlie Cowell:

I am the writer of the blogs, and I look forward to capturing the fun moments of the trip, with a brief sentence from everyone for the first day. Afterwards, there will be a couple of people giving quotes every day, and I hope it’s not as mundane and tedious as this introduction. Enjoy 😊.

Charles:
Day 1 of our intrepid voyage. I thought I was going to be late but was glad I wasn’t. Except for the fact I don’t know how to tie a bowline, everything is going swimmingly; however, the main adventure that will test us is still ahead of us.

Jacob:
We arrived late, so we got the bottom bunk, and we sailed for a bit. Now we are making dinner and playing cards.

Tom, Will, Tom and Arthur:
We arrived very late due to traffic, and we sailed a bit and are now cooking a delicious meal. I am excited for the day ahead.

Orla H and Orla C:
We had a great first day and we both motored a bit and had fun. Yeah, yippie!

Mollie:
I like Arsenal blah blah blah.

A few of us (Orla C & Charlie [Male Jnr]) started our day at 5am in preparation to beat the tide. We were off by 5:30am and set sail for Portland. Most then woke at around 7am and were immediately put to work hoisting the sail and preparing breakfast.

During the day, we had our first go at a man-overboard drill, putting Orla C as the swimmer (dangling off the side, ATTACHED TO THE BOAT) to rescue the ‘man overboard’ (our fender called Tod).

We will say there was a lot of getting to know one another, but all in good fun. There were a few instances of hoisting and dehoisting the sail, which took… a lot of effort.

Upon arriving in Portland, we got the opportunity to watch a number of windsurfers (we think in a race???) and almost had a few crashes into us… thank God for Jim.

After arrival, Orla C, Jo and Millie were sent to shore with Charlie (not a male) for Orla’s most recent experience in a Lidl (not a Waitrose).

Meanwhile, Tom (straight hair), Batman (Charles’ other male), and Will cooked up a storm with the bolognese. ‘Twas very good, whilst we bought his shampoo.

Now ready to head to Alderney (Orla can finally get her Guernsey milk, WOOHOO).

Goodnight.

We woke up this morning and flabbed around for a bit, then ate some bulking breakfast. We then proceeded to leave at 10 and set all the sails.

It was very windy today, much to Tom’s delight. He was contributing to the wind.

As we were sailing, the angle the boat was at was 30 degrees for the majority because Tom and Orla Clementine House were sat on the side of the boat all the time, and it was rocking a lot.

We saw some incredible dolphins and only had one case of sea sickness. We ate some fajitas and are currently anchored down and going to bed, with Tom at 8…

Good morning. We began our day cooking a lovely breaky containing sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs and fried bread (Millie was the master of the fried bread and tall Tom mastered the eggs).

Then we readied ourselves and took a water taxi to Alderney.

Our day of adventure began with an orienteering competition, with Paul’s Angels winning top spot, closely followed by Todge and finally, the losing team. We all had a lovely time running rampant around the island. There were some… questionable submissions, but all in good fun 🚂.

We then proceeded into good afternoon, where we all collectively managed to end up in the same restaurant. The staff looked incredibly pleased when around 10 of us ordered fries… oops.

After chips, we made our way down to the beach to perform a group leadership task, Taskmaster style.

The ground rules: we had to move a water bottle into the centre circle of a donut created in the sand. We could not cross into the donut, and we could only use what was in a bag (rope). But the twist is, if we touch the bag or rope, we go blind… let’s say things got, how should I put this, interesting.

Ian’s watch were, in fact, the winners since they were able to complete it faster, but Charlie’s watch brought what we call the entertainment factor, not just to the crew, but to all on the beach around us.

After the entertainment of a lifetime, we all went for a swim in the sea and got the opportunity to see some rare Alderney ‘penguins’. How cute 🐧.

We then managed to, again, collectively make our way back up to the same restaurant and may have had more chips (they were really good, okay!).

We then made our way back down to the water taxi, obviously getting a photo in the massive chair on the way, and back to the boat we were.

Charlie’s watch then got straight onto cooking a lovely dinner of pesto pasta with salmon.

We were then fortunate enough to have our lovely prizes of cake (and Quack the Duck) after dinner, and here we are now in good evening.

It has been an eventful and possibly the funniest day.

Ready to voyage back tomorrow.

This mooring. Morning, we set sail at 0700 hrs.

We set our sights on the mainland of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, home to 14 out of the 15 of us.

Once we set sail, the highlights from the day were basically everyone having a nap at some point during the day, either on or above deck. Those above now looking a little red.

Prior to this, we had a wonderfully told story of ‘Larry Trotter and the Smart Man’s Pebble’ (The legally distinct bedtime story.) – Chapters 3 to 5.

Once we crossed the Channel, so, so close to home, we were violently rained on by heavens above. Not to mention while trying to flake the Yankee and main sail. Safe to say, underwear was sodden and body temperature was at an all-time low.

We eventually anchored, dried and ate our bodyweights in curry, naans and poppadums and are now awaiting our next instalment of ‘Larry Trotter and the Smart Man’s Pebble’ before bed and whilst awaiting singing the entirety of the Pitch Perfect 1 soundtrack.

Big plans and adventures home await us in the morning… including a Pizza Express trip for some, before their car, bus, train and plane home.

Goodnight,
Orla, Orla, Jo and Millie xoxo
Gossip Girls.