We arrived at Portsmouth after a two-hour drive from school and were greeted by a lot of wind. After getting on the boat, we were introduced to Paul, our Skipper, and Alex, our Mate.

We had a quick tour of the deck and below deck area, and noted all the many trip hazards. We got our lifejackets, went to the marina facilities to investigate them and then when we got back, we were given our waterproofs (we look incredibly stylish).

We then planned the menu for the next week, and put the fish for tonight in the oven, while Paul went to get chips. I won a game of Uno and am now sat here writing the blog! Looking forward to the days to come…

By Isla.

We woke up at 07:30 and had toast and cereal for breakfast. The weather wasn’t suitable for sailing, so we had to stay in the marina. We learnt how to read and use charts, and we learned about the tides, weather, and wind conditions. We also learnt some knots, bowline, clove hitch, sheet bend, round turn and two half hitches, figure of eight and a reef knot.

We chose our route for tomorrow and then we had lunch. We ate canned vegetable soup with bread. Later on we had a short break and went on a walked around the coast and Nelson’s bridge before returning to the boat to see what we had to purchase from the market. We went back out to buy supplies for dinner, which was Fajita’s and Chocolate cake for dessert. We got a little lost while looking for Tesco, but eventually found our way!

My favourite part of the day was when we were having dinner all together and were chatting and laughing about the cows in Switzerland being helicoptered down the Alps, because they get stuck!

By Ayse.​

We left Portsmouth at 1100 hours, heading for Yarmouth. We motored out of the harbour past Sturbridge cardinal marker, and then put the sails up. We passed Osbourne Bay and the Solent Forts. It was a bit cold and wet to begin with, but after a few hours we could see the sun start peeking through the clouds. However, by the time we arrived in Yarmouth at 16:20, the clouds had once more obscured the previously enjoyed rays of sunshine.

For lunch, we were rewarded with fish fingers and chips, after hours of blood, sweat, and tears from our chefs. For dinner once we’d arrived, we made spinach and ricotta ravioli and chicken and chorizo ravioli, which was made with thought, kindness, love, and less chorizo than advertised.

To conclude, we had a super gnarly day, bro!

By Ali.​

Today we woke up in Yarmouth and prepared eggs for breakfast. We wanted to go to Poole, but Paul (our Skipper) called the harbour and we were told that there was no space, so we did a passage plan and decided to go to Cowes. There wasn’t enough wind so we motored there and we were only in Cowes from 12:30 until 14:00, so we split up the teams to get as much done as possible. One group prepared lunch and the other did the shopping. When we got to the shops, we realised that we had forgotten the most important thing, the shopping list.

After lunch and shopping, we actually got the sails out and sailed up the Beaulieu River to Bucklers Hard harbour. Alice had to concentrate on steering as the river was very bendy and there were lots of boats that you could crash into, but we all survived.

When we got to the harbour, we prepared Chicken Tikka Masala curry and went to bed. Our day should have been done there, but the gas alarm went off at 02:30 and woke everyone up (there wasn’t even a gas leak)!

By Antonia.​

This morning we woke up to a bit of a rough day in Bucklers Hard (after a the gas alarm went off at 2:30am). We couldn’t leave before 13:00 because it was too shallow, instead we learnt about the points of sail. We had to make a slight adjustment to lunch, due to the uncertainty of the gas situation and made sandwiches instead of jacket potatoes.

We left at around 13:00 and I was helming. It was very stressful due to the winds and tides, Isla and Ali also helmed. We arrived at Warsash around 16:00 and was met by the gas man who ensured us that the gas situation was all ok. When he arrived Ali, Isla and I were taken by boat to the land to go shopping. Unfortunately, there were no facilities, but luckily we had excellent showers at Bucklers Hard the night before, so it wasn’t the end of the world.

We made stir-fry for dinner and it was slightly chaotic, but ended up tasting excellent (we made slightly too much – there is now a noodle decorating the side of the boat and my jumper).

The others got the Ensign timings wrong and brought it down a minute early (oops).

We are all very tired. So we are off to bed early ready for what tomorrow brings.

By Poppy.

The day began at the ungodly hour of 04:30 very abruptly due to the gas alarm going off again. After a few more hours of sleep, we made breakfast, cleared the table, did the deck prep and then spent a few hours practicing knot tying and going over emergency procedure, which we narrowly avoided utilising later in the day! We also looked into the different types of flares and the ones we had onboard.

Eventually, we got sailing and were heading towards Haslar Marina in Portsmouth, but not for long. Half-way there, our steering stopped working and we started drifting, so we tried steering with the sails, but it wasn’t particularly accurate. Like a well oiled machine, we fitted the emergency manual steering tiller, which didn’t seem to work to begin with, so we considered calling in a Pan Pan on the VHF radio, but after reconnecting it, it worked fine and was actually much more fun and easy to use than the wheel. However, it did require quite a lot of strength to use, this was my favourite bit of the trip so far. Who doesn’t love a bit of drama!

When we eventually made it to Portsmouth, we had to go to a different harbour, as without the steering it was too difficult to get into Haslar and the TSYT operations team came down to look at the problem.

We then went shopping and made burgers for dinner followed by a very fun game of After Eight, where you have to get the chocolate from your forehead into your mouth without using your hands, and then a game of UNO before preparing our DofE presentation and going to bed.

By Alice.

This is our last blog for our voyage and we decided to make it a group blog about the bits we liked instead of what we had done today. Just for the record, we had our expedition assessment day and our DofE Assessor, Kirsty, was onboard to put us through our paces. Hopefully we have all passed!!!!!!!!

Overall, we all feel this has been an enriching and enjoyable experience. Some of the best bits included our spectacular cooking (including fajitas, spaghetti bolognese and chocolate pudding), getting the sails up, learning knots, getting to use the emergency tiller, and the glorious facilities at Buckler’s Hard.

We’re so proud of ourselves for getting through this memorable week, and are looking forward to a warm bed and a real toilet at home!

Written by everyone.​