Today, we met the crew and made lots of new friends. We learnt how to tie and untie the boat from the dock. This included learning different knots and came in handy when we had to refuel. I (Fleur) also got to steer the boat!

We are having curry for tea, so that should be good. This will be our first meal on the boat.

As it’s the first day, we didn’t get much of a chance to get the sails out, although we did motor our way slowly up to Fareham lake before heading back to Gunwharf Quays.

As we were sailing, we had this amazing breeze hitting our faces and everyone gathered on the bow to feel it.

We saw the HMS Queen Elizabeth II, which is much bigger once you see it in person, lurking in the waters of Portsmouth.

Now, you may have seen the Spinnaker Tower before, but have you ever seen the Spinnaker Tower at night as the entire tower glows from head to toe in purple lights? It was amazing!

By Fleur and Dug.

Today, to start off, we made sure that everyone was kitted out with waterproofs because we could see water coming over the horizon and didn’t want to get soaked! As we were putting up the sails, the rain started to pour down on us for a short period.

As we had all the sails up, we were slowly gaining speed starting off at around 3.0 knots, working up to our highest speed of 8.8 knots, which is pretty impressive!

For lunch we had pasties and beans and it was amazing to have some hot food inside of us.

As we took our post mooring up, we saw a sizeable pirate ship manned by sea cadets. It was nice seeing young sailors like us. For dinner, we had a stomach warming bolognaise with garlic bread.

We then got invited over for a Halloween-inspired party by the young sea cadets and that’s where I leave off, hoping to see tomorrow.

By Charlie.

We started off the day in Cowes, where we started to learn how to tie different knots such as: Clove Hitch, Figure of Eight and Bowline. We then untied and set off into the rough seas with force seven winds, one below a gale. After the rough seas and getting sprayed a lot, we ended up in the beautiful moorings of Bucklers Hard in Beaulieu.

We then attempted to row in the dinghy for our RYA Competent Crew Award, which didn’t really go to plan as the tide pushed the rowers out of the dinghy. We then got given some spare time so we took the short hike to Beaulieu Village where we unusually saw donkeys roaming the streets and had an ice cream break. We then rushed back to the boat to prepare the dinner of bangers and mash, which was smashing.

We then had a quiz and tac completion, which became very competitive coming to a tie break multiple times. A few of us went for showers, which were the nicest we’ve had, all before a late night match of Cluedo and some star gazing as the sky was really clear.

By Charlie and Rachel.

This morning we started the day with some pain au chocolates and croissants, which may have been slightly over toasted. We then got the dinghy out and did some more rowing practice, which went much better than yesterday and nobody had to get rescued.

Dug and Jake completed the little loop fastest, although the extra half an hour they had the day before meant it wasn’t as impressive as Stef’s and Violette’s. Once everyone had had a go at rowing, we got the motor on the dinghy and all got to steer it around and do some donuts. SO FUN!

We then set sail into the Solent, it wasn’t quite as windy as yesterday and we managed to tack and sail quite successfully with the Genoa and then the Mainsail out. For lunch we had to try and make our wraps, while just a tiny bit sideways and Dug decided he wanted a pizza wrap in the oven to add to the complications.

We got to Yarmouth and were allowed some shore leave. We decided to go to a park and then eventually ended up at the beach. Dug and Charlie let their intrusive thoughts win and went for a short dip in the sea, because the end of October is always a good time of year for swimming. We also saw a seal, which was quite far away.

Fleur got to drive the boat and Dug and Charlie went on the bow of the boat and while Fleur was driving, she went over a big wave and got them wet. It was very funny.

By Stef, Violette, Rachel, Jake and Fleur.

This morning we started with pancakes, which were a bit bad, but good enough to eat because we were all so hungry, so that was that.

We set off from Yarmouth, then dropped the anchor and waited for night time to come so we could do a night sail. We had soup for lunch, which was good.

For dinner we had Chilli Con Carne, which was spicy and Fleur had veg meatballs and they were good. It got dark while we were finishing our dinner. We put on our wet weather gear and went on deck, it was quite cold, but ok because it was so pretty at night. We all got to steer the boat in the dark.

We arrived in Portsmouth at 08:30 and docked there. We are all very tired from our night on the water, so we are all chilling down below. When we were docked, Fleur was on lookout for boats and she was very good at it. She said that she saw a very big boat on the horizon.  It was so cool and went right past us as we were all getting reading for bed. (SO TIERD).

We are all about to go to bed. See all of you parents tomorrow. (Hahahaha)

By Fleur.