Hands shaking, feet trembling, we stepped aboard the challenger and put our stuff into our new claustrophobic cabins. Briefed, wet-weather gear on, and excited to go, we climbed back up onto deck with ice cold wind on our faces, waited for sea traffic to clear and started our first voyage to Cowes.

Whilst overthinking our decisions, we were comforted by all the adult crew members by starting to get to know them and the new group that we will spend the rest of this week with – reducing our initial stresses. As the boat began to move, we moved the fenders and slipped the ropes.

A short while later, to keep warm in the icy conditions freezing our faces, we went down to the galley and made everyone a cup of hot tea or coffee; to help keep up moral. At the bow of the boat, a few of us were lucky enough to be taught how to tie a bowline knot before it was time to say goodbye to the wind and dock up in Cowes.

After docking, we began the treacherous task of preparing dinner, which was an eye-opening experience: some of us struggled with chopping the vegetables, especially onions (they brought tears to some eyes). There was also a struggle with the cheese grater.

Weary and exhausted,  we ended with a reflection of our first day on the yacht, before preparing for bed 😊

What a day. A miserable, cold, wet, rainy day.

Since the moment we woke up the rain has been pouring nonstop- and the wind – oh the wind, so bad even experienced transatlantic navigators are wary of it.

Obviously, this has meant that we weren’t able to sail anywhere, so instead we spent the day docked in Cowes, but it hasn’t been at all bad. We had a fantastic breakfast- bacon rolls lathered in sauces of all kinds, and an amazing day on the Island shopping, scavenger hunting and cowering inside a Costa with a warm drink (twice!).

On top of that, inside the boat we’ve played all sorts of board games and eaten some delicious cookies.

Overall, after a curry dinner and lovely warm shower, we feel energised and prepared for the 6-hour sail to Poole tomorrow- exciting!

Yesterday, we sailed from Cowes to Poole. We motored out of Cowes and eventually put up the main sail.

People enjoyed it. And we also put up the yankee. The weather yesterday was a bit wavy, rocky, and windy with no rain. We went past the Needles and hit open water. And some people were a bit wobbly.

About halfway through we were asked by Sophie if we wanted to keep sailing to Poole or motor. Everyone agreed we would motor to Poole. Everyone cheered up a bit after it stopped rocking around so much.

We got to the edge of Poole and put down the Yankee and the main sail. Once that was all done, we had to slow down and wait for the chain ferry to cross. When we got into Poole, we reversed into our parking spot. And also, we tidied up all the sails, ropes and other equipment.

We all went below deck and had a very late lunch at around 4.00pm. The food we had was sandwiches, wraps and bits and bobs.

We went back on deck and tidied up the stuff we didn’t do earlier like the halyards and wrapped up the sails in their sleeping bags. And also, everyone had a shower and the food was served at 7.00pm.

We played games including karaoke and double. Then we all went to bed so we could wake up earlier in the morning.

As we exit our bunks around 6 and still in a barely awake state, we prep the boat for sailing, and we look at the forecast and realise we are due a storm, but Skipper Sophie is as cool as a summer’s day.

We set off and one of the groups go downstairs to make some crumpets (that tasted so, so good) and make some hot drinks.

After the delicious breakfast we put up the yankee two, sailed for five hours and had the choice to dock at Cowes or keep going to Portsmouth (and possibly get stuck in the storm) so we decide, as a group, to dock at Cowes. We dock after a smooth sail and a group began to prep lunch which was stuffed pasta with tomato sauce, again, beautifully made.

After lunch we tidied up above deck and sorted the sails out, then we had showers and free time which some of us used to go to the shops, and some of us used to play games and do homework. After free time was over some people did just dance and others gathered around a science experiment of cooking mayonnaise and adding lots of other things to.

Then we had dinner which was stir fry (yum) which we added lots of hot sauce to and got the results to the quiz and scavenger hunt- won by the tried and proven method of guesswork. Now, as we wash the dishes, we’re preparing to watch a movie and set sail back home to Portsmouth tomorrow.