I got to the Marina at 1PM, I was excited but mainly nervous.

But as soon as we got on the boat, I was already talking to people, and now at the end of the day I have made friends and had an amazing time.

Today was really fun, I learnt lots of new things like how to tie different knots and talked to loads of new people. I felt a little bit sick when I was down cooking, but I went up and felt better.

When we got to the marina, I was scared but after the briefing I was comfortable.

When we finally left the dock, we put the sails up. We were going quite fast and tilted to the left which was fun. I was on cooking, and I made a grate meal. Then we did a brief.

By Hamish and Holly

Day 2 of our voyage – we woke up at 6:30 in the morning and quickly got ready and had breakfast of porridge.

Then we hoisted the sails and lifted the anchor. We left from Sandown bay and then sailed around the coast of the isle of wight heading towards the needles.

We successfully anchored just off Swanage Bay and went in groups on the dingy to get to the beach. We had a great time playing in the sand and swimming in the sea. We then got ferried back to the boat by the dingy again.

The waves created from other boats splashed us. After that we prepared the boat to start heading towards Chapmans Pool.

However, unfortunately we couldn’t anchor there because there were lots of rocks and the anchor was dragging meaning it was unable to be secure. If the anchor isn’t secure, it means the boat may drift onto the shore or the rocks.

We then headed towards Portland harbour to anchor in a sheltered harbour for the night.

We had fun!!

The boat tipped quite a bit and the wave kept spraying onto us.

A lot of people felt seasick, and everyone was looking forward to arriving at Weymouth.

As we arrived in Weymouth we derigged the sails, put the sail bags on them and we put fenders and lines out.

We got into groups of 3 and 4 to explore Weymouth, the boys went to dominos and get snacks meanwhile, the girls got chips and ate them next to the beach.

After the exploration some of us had showers meanwhile the rest of us talked on deck and then we switched around of dinner, the showers were very nice and luxurious. We all enjoyed them.

Finally, we came back and had a briefing of tomorrows wind and tides while planning how to beat challenger 4 to Bembridge shelf.

By Seb and Hamish.

Today was a great day

We started with a musical wake up at 7 AM sharp, we then raised all the sails and headed out of Weymouth Marina 30 minuets after challenger 4 was set to leave, we then realised that challenger 4 was only just leaving Portland harbour as we were exiting Weymouth so the race was on.

We had medium conditions today but the group managed it well with alterations to the sails and tacking through the day. We made it to the neadles just in time to beat challenger 4.

I was doing the washing up when there was an apparent problem with the engine. The problem was worked out quickly and the conclusion was that the impellor had been rounded off. It was then removed and I helped to make sure all parts were removed from heat exchanges and the pipes near by.

The engine was then monitored by me and mark and the heat stayed the same and overheating again didn’t happen. We then headed into the bay and anchored while the dinner of curry was being made.

We then discussed about the cleaning that will be happening tomorrow. Overall I really enjoyed the day but working on the engine was defonatley the highlight of my day.

Elliott H