Josline: So, today as I approached the ship, I was feeling very excited at first, when I got closer I began to feel anxious as I realised I was leaving my family behind. Although I was anxious, the staff at Tall Ships Youth Trust made me feel steady and safe. My favourite activity today was when I got to steer the ship, I could feel every wave crashing against the boat.

Aliya: When I was on the boat, I was tasked with tying up the sail, when the sail came down it was like a big cold blanket! We’ve now anchored up for the evening.

Tyrell: As I am the oldest on the boat, I was given many tasks but my favourite by far was spiking the halliard, it involves using the “spike” to open the clip securing the top of the sail to the boat, when I spiked the halliard, the sail was hoisted up buy the rest of the crew. Overall today was fun and I’m eager to see what this adventure brings.

Shaynie: Today was an extremely challenging day as the wind was really strong and difficult to work with and everyone was being sick which didn’t really help. We all ended up falling asleep on the boat. My favourite part of today was dropping the fenders, they stopped the boat from hitting the pontoon.

Layla: Ahoy mateys! Today’s weather was long windy and dreadful. I worked effortlessly hoisting the sails and sweating the ropes, you ask what sweating means? It involves using all of your body weight to pull down the ropes, shooting the sails to the sky. My favourite part was throwing up.

Abdo: Hello people! Today I slept, dreaming of land, as I was feeling seasick. When I did wake up, I helped tie up the sails and rope coil the sheets. Peace out G.

Tyrell: Aye, what a day! We raced Challenger 4 all the way to Yarmouth, we won! I lied, we got battered. We all got a turn on the helm and I almost fell into one of the heads (toilets). After that, we climbed the mast, it’s 90ft high, I can’t lie I was scared but I pulled through and had an amazing day.

Josline: We are planning for tomorrow’s Youth Takeover Day where we we’ll be taking over the ship. Tonight we will be checking the weather, tide times and planning our day’s sailing while the staff take the day off.

Aliya: Today we learnt how to tie a bowline, the difference between a halliard and a sheet and we took the helm using buoys to navigate. We explored Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight and we’re looking forward to a nice hot shower after we’ve cooked our dinner of BBQ chicken and sweet potato mash.

Abdul: Today was youth takeover day, we woke up at 07:30 and we made breakfast and set off to Cowes which took us roughly two to three hours. Luckily today’s trip was calm and gentle unlike our other journeys. I’m so grateful today wasn’t full of vomiting and headaches Phew!

Layla: Ello mates. This is an update on our final full day unfortunately. We had a good adventure thanks to our leaders. I’m going to miss it here, however I won’t miss the beds. Today was a good day, as you know we had youth takeover day which means we got to control the ship and the crew with 10% help, ok maybe 20% but I am 100% grateful for the sailing staff who helped us out and I’d also like to thank Leandra and Victor (group leaders) for giving me the opportunity to be here.

Shaynie: Hello everyone, today was youth takeover day which was really fun and also educational as we got to do things like put up and take down the sails, steer the wheel, sweat the sails, and many other things. My favourite part of not just today but the whole week has been holding the Roaming Fenders over the boat, it took a lot of strength. Today was our last full day which is upsetting as this was a really good experience. It wouldn’t be what it was without the staff and I am very grateful for all of the help we got, especially from Lee, our Watch Leader. He helped us with a lot of things and I wouldn’t have known what to do without him so thank you Lee.