Ollie:  Hello, everyone that is reading this, my name is Ollie and I am loving this voyage! At the start of the day when we had docked off the shore, I helped spike the sail with Martin (Watch Leader) and I sat at the very end of the boat. During this wonderful first day of the voyage, I have already learnt a lot, like; how to put a life jacket on properly and safely, how to sweat (that is when you pull a line to pull up a sail), how to spike and how to work the heads (toilets) properly, (which is harder than you think).

Overall, the first day on this exciting boat trip has been a blast. Now the other team are making dinner, which smells lovely. The staff are all great people and are always there to help you if you need it.

Maya, Holly and Paige: Hello, we are documenting our experience from the Challenger 3 boat. First off, we boarded the boat at historic Harwich and then we started sailing out to sea, we learnt about sweating and winches and how to put the sail up and take it down. That was very exciting!  After a while we decided to come back and anchor because we were all tired.

Our experience so far has been amazing and we have great people on our boat to help us, which is great. When we anchored we started looking at some HUGE jellyfish. Then,  we sorted our bunks and came down and wrote this blog while appreciating the smell of our dinner! And that’s been our experience so far!

Today, has been a great day. I have learnt how to tie a knot, steer the boat and fill the day tank. I was really happy because I got to see porpoises and seals!

One thing I haven’t liked about being on the boat is feeling seasick. The most exciting thing is thinking about Tesco and the cake I’m going to get, but overall I’m having a marvellous time!

Matt (our Skipper) told us that wind turbines grow from seeds but we don’t believe him! 😂

Grace: Today, we did mast climbing and I thought about Tesco to get me through the scary experience, but apart from that I had a great time.

Keira: Today, I climbed the mast. It was amazing and I went up really fast, even though it was my first time climbing.

Maya aka birthday girl: Today, it’s my birthday and we got to climb the mast, which was really fun, so yay!

Paige aka trusted henchperson: Today, we did pole/mast climbing, it was very fun and I was very fast. I was one of the fastest (in Maya’s opinion because I was the fastest girl).

I thought about falling into the sea because it was a nice day and it would’ve been fun to swim. Hopefully, tomorrow we will get the chance to go for a swim somewhere.

Ollie: I had a great day, we did lots of fun stuff. We woke up very early this morning at 06:30. I led the team to take the cover off the Mainsail, which was challenging. Then we started our watches. I had four naps today and I’ve raised about five sails.

While I write this blog, I can smell the dinner (which is curry) being cooked, it smells great. Overall, I’ve had a great, fantastic and exciting day.

Lewis: Today, we had to wake up at 06:30 to head off on our next adventure. First, we had to raise the sails. I think we raised two or three of the sails (which was very hard for us). Next, we did our hour-long watches, which was very tiring.

We’re about to have our dinner (which smells lovely) and then we’re going to bed, which I’m excited about because I’m tired.

I had a great week on the boat and have really enjoyed it!

PLUMBING CALAMITY ON CHALLENGER 3

By our on-the-spot reporter, Icon Flush-it.

Today at 15:47 Challenger 3 experienced a further plumbing calamity. A mysterious object of an unmentionable colour and approximately the size of a fresh cherry, was spotted floating in one of the boat’s smallest rooms (the all important toilets). 😂

An initial survey by birthday girl, Maya and trusted henchperson, Paige, who discovered the object, established that the usual pumping regime was insufficient to remove the mysterious object.

Swiftly the plumber, aka Skipper, was summoned in compliance with vessel standing orders, which state we must report all mysterious objects in said location immediately upon discovery.

Abandoning navigation duties, our intrepid Skipper proceeded to the relevant location, where he was assailed by an unspeakable aroma. Undeterred, and using advanced and vigorous techniques reserved only for the initiated, the object was swiftly discharged via the usual route; viz: pumped out over the side. Equanimity was re-established (not to mention freshness) and navigation duties resumed without serious harm to either ad hoc plumber, or to the necessary facilities. 😁

Our reporter does not record whether Paige, Maya or indeed both continued to make use of the now restored facilities.

Maya, Paige, and Holly: Today, we went into the town of Cowes on the isle of Wight, looked around at some of the shops and Grace finally stopped going on about Sainsbury’s. We bought some souvenirs, sweets and drinks. We were only allowed to buy one packet of sweets, but Grace decided to buy loads! (Pray for us, tonight she will not sleep, so neither will we, ugh).

Cowes is a small town full of shops, mostly consisting of souvenir shops with lots of postcards, fridge magnets and sticks of rock. Later on, we will go swimming (after lunch, WOO HOO) to cool off and have fun!

Keira: Today, we went swimming in the sea. The sea tasted salty and looked very nice. I nearly got stuck under the dinghy!

We also did mast climbing, the view was amazing. I saw shops, the sea (a soup/potion) and boats. After that, I did yoga lessons with Holly. One of the poses we did was called the tree pose. It was very fun and relaxing.

P.S. Don’t ask about the soup/potion, that’s what Kiera and Ash came up with. 😁