After an introduction to the boat and meeting many new faces, we left Gunwharf Quays and set sail for Cowes. A big team push resulted in a rapid hoisting of the Main, Stay and Yankee sails, which occurred as soon as we entered the Solent.

The wind picked up as we headed out towards Cowes and we put in a few tacks as practice. Everyone had a role during the tacking of the boat and the newly formed team worked together well.

We then completed a fender recovery exercise, dropped the sails and headed into Cowes Yacht Haven for the night.

Starboard watch cooked us a wonderful chicken curry and we all headed into our bunks to get a couple of hours sleep in before a very early wakeup call!

By Kate.

Alarms went off at 02:40 this morning and we all rolled out of our bunks to begin our journey to Weymouth.

We left Cowes at 03:00 and motored out of the harbour with Dominique, followed by Charlotte at the helm.

Half of Port watch made some fresh bread in the galley and Starboard and other half of Port watch hoisted the Main and Yankee as we headed on into some very light breeze and flat sea state.

A team breakfast followed, with everyone getting stuck into some warm bread and cereal.

Afterwards, we hoisted the sails and headed, in a light breeze, to Durdle Door. We anchored, inflated the dinghy with a huge team effort and a lot of lung capacity, swam through the door, dived off the bow of the boat, and unfortunately had to row back, as some issues with the outboard arose. Five of us (including Dave, the Mate), had to be towed back by a joyride rib.

We left Durdle Door, heading for Weymouth at around 16:30 and arrived in the marina at 18:00. The crew are now heading off the boat for some showers and well-earned fish and chips for dinner.

Today was a brilliant day with a lazy late start. We left at 11:30, heading to Poole as our destination for tonight’s sleepover.

Nice and sunny with no sick letters onboard, the sail was genuinely pleasant. We just missed the first cloud of rain, but got hit by the next further down the way.

We slowly made our way to Poole, passing by Old Harry’s Rocks along the way.