Hi, my name is Cicely and I am one of the 8 crew on board. After a late night yesterday warming up from the insanely cold swim in Loch Lochy we had a late morning. We stayed the night in Laggan Locks and set off after a pancake breakfast with Nutella. The sail today was fairly quick as we only had to go across Loch Oich and through a few locks. Lunch was tomato soup and sandwiches, Archie managed to eat a “big mac peanut butter” which is a triple layer peanut butter and ham sandwich dipped in tomato soup. We moored at Fort Augustus and a group of us went out to explore the town. Ciaran has already bought “more than he has ever bought before on holiday” which is over one thing and most of us have tried the Iron Bru ice-cream which Anna remarked tasted liked orange sugar. We did some theory back on the boat with Josh to work towards our Competent Crew qualification, and Ciaran and Matt are working towards Watch Leader so they are the leaders of our watches. Matt is controlling the starboard watch making dinner and Ciaran will control washing up with the port watch. More to come soon !!!!!!!

Cicely

Hello, its Archie back again with another one. So, we have left the sea behind and entered the Lochs and Locks. After an enjoyable day we retired nice and early in a mooring with a great view of Ben Nevis. The midges were biting and we all needed a shower, so after eating a lovely pasta cooked by Starboard watch. Then I went to the facilities in dire need of a shower where I was met with the most painful shower this voyage, and I was reassured by Cicely that she could hear my cries. Then upon my return I cleaned my room, and joined in on a game of codenames which the boys rose triumphant from. After that we slept for an early night.                                                                                                                                                           The next day, we had an amusing wakeup with a song which unfortunately I slept through. The Lockmaster also greeted us at “mid-morning” departure. At 8.30 we were off and cruising, I was making breakfast of bagels with lovely assistance which unfortunately we couldn’t eat all together. After pulling my weight literally, we reached the top of Neptune’s Staircase. We had a very “Happy Day”(which was a name of another vessel we passed).

-ARCHIE

So we passed Neptune’s staircase and we where  cruising towards loch locky which was very good scenery I went to sleep on deck for about 40 minutes then I woke up sail the rest of the way but unfortunately we came up to a lock and we decided to stay at laggen locks for the night

: christopher

Because of the late night last night, we left oben later. But we refilled the fulle tank and put more water on the boat. For breakfast Anna made fresh bread. And we had baken rolls with the bread. Then we left and headed up towards fort Williams. We have also had another game of murder and played another game where we had  a list of things to find and take photos of things to do with saling and boats as fast as we could. we also heard a bit of thunder as we were sailing through loch linnhe. We arrived at the entrens to the caladonian canal and managed to get through the firdt little bit brefore parking. After we made tea and all had showers. We also got to see he hogwrts trane drivr past. Then Some of us walked up o he coop. then we plaed 2 games of codenamse. The 1^st game  girls team won the 2^nd game the boys won.

lia

My name is Ciaran and I am one the eight crew members on board. My first impressions of the ship when I boarded was a mix of surprise and excitement, excited to set sail around the beautiful Scottish coast that I had heard so much about and surprised by how cramped it was. I have sailed other ships before and sometimes thought that this was as small as it could get but again the world of sailing surprised me. We arrived a bit late (three hours) due to a fault in navigation and a misread email so we went to inverness instead of Inverkip but no matter we still git there and also when we arrived we were welcome by first mate Anna in the marina parking lot. As we got to the ship we were also met by Allan the Youth Mentor who helped with my bags and Charlotte the Watchleader. Once on, me,my mum and my friend and his mum ,who took the long journey to Scotland with us, got a guided tour round the ship. Then we said our goodbyes took some photos and then they left. Once I got my bags stowed away I met the skipper Josh and we talked about how my travel arrangements turned into a travel nightmare. After that it was dinner which was cooked by half of the crew who were split into a watch. And it was fajitas and delicious. Following dinner was a quick game of Irish snap which I suck at, then bed. Anyway back to day three. The day before this we sailed to Campletown marina from Inverkip which was a 9-hour sail so we were quite exhausted after that and looking forward to our bunks. The next day we would set sail from Campletown to Oban which was a slightly longer sail of 19 hours. We managed to pull ourselves out of bed for breakfast at 8:30 and started to get sail shortly after at around 9:15. Both watches stayed up on deck after starboard watch had finished cleaning up breakfast we then played the fun yet frustrating at times word games like through the green glass door which some were brilliant at mat and others weren’t me. We played those games until around about 11:30 where starboard watch went down to make lunch which was baked potatoes. As we settled down up deck awaiting lunch a very strange thing happened the sea was calm until we got to and area were the sea changed like a gust but much stronger the waves went from nothing to spraying over the bow of the ship it was like hitting a wall of rougher water as we were sailing through the water the depth suddenly changed as well. It changed from 112 meters to 2 in about 10 seconds and then rose back up to 98 meters soon after that the sea calmed and so did we. After checking the charts, the only thing we could guess it to be was… a submarine. After all it did say on the chart it was in fact a submarine testing area. Also Anna said before she spotted a fin of some kind and couldn’t tell what it was. We checked for any sign of odd geography but none could be found. We shortly somehow got on the topics of hats and my flat cap collection on board. I suggested bringing them up for people in port watch to wear which was immediately approved by everyone in our watch so I fetched them and they tried them on them being josh, Anna, Archie, Lia and Cicely had her own cap on. We were then called for dinner which was again lovely but unfortunately everyone else had eaten and we forgot that the skipper josh still needed some baked beans for his lunch as well so while me and Archie washed up we cooked another whole can of beans for him which I assume was eaten due to the clean pan afterwards. We had some hot water left over so we had a round of hot drinks sent around then we got ready to go on deck and I was called to do the blog. Which I soon found out to be a part of Allan’s masterplan to kill me with a fender in the pilot house with me on the navigation table. This is a game by the way. On day 2 we were each assigned a person place and thing to kill someone last person standing wins. I am loving my voyage so far and am excited for night sail tonight. Thanks for reading.

Ciaran

We woke up early this morning to leave the marina for Campbeltown. On the way we took turns on watch and learnt about tying knots; then started a fun game of boat murder! When the wind picked up we managed to get the sails out for a bit, and had a few races with sail settings- but soon after about an hour we unfortunately had to drop them as there wasn’t any wind. However, we viewed porpoises on the way there, which soon made up for not being able to sail. After getting into the marina (and seeing a seal!!!!!) starboard watch cooked spaghetti for dinner and are all now looking forward to a good night sleep.

Phillip

I like this boat so far it was wet to begin but the weather has been sunny I done the introduction on the boat it was a bit confusion to start off but I get it but I’m really enjoying myself. The food sounds good yum. I enjoyed cooking with the rest of my wach and getting to know every one that I am with. I am looking forward to saling tomorrow and trying to do more things on the boat.

Christopher, Starboard Watch