Challenger 3 – St John Ambulance Cambridgeshire Cadets
On board Challenger 3 this week, we have 10 young people from St John Ambulance (SJA) Cambridgeshire Cadets.
SJA’s youth programmes operate across England, supporting young people to build their confidence and gain important life skills.
The group’s voyage has been supported by a significant donation from the International Association of Cape Horners (IACH).
Read their blog to learn more about the voyage so far.
Day 1
Monday 21
We arrived at Cambridge at 07:00 and were all very tired. We had a long but crazy three-hour drive to Portsmouth, arriving here at 12:30 with a 15 minute walk still to go to get to the marina.
There we met Skipper Amy, Kyrian: Capitán Custard ,who likes chweet silly and Alex: Sir Steven Tobias Bartholomew Ryan Gertrude Fredrick III, who are going to be our hosts for the next five days.
We were then showed around the boat by the crew and taught some nautical terms. For example, starboard means right and port means left, and bow means front and stern means back.
Then, at about 15:00, we set sail from the marina heading towards the Isle of Wight, which took us about a hour and a half. Josh, (our group leader) spent the full 90 minutes screaming, we wished he wouldn’t.
Today we also learnt how to use the winches, which will be useful for future days.
Day 2
Tuesday 22
On Tuesday, we set sail at 9:00am from the Isle of Wight to Weymouth – the journey took nine-and-a-half hours! On the journey we learnt how to put the sails up (this includes the mainsail, as well as the yankee and the staysail) and had a go at helming the boat.
Halfway through the journey, some of us where put on ‘pot watch’, which means buoys with rope and a pot at the bottom of the sea used to catch lobster.
Once we arrived in Weymouth we went to the funfair and had a great time, although Josh kept screaming on every ride at a pitch only audible to dogs, and in the evening we had fish and chips for dinner.
Day 3
Wednesday 23
On Wednesday, we left Weymouth at 9:30am – we didn’t need to put our sails up because there wasn’t much wind. For a snack we had bacon rolls above deck which were very nice.
We had to get the spinnaker pole up against the mast so we could climb the rope and record silly videos for Josh (#DoingHuntingdonshireProud). Josh kept screaming again which provided entertainment for everyone including the Skipper.
When we got to Poole, we did mast-climbing and went to the top (all 96ft!). We had an audience from the general public who applauded our great efforts.
For dinner, we made meatballs and pasta and they were amazing. We then had free time, during this we went to the arcades and then to the beach. Josh once again screamed so loud when he got in the sea.
