After a long day of train rides and car journeys, Iona and I (Aiya) boarded the Challenger 1 yacht and met our crew members before being sorted into our watches.

After being informed, we were ready to set sail for our first short voyage to Cowes on the isle of Wight. While on the water, the weather was windy, wet and pretty cold! But everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves whilst getting to know the boat, and especially after Iona and I brought out hot drinks and biccies onto the deck.

Once we’d moored up in Cowes, we had some free time before supper to explore the town. Iona and I did some shopping, I don’t know how I’m going to fit everything in my bag for the trip home.

Dinner was lovely, chicken, chips, and peas (Petit Pois YESS). Our watches are on their first duties, Port are washing up and clearing after dinner, while Starboard (us) are writing todays blog!

No sea sickness or overboards yet, so all’s good. Everyone is getting along well and preparing for our first day of full sailing tomorrow, so mood is high and we are all winding down for a good night’s sleep ready for the long day tomorrow! Can’t wait, hope the report is just as positive by the end of the day tomorrow…

By Aiya and Iona.​

This morning, we woke up in rainy Cowes, it was our watch’s turn to set up breakfast. After eating breakfast, we then prepped the deck and made sure the ship was ready to depart.

We walked into Cowes to have a look around, get a shower etc. (Zoe spent £5 on Kinder!). After making our way back through Cowes, we came back to the ship, had a briefing and started to get into our waterproofs.

A rope at the top of the mast needed fixing, so the Mate decided to send a member of the crew to the mast on a hoist to fix the rope. The rest of the crew then decided that they would like a try climbing the mast (it was really fun).

After everyone had a go, we then finally made our way to Yarmouth. We got out of the port and had to hoist the Mainsail, a lot of teamwork needed for this, but we did it together.

We could then set sail, the sailing itself took about two hours, but while on board we set up two additional sails. While sailing, the Yankee sail was being changed from one side to another (this is called tacking).

While on board, we had lunch which was hotdogs (very nice). We were sailing into Yarmouth and eventually docked, put the boat away and had tea before having a bit of free time.

Overall, we had a really good day and I (Libby) really enjoyed the day as a whole.

By Zoe and Libby.