As I arrived at the Marina Ports to be welcomed by the very friendly crew in the Challenger 3, I had no idea what to expect. This was my first voyage ever. But within 15 minutes of arriving, all of us young people had banded together with the great support of the more experienced vintage skipper, first mate and watch leaders, we dived into on our first race together – the dinghy blindfolded race. Where we raced the other boats (our fellow ASTO Small Ship race competitors) by the Marina. This felt like a silly warm up for our real race later on in the week and was great to break the ice between a crew that had not worked together before. Turns out though, we’re a good team and won 3 of the 4 races, in spite of the cheating of the other teams making us all very wet but winners! Foreshadowing?

I had such a fun time and it was a really lovely start of the trip. After this, I took a go at OPI sailing which honestly was a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed being on the water and the simpler sail but because the wind was low, I didn’t move very far! The swimming into the sea afterwards was much more my cup of tea.

Our whole crew jumped into the sea, including our dashing Skipper Ian. Some of us shivered and some of us loved the fresh coolness of the sea we were in. It was such a beautiful day, I felt very lucky and grateful to be able to experience it on the gorgeous island of Guernsey and with hilarious, knowledgeable likeminded individuals.

To top off the beautiful day, ASTO welcomed all the groups with the most delicious BBQ at the Guernsey Yacht Club. This gave us time to get to know each other a little better like learning for example that Martin, (one of our watch leaders) grandma gives him a guardsman themed memorabilia near enough every month! Quirky. The food provided was fantastic and it was great starter fuel for the rest of the week.

The second day had a slow start due to unprecedented fog in the morning, but the plan was to go sailing. So we waited it out and set sail a little later, and I’m so glad we did! We ran over various drills, tacking, jibing, trimming, driving and generally maintaining the boat on sea which was very useful for me as I had never done this before on a larger ship. I was very eager to get stuck in and learnt a lot from the other more experienced crew members on board. It was honestly really inspiring to learn and be taught by some of the youngest members on board, some of them at age 16 teaching me the more technical sides of sailing that I had never done before.

After this, we came back to shore and cooked dinner together with my watch. This was all part of the experience and felt very rewarding to cook for the whole crew along with my sous chef Lewis, especially when people were scraping the pan for more! After dinner, we had our beloved happy our where we worked together to clean the gally and the heads, then we raced to the bathing pool for an evening dip together. So far, I feel we have built good bonds already, so I am looking forward to the rest of our week!

As the sun rose above the Eastern horizon of the Channel Islands, we collaborated to create a scrumptious set semi-burnt bagels after dragging ourselves out of bed at 6am.

After preparing the vessel for our dash to Poole, we set sail at half past at 8 and slid past castle cornet out into Guernsey Sound. We hoisted the main sail, yankee and stay which ensured no trip to the gym was necessary later in the day. With fair winds, we practiced our tacking and were full of anticipation for the day ahead. Giulia received salvation as the heroic Royal National Lifeboat Institution demonstrated their eternal worth by delivering, by highspeed rib, very strong laxatives which soon had Giulia nice and regular again, no doubt earning themselves a lifetime donor.

The race commenced as the clock struck 10. We threaded the needle between the Anfr­é Beacon and Mr Magoo. Continuing the brisk pace and in close formation with our competition, we rounded the Lower Heads southern cardinal support and zoomed all the way to Alderney which remained on our port side with the stinky coast of France on our starboard. Unfortunately, despite the sunshine the wind was suboptimal thus our speed took a massive hit and as such we ground to a blistering speed of 0.0 knots. We began the watch system at 1pm with port watch enjoying the respite from the scorching sun below deck, much to Alex and Robs relief as they are cursed with Gingeritis.

Our chilli dinner was welcome and afterwards we enjoyed watching the dolphins and tuna frolicking as the sun set.

The night watches passed completely uneventfully with almost nothing occurring. The changes between the watches being smooth and cordial. The only thing that kept us going was the excellent banter and Cameron’s sick tunes.

As the sun broke, the clouds blocked it, but we enjoyed our small portion of bacon rolls, very small. The poor wind conditions continued all day with largely grey skies and even a tad bit of rain. Mercifully, the wind thrusted itself upon us and delivered us safely across the finish line outside Poole Harbour at 16:29. We were jubilant in our celebrations, with a boisterous “yay” signalling the end to our thrilling race.

We then took sails down and made our preparation for entry into port .Once tied up we rest for several hours and then mingled with out fellow fleet friends . Alas another day had zoomed on by and it was time for bed . what a fantastic journey be it slow but all will remember this epic voyage across the channel .​