We all hopped on the minibus at the office in Devizes, but l (Rhys) was late as l couldn’t find my coat, l still can’t find it so l came without one. Everyone else was early so l kept them waiting. We then drove down to Salisbury to pick up Shia and Hannah, who were waiting for us at Waitrose. The journey was chaotic in the back as we were shouting, screaming, singing and booing the KSI song on the radio. Once we had collected the girls we then carried on to Portsmouth (which took an hour) with more screaming and dropping of phones and bags on the floor making more noise.

Adam (skipper), Judy and Katie (watch leaders) were waiting for us in the car park and had brought over some trollies so we chucked all our bags into them, but it didn’t all fit, so some people still had to carry their bags. We walked all our stuff through Gunwharf Quays and into the marina, where Luiz (Mate) welcomed us aboard Challenger 2.

Once we had got all of our bags on board we had a tour of the boat, where we were shown how to use the heads (toilets), where the fire exits and equipment is, given wet weather gear and fitted our lifejackets.

We then had to clean the boat as Tom had brought some very muddy boots on board and left a trail of dirt clumps everywhere he had walked. So we got the hose out to wash it, but it had so many holes (Katie counted 36 holes) we renamed it a sprinkler. Once it was clean we then asked for permission from the harbour master to leave, but there was a cross channel ferry coming out (Mont St Michel) and then the Isle of Wight ferry coming in then a Navy vessel leaving so in the end it took about 45 minutes for us to get permission to leave. But in this time we were able to sit on deck and eat our lunches which we had forgotten about till then.

On the sail over to Cowes it was raining slightly all the way, well drizzling really. We did get slightly damp but were all warm enough. It took us 2 hr and 45 minutes to sail to Cowes, we motored most of the way, but we put the Yankee 3 sail up, one of the ones at the front and to do this we all had to work together, so everyone had a role, l (Rhys) was steering, Emily spiked the sail, we had a group at the mast ‘sweating’ the sail and the rest were in the cockpit or snake pit winching in lines.

Because we took so long to leave Portsmouth we arrived in the dark into Cowes so mooring up was fun, Rhys had roving fender at the stern, l (Emily) was on the bow spring pulling it in. Everyone was very quiet so we could listen to Adam and Luiz giving instructions and communicating with us.

Once we had successfully moored up we split into our watches and Port watch went down below to cook dinner of chicken fajitas. Starboard watch stayed on deck helping to put the boat ‘to bed’, l (Emily) was in the snake pit moving lines and halyards back to their original positions. I had to work with Katie to do this using the winch.

We have just had a nice meal, and starboard are currently tidying up while we are writing the blog.

We are looking forward to a game of Uno shortly as Saverio has brought some cards, though he did drop them earlier in the boys’ room and they went everywhere!

By Rhys and Emily

We were woken up at 7.30am, some of us had woken up several times and had trouble going back to sleep (Jess) but most of us had a good night sleep.

Once we were all dressed, which took a while for some people (Oskar was first up and dressed) Starboard watch got breakfast ready which was pancakes with fruit, Nutella and syrup. But the pancakes were already made and we couldn’t get the toaster to work as the extension cable couldn’t be found so the preparation was completed in about 2 minutes.  Port watch cleaned up the few plates we used as we hadn’t made much mess (yay!).

We then got the boat ready for the day, the staysail needed to be hanked on, but we had to get it out the sail locker first which was a mission as it was really heavy. Then we took the sail covers off the main and Yankee.

Before we left Rachel and Sharon allowed us some free time in Cowes, we went in small groups for a walk, took a trip to Poundland, bought Halloween masks and Tom got a really nice coffee and Jess stole half of it.

Once we got back to the boat, we slipped the lines at about 11am. Tom, had the very important job of the roving fender on the bow as we were going to turn off the pontoon using the bow. So we didn’t want to damage the boat.

Then came the hard work, we got the main sail up which was a herculean effort. We sweated them which means we pulled on the sheet (rope) to pull the sail up, Jess and Sav went first then Oskar and Hannah, then Tom and Tabi and then back to Jess and Sav. It was exhausting, pulling the whole sail up and then Katie, Emily and Alfie were using the winch to hold it up. Once we had got that one up we then had to put the Yankee and staysails which were slightly easier as they are smaller, but we were all tired.

We then headed towards the Needles at the end of the Isle of Wight, where we went through a rough patch of sea where the boat went “uppy downie” for a while, during which time most people stood at the bow and jumped up and down while squealing. They were having a great time. Shortly after that Adam gave us a geography lesson about how the Needles and Old Harry’s rocks were formed and the sharks tooth he had found that was millions of years old (we then found out he was a geography teacher so it made sense why he knew so much!)

We then met Challenger 3 which was on its way to Yarmouth and they did a Mexican wave at us. We just waved back at them initially then Oskar tried to copy them with a single Mexican wave and failed by falling over.

We then sailed on heading for Old harry rocks, l (Tom) learnt how to sail the boat with the wind, making sure that it doesn’t disrupt the sail, as “a flappy sail is an unhappy sail” this meant using the arrow on the top of the mast to work out where the wind is coming from. Jess learnt to trust the boat, because it likes me. We also learnt how to tie two new knots, the admiralty stopper knot (which you put at the end of a rope to stop it running through a jammer) and the Oxo knot onto a cleat (which we used when mooring the boat). We had already learnt how to do clove hitch and bowline before we came on board, but some had forgotten it so needed a reminder.

Lunch was baguettes which we cooked in the oven with our choice of fillings in them and they were really good because the cheese was melted and gooey.

For a few hours we tacked the boat and relaxed on board, ate biscuits and Tom had a second good coffee, again mostly stolen by Jess.

When we got near to Old Harry’s Rocks we took down the main, Yankee and staysail. We then flaked the main onto the boom to put it away. It was hard work and the sail wouldn’t cooperate so we kept having to redo it. We then motored into Poole Harbour to the marina, whilst going past Brownsea Island we got the lines and fenders ready on the starboard side. Once we moored up we put the boat to bed and Jess felt she got rope burn from climbing the mast to put the cover on the main.

Dinner was jacket potatoes with a variety of fillings that we had started to cook just after lunch so they were in the oven for over 4 hours!

After dinner we had showers and a chart work lesson from Adam and Luiz where they showed us longitude and latitude on the globe, the points of sail and how to read the charts with all their symbols. Off to bed now as we have an early start in the morning.

By Tom and Jess

By Hannah and Saverio

We got up even earlier today, at 7am. Straight into our clothes, so we could get up on deck to get the boat ready quickly as we needed to leave by 7.30am. This included getting the staysail and Yankee out of their bags and their sheets run, the sail cover off the main sail, spread the fenders out, and rigged the lines to slip. We managed to leave at 7.40am, ten mins later than planned

We then all came downstairs and had breakfast of warm pain au chocolat and croissants with some melon that was brilliantly sweet. Whilst crossing Poole harbour Starboard watch cleaned up breakfast and then stated the daily boat cleaning chores, Oskar got the heads today and ended up spraying himself with toilet water when he was cleaning it.

But they all finished their jobs by the time we got past the chain ferry. Once we were out of the channel we then all had to work together to get the main up, which took less time today than yesterday surprisingly.

Adam then made it a competition to see which watch could put up their foresail quicker. Port watch had the Yankee sail and Starboard had the staysail. So we both hoisted them at the same time, there is discrepancies between who is the winner but we think it’s Port watch but apparently we had our sail spiked first, though we had to restart as there was a twist in one of our lines and Starboard said they finished first and Adam wasn’t looking. We think they might be lying.

After that Rachel managed to crash tack the boat about 3 seconds after taking the helm, so we cant blame her too much. But since we were close hauled at the time it didn’t make much difference.

For a while this morning we all sat at the bow having a mothers meeting like you see outside the front of big Tesco’s.

Adam thought it was time we did some more of our Start Yachting training so he talked us through the man overboard drill and was about to throw the danbuoy overboard to get us to run through the drill when Oskar used his superpower for lack of attention at the most opportune time to find some  DOLPHINS!!!!! So we watched them as they hung around the boat for a few minutes but then moved off in search of food, but it was lovely to see them briefly.

During the MOB drill, Tom was lookout using his arm as a pointer for the casualty, Hannah provided the necessary equipment which this time was the boat hook but in a real situation would be the climbing harness, strop and helmet to get the person back on board.  We did a smoking drop of Yankee and staysail, which meant taking them off the winch and letting them fall to the deck which was fun to watch, but annoying as we had to put them back up again afterwards. Luis then got us to turn the engine on so we could motor back, Sharon pressed the MOB button and we were able to collect our fake casualty successfully.

We then had some fun today on the way over towards the Isle of Wight with the boat rocking and people found it hard to stand up everywhere, especially Oskar in the boys room with his fluffy socks running like the Road Runner from the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons. Alfie was learning to do a racing trim of the boat using the tell tails on the sails, keeping us sailing just on the edge of the wind.

When we got to the Needles the water was really flat, Sharon and Rachel were gobsmacked as they have never seen it so flat. We arrived into Yarmouth at about 1.30pm, but had to fight the tide and wind to get in and then we were being blown off the pontoon so mooring up took a bit longer than normal.

Rachel cooked us some banging cheese toasties with lots of different fillings, they really were so good that Oskar and Sav had at least 7 each. So we worked out we used 4 loaves of bread for 16 people, so that means we had ¼ of a loaf of bread each! So we have been carb loading.

We had some free time in port this afternoon and wandered around Yarmouth, Alfie bought the boys an ice cream and the girls went to an art gallery (to hide from the boys) but found a painting for £1000 so quickly left and didn’t touch anything else.

Back on the boat, we did pumpkin carving in pairs. The rules were to create the scariest design with a nautical theme. Adam has yet to reveal the winner, but we think Tabi and Hannah had the best one. Rachel has promised to buy the winner some sweets tomorrow.

Had dinner of fish and chips, with peas (whether you wanted them or not) and there is currently a game or Dobble going on behind us very loudly. Think that tonight might be the biannual game of spoons, really hoping we win, but l don’t know what the game or the rules are.

Update: The biannual game of spoons happened tonight, it was very hard for some people to understand to begin with, mostly Oskar but he got the hang of it after a couple of rounds and made it into the last six people. But in the end the last three were all from YAW, with Adam being knocked out of the last four, he had tried very hard to with it for TSYT but failed. In the final Sharon was victorious and she is very proud of her win.

We had a lie in today as we weren’t going to leave Yarmouth till later today because of the tide. But that gave us time to have a massive fry up full English breakfast. It took a while but we cooked sausages, bacon, hash browns and scrambled eggs. Oscar did great with the bacon and Jess and Emily made the scrambled eggs. Unfortunetly we used nearly all the pots and pans on the boat, so cleaning up took ages. But it did give the others time to go and use the shore facilities for showers. They were very posh.

It was then time to have a go at climbing the mast, which is really where someone gets hoisted up as it needs several people to sweat them up. Emily went first and went straight to the top, most people had a go and got to the top, Sav went to the first spreader on his first go, but when he came down he wanted to push himself so had a second go and got all the way to the top. Jess and Tom challenged each other to get to the top and both managed it. Tom also had a chat with some people on the shore while he was at the top. Oskar definitely made the most noise on the way up (and way down too), with a squeak on every winch.

We then had to work out the route for our night navigation exercise tonight, so Adam and Luiz showed us how to read the charts, what the buoys mean, how to work out distances, bearings and timings. So we each (Port and Starboard watches) have a plan sorted that we will do in a couple of hours or so.

We had hotdogs for lunch which were tasty and very easy to cook and clean up. Then we got the sails ready so we could use them on the sail round to Osbourne bay in case there was enough wind to use them (spoiler we didn’t use them). We left Yarmouth at 2.45pm and on the sail around to the bay Rachel cooked cupcakes, red for Port watch and green for Starboard watch but the boat didn’t have a muffin tin to contain them so some of them sort of spilled over so we had some weird shaped cupcakes. We had to slow down and do some loops as there was a very large container ship coming into Southampton and we would have been in its way, but we finally made it to Osbourne bay at 5.15pm where we dropped the anchor and raised the anchor ball and light.

We cooked dinner of pasta carbonara with garlic bread, there wasn’t enough pasta for the adults so we let them have seconds and thirds of the garlic bread so they had enough to eat. After tidying up Rachel challenged us to a cupcake decorating competition, we had two cupcakes each and one had to have the best Halloween theme and the other one had to have a nautical/boat theme. Adam was the judge and awarded Jess the winner and Hannah runner up. Oskar decorated one to look like Sharon, even giving her a handbag, but couldn’t bare to eat the cupcake as he felt bad for eating her. Also there was a winner to yesterday’s pumpkin carving competition which was won by Tabi and Hannah with their Spiderman themed one.

At 7.30pm we all got dressed up in all our layers and started the night nav exercise, with Port watch going first and then Starboard watch second. We had to be looking out for the buoys we were going around, as well as other boats moving around. We had nearly finished the navigation when the fireworks at Lee on Solent started and within no time the ones at HMS Collingwood in Gosport started too, so we had fun watching them both. We then followed one of the Isle of Wight ferries back into Portsmouth which the Coastguard were practicing landing a helicopter on, another great thing to watch in front of us. When we got back into Gunwharf we helped dock the boat and then went to bed for the last time on the boat.

Today was the big clean and tidy of the boat, so we got up early and had cereal for breakfast.

Once we were dressed we then had to pack up all our stuff which took ages as we couldn’t find all of our stuff. But we eventually managed it and got all our bags on the pontoon.

Adam then gave us jobs from a long list. Some of us got to cleaning the deck, washing and scrubbing it clean. Oskar got to cleaning the heads and had trouble working out how to put the grate back in the floor. We also had to clean the floors, galley and bedrooms. It took a while but we got there in the end. Our watch leaders then gave us our crewmember feedback assessments and we all did very well and got recommended for further voyages.

On deck we had to unhank the Yankee and staysail and then pack them away into their bags by lying them out on deck to fold them up which took a while. We worked well together to get it done though, Katie said so.

We then got given t-shirts and Sharon and Rachel wanted us to put them on so we could have a photo taken which we did for them. Nigel from the Hugo Halkes charitable trust then arrived as he had come down to meet us and see what we had done on our voyage. He asked us some questions and we told him how much fun we have had and what we have done and learnt. We then all got our RYA start yachting and ASDAN certificates in a prize giving ceremony. There was a very special award for the most improved crewmember which was won by Sav and his certificate and trophy was given to him by Nigel. We are about to say goodbye to the crew and Challenger 2, we have had a really great week and would stay longer but are missing our own beds.