Today, I got up at 07:00 in preparation for the three-hour journey to Portsmouth, where I got some lunch before heading over to the marina to meet my crew mates at the ketch.  The ketch crew welcomed us all with smiles, they showed us round before helping us settle into to our new home for the week!

Before setting sail we made our beds and found our life jackets. After the safety briefing and a life jacket check, we got to sailing almost straight away. Learning how to steer the boat, navigating and much more! To end the day, we moored up in Cowes marina then put the boat to bed and had some dinner. Our favourite part of the day was helming the boat.

Today I have learnt that half the crew are vegans, which is psychologically interesting, Tian is good with tying ropes and that’s cool. Tian has given most of us nicknames, how interesting!

By Esther, Rachel and Louis.

Today we had cereal or toast for breakfast and went shopping in Cowes to get the essentials (sweets and chocolate)!!

Then, some of us planned a navigation route to Lymington and others checked the engine before we left. Before we got to Lymington, we did a man overboard drill then we moored up alongside the pontoon and went for a walk.

On the walk, we saw two roe deer. Once we got back to the town, we had free time where we went to look around, grabbed some ice cream and browsed some souvenir shops. We learnt all of the different knots, different coloured buoys, the dangers of the buoys, the different names of the points of sail, and the names of the buoys.

We had fish or chicken and chips for dinner!

By Rachel and Tian.

Today, we blew up the small dingy and did some competitive racing in groups. It was very interesting watching each other’s skills and weaknesses in this event. Tian has now given everyone a nickname aside from Rachel, apparently she hasn’t earned Tian’s respect. It is vital to have his respect.

We then got the boat ready to set sail from Lymington to Yarmouth, it was quite windy today but was also great fun! Also, Adam has a new nickname! Jeffery – Tian has proudly announced after long and treacherous thinking, he managed to pull it out of the bag. We moored up into Lymington, had a spot of dinner then got ready for bed!

By Esther and Louis​.

Today thy crew was awoken by thou pitter-patter of thou rain at 08:00 and twas quite cold, twas exceptionally breezy as thy windows were ajar hence, I slept unwell yet I arose.

Today,  I savoured the delicacy of the Crum’ of the pits’. An unfortunate event took place after thou breakfast, I was obliged to do the washing of the up with Fer of the Gus.

By Harriet and Fergus.