After getting up early (like every day this week) we ate breakfast and prepared ourselves for the day ahead. Sailing from Poole back to Portsmouth for 10 hours (and racing the other three challengers for 15 miles) sure did have an impact on us. A load of people were sick and for a period of time everyone was feeling awful. Half the crew members feel asleep in the snake pit and the rest were in the cock pit throwing up or chilling. Lunch came round and everyone attempted to eat and keep it down, one or two being unsuccessful. Once people had started to feel better we managed to gybe the sails and carried on sailing to Portsmouth. Near to the harbour, we took down the state [JF edit ‘staysail’] sail followed by the Yankee sail. After a bit of time using the motor we finally took down the main sail and slowly but gradually we got the covers on and reversed into the harbour. In the harbour we put the sails in their bags and the ropes back into the hatch. We are then going to Asda and for a walk later on.

Because of challenger 3 sailing into a lobster pot, we were unable to sail anywhere else so we stayed in Poole for another day. During the day we climbed the mast, practise knot tying, ate iced cream, Pete demonstrated how the emergency flares work and then went to the RNLI centre. While at the centre, we looked around the factory where they were building and repairing boats. After coming back from the RNLI centre we went to the beach and chilled. Some of us played football and another school joined in, we actually got along with them (surprisingly). Once we had got back to the boat, we had dinner and John showed us how to read the CHARTS (not maps!! you can’t get that wrong!!) and a clip of the BT global challenge of the 4 challengers and some other boats raced in rough weather. Chill time was after that and then came bed.

Yesterday we woke up and ate breakfast. Then we got ready to sail to poole and we did the man over board drill on the way. we then had snack breaks for drinks and biscuits. We sailed for six hours and as soon as we got here we all went to tesco’s. everyone bought candy and drinks and then we sat by the sea and ate sweets. We then had dinner and chilled in the cock pit until bedtime.

When we arrived it was lovely and sunny. We had an introduction to the boat, we got told where are beds were and how to use the toilets properly. We started by taking the fenders down. A fender is a big white ball that stops the boat crashing into another boat. We learned how to winch in the boat and some of us got a chance to drive the boat. We enjoyed the sunny weather as we sailed to cowes. When we got into cowes we settled down and had tea. For tea we had fajftas. After dinner we had a walk along the beach where we skimmed some stones. We then came back, had a shower and went to bed.