We arrived at Royal Quays Marina early, after getting through the Great North Run traffic.

After a quick bite to eat, we headed for Challenger 4 to meet the crew, Skipper Monkey, Mate Sophie and Watch Leaders Sharon and Rob. We settled in and had a quick round of introductions, debating our favourite biscuits… Very important!

Then we got to work, getting familiar with our new home for the week and preparing the sails ready for our departure in the morning.

When it was time for tea, we split into our watch groups, Port and Starboard. Starboard was on cooking duties, preparing and cooking an amazing meal of chicken fajita wraps. Port were on washing up duties. Great teamwork to start the week off.

At about 09:30 we left the harbour through the lock, we stayed in there for about 20 minutes before we set sail.

We used the motor to travel before we set our sails, which include the Mainsail, Yankee sail and Staysail. Once we had the sails up, we headed towards Hartlepool. Along the way, we learnt about different sailing techniques and we saw five dolphins swimming around the boat!

For our lunch today we had chicken goujons wraps. After, we were taught how to put the sails down, before docking in Hartlepool Marina where we had a wander around and enjoyed a Costa.

Then we came back to the boat and made our dinner, which was a chicken curry, rice and pappadums, before we got ready for bed in preparation for an early morning start tomorrow.​

At. 07:00, we left Hartlepool Marina and set our sails up for the journey.

Later, we had our lunch, which was hotdogs and nachos, and after that we began taking watches every three hours.

We regularly switched, with half of us on deck and the other half below, and we continued the day switching in and out of the different areas.

We saw a seal and a swift (bird) near our boat, while on the journey. Not long after, we started making our tea, which was Spaghetti Bolognese as we kept to our watches.

We saw a lovely sunset and moon rise (which looked red) over the horizon, before our final watch switch of the day before day four tomorrow.​

By 06:00, we had a very tired crew! However, we all had to find our motivation because there was still work to be done before our arrival at Lowestoft Marina.

At around 07:30, we sat down for bacon sandwiches for breakfast. We then went up on deck to put the Mainsail down and then got the tethers and fenders ready.

Finally, after around 29 hours of sailing, we were able to get off the boat for a nice hot shower and a walk to the beach to chill.​