First of all, we met up outside Chippenham train station, bid our respective chaperones goodbye, and boarded the train. We cruised sedately along to the end of the line and climbed off at Westbury. Here, the first disaster of our voyage struck: our train was cancelled! So, while we waited an extra hour for the next one, our ticket inspector invited us to explore the driver’s area of the train. Faced with a forbidding wall of buttons, switches, lights, and mysterious gadgets, we took it in turns to sit in the driver’s seat and have the complicated mass of controls explained to us.

Eventually, after many rounds of top trumps and 21, our train arrived, only for it to be gridlocked with partygoers for a festival taking place in Portsmouth. We somehow managed to slot 20 teenagers and a further 3 leaders into the tiny pockets of space and off we went! Eventually, the countless passengers thinned out a little, but no sooner than most of us managed to wrangle seats, we arrived at Portsmouth harbour. After a quick headcount and the conclusion that we had everybody, we began to make our chaotic way to the marina.

After a short frogmarch, we arrived walked into the harbour. Faced with countless vessels of every size and description, we scanned the harbour for a moment for our boat, Challenger 1. After locating our home away from home for the week, we rampaged our merry way to the very end of the marina to our boats. After being divided into 2 groups of 10, we climbed aboard the appropriate boat to meet our skipper, first mate, and watch leaders. After being introduced to the crew we were divided in half again, this time into watches: port and starboard, but told to give them more exciting names amongst ourselves. This was followed by a guided trot around the ship, pointing out the various hazards in the interest of going home with the same number of scouts we left with, hopefully all complete with the same number of body parts they had before the voyage!

We proceeded to squabble like children over the location of our berths and set up our kit for the week. Then, along with countless briefings, our week-long game was introduced: boat murder! The premise? Simple. You are assigned a person, an item, and a location. The idea is to give the person the item in the location provided, and if they willingly accept it, they are dead, and you get their murder assignment. The most successful serial killer by the end of the week wins a pack of biscuits! Then, after a few murders and setting up the sails and other such sailing necessities, one watch was sent to shower, while the others cooked chicken fajitas. Eventually, after we all coalesced in the galley once more, the fajitas were served, which we demolished in short order. This was promptly followed by washing up by the watch that showered first, and the cooking watch showering. While this was taking place, I was assigned to eloquently yapping about the day. I’m told I yapped too much, but I’m committed now. This was momentarily interrupted by game of spoons…

This part is written by <{[*Alex the mate*]}> because Isaac is now playing spoons. Please hold, your blog is important to us. *elevator music*

Greetings! I am returned from spoons and a game involving grabbing progressively more and more squished bananas. This pretty much sums up the evening, to be honest, various games, usually involving cards of some description. There’s not a great deal more to tell, just tomfoolery! Signing off, I’ll see you tomorrow if they trust me with this again! See ya! -Isaac Meredith :)​