Arriving at Whipps Cross, all nervous and full of excitement, knowing that today is the day where you either have the time of your life, feeling like you own the world, or you break rule number one: “Don’t fall in the water.”

Either way, we all knew that it was going to be an eventful and adventurous five days (of which we are missing school for).

Blasting beats on the minibus, laughing with your mates and sleeping with caution, many started remembering their forgotten lunches right on the very bench where this all started. After the long ride of 2 hours and 45 minutes, we had finally “destinificated” and were looking around for either a McDonald’s or the boats that we were destined to sail.

With everyone having no experience with sailing, we had basically bought a couple of challenges to not only Matt, but his beloved friends too: Dave, Georgie and Alex. However, they taught us well with plenty of patience and teamwork.

Moving on to the rope work, we all put in plenty of effort, knowing that we will be the only winners despite all the difficulties we have gone through.

The day then came to an end, where we were split into two groups: five were the chefs and the other five were making sure our dear boat stayed tidy. Sitting around the dinner table, telling dad jokes and singing songs, we started to clean our mess. Taking down the flag and washing the dishes, maybe we started to realise that these couple of days would be better than we initially thought.

The second day we began the day looking forward to surprises. It was our first busy day, where we spent most of the time learning about new techniques and how to work a boat safely. The weather was a bit challenging as it was spitting rain for a while and the winds were strong.

One of our friends, Tamie, was “retrieving” a man that went overboard. This included her being in a harness and dropped down to the waves. She wants to describe this as “the waves splashing against her tiny body”. The life of Tamie was in my hands, full of nerves.

The journey was quite sickening, with the ups and downs of the waves. Like life was uncontrollable, it made most of us nauseous. Which was a challenge that we had to overcome as a team because we had to rotate on jobs that we had to finish on the boat.

However, we are done being sick and now we just had dinner, and we were begging to go to Tesco, which took some convincing for the staff to say yes, but we got there. We also blasted music like yesterday. But now I’m gonna go shower, bye.

Today, we traversed along the southern coast, searching for the horizon behind the sky of misery and mystery. Fighting the battle of the stomachs, the battle of minds and the battle of hail itself. Time was not on our side, and neither were our bodies. However, come hell or high water, we were making it to Weymouth first.

Our crew still dropping like flies in the rigorous climate, our crew was down to six. Time and welfare were not on our side, but we still prevailed. Pushing through the mainsail competition, we placed 2nd despite all this.

Mimicking the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we were thrashed across the ship as thunderous waves tried to overthrow us, leaving destruction in its path. Piercing through the winds, with our sails held high, we weaved our ship from Poole to our destination. Prevailing in the eye of the hurricane, we prepared our refuels without losing momentum. The menu was set: stuffed baguettes, leaving mouths watering in its wake.

Our voyage continues — we arrive in Weymouth. The second battle has begun: Beach Olympics. Knot tying, teamwork and tug of war — we placed second again. A wave of disappointment ran through us, until we remembered the hardships we faced today.

In the end, we pushed through the horizon, reaching our destination at last, celebrating the sight of land.

Written by Keyaan and Mia