Tuesday 4th August, we left Hull train station bright and early at 7am for a 7-hour train journey, arriving at Portsmouth Harbour at 2pm.

We met up with the Tall Ships staff at the main gates and quickly settled onto the ship, getting safety briefings and an overall plan for the week.

We left Gunwharf Quays at around 3pm, where we set off to head towards an anchorage, learning how to tack along the Solent.

We came to anchor at 6:20pm to make tea, where Starboard Watch made a chicken curry. We then sat together as a group, enjoying the food and laughing around the table.

We ended the night with chilling out before we all had a 1-and-a-half-hour anchorage watch in pairs during the night.

Wednesday 5th August, last night we did anchor watch from 10pm–6am in 1-and-a-half-hour intervals.

We pulled up anchor at 6am and left through the Solent, dodging the busy shipping route. Then we started our 12-hour passage (meant to be 7) to Alderney.

Due to the lack of sea legs acquired by the group, 7/16 of us proudly regurgitated breakfast or tea from last night.

We put up both headsails (Yankee 2 and staysail) and reef 1 on the mainsail and continued our adventure.

We witnessed an euphoric dolphin practising for the maritime sea life Olympics while dodging the shallow waters he was leading us towards.

We arrived at Alderney at 6pm, but 7pm local time brought down the sails and tied up to a mooring buoy.

The cooking team for today cooked a lovely chicken chorizo jambalaya as the others went for a warm, overdue, well-deserved shower.

They came back just in time to sit as a team and enjoy tea and jokes around the table.

The evening will be ended with more jokes and music on the main

Thursday 6th August, today we woke up at 8am and promptly made breakfast, which consisted of bacon butties and scrambled eggs.

We then enjoyed shore leave in Alderney from 9:30am–12pm. Most people explored, went to the shops and enjoyed well-deserved land time.

You may be thinking… how did you get to land if you were moored onto a buoy?

Well, let me tell you!

There was… A SEA TAXI!!!!

We just had to call them. Quite simple, really.

At around 1:40pm, we slipped lines from Alderney and ascended up the English Channel to, well, you guessed it, the UK.

Lucky for us, no one regurgitated any food that was consumed onshore.

We participated in a 9-hour journey, seeing more dolphins practising for the duos this time. We dodged more fishing buoys than we would like to tell you, while having an array of music tastes from classical to hard rock, but we all had fun.

However, at 6:30pm, we did enjoy a pre-cooked spag bol on deck.

We arrived in Studland Bay at 10:30pm, where we quickly hoisted down the sails, dropped anchor and got tucked up warm into bunks.

But not for long!

We have another anchor watch to complete tonight, which will not be enjoyed.

Goodnight.