Today we rose to the occasion of sailing from Portsmouth to Cowes in extremely adverse weather conditions. We worked collaboratively in our respective watches (Port and Starboard), raising the Yankee and Stay sails.

It was exhilarating to fight the wind and the waves and to witness each crew member coming out of their shells and exhibiting their varying abilities.

Upon arrival in Cowes we cracked out the UNO set and engaged with the Christmas spirit by getting to know one another. The meatballs and pasta lovingly prepared by the Starboard watch was the perfect way to wrap up (haha) an eventful and exciting first leg of the voyage.

By Genevieve, Aaron, Georgia and Calum.

This morning we were informed that the weather conditions were too bad to go sailing in. Instead, we had a fun day planned involving learning about parts of the boat in our watches, shopping in Cowes, decorating the boat with Christmas decorations, and finally competing in a riveting Challenger 4 bake-off competition.

As Starboard members, we are proud to announce that we won by a landslide with a one-point difference in the scores. We are looking forward to sailing again tomorrow with our newly learnt skills of how to tack the boat, check the engine is working and sail in style with our extravagant Christmas decorations beautifully on deck.

By Lucinda, Rose and Mac.

Challenger 4 arose at 07:00 for a speedy breakfast, then jumped into foulies and straight on deck for an early departure from Cowes.

Today we hoisted the Mainsail and worked fantastically as a team to complete tacks. We faced rough seas through The Needles and we were greeted with smooth sailing for the rest of the day.

As we approached Poole there were lots of successful murders onboard (in our game of ‘boat murder’!) with a lovely sunset as a backdrop.

We spent the last 40 minutes of our seven-hour journey admiring the hundreds of millions of pounds worth of property along the UK coastline on the way into Poole.

We completed the day with a lovely dinner of bangers and mash and our daily routine of hours of UNO.

Today we sailed from Poole back to Portsmouth, sailing the long way around the Isle of Wight, but thankfully downwind.

After requesting an interesting choice of jacket potato toppings (chorizo and gravy), a certain individual sadly lost a battle against sea sickness. They have been volunteered to clean up the pebble-dashing of the hull tomorrow.

The day carried on into the night as we sailed into the harbour following the flashing cardinals. During this night sailing, we got distracted stargazing and then noticed a line of Elon Musk’s satellites shooting across the sky, to our relief as we thought London was getting attacked. It was an amazing day to end an amazing week, learning new skills and meeting new people.

By Lucinda, Rose, and Mac.

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