Today we ventured onto the mighty challenger the 2 through the Solent Sea, past currents and challenging tides.

The day started off, when a boat with Swedish cadets moored opposite us. Unfortunately, a man fell into the water when he was reaching for the rope. Luckily, he showed us a perfect example of how to use the lifejacket

An unusual day to average middle school students. Arriving at school at 10am ready for the 5-day adventure on challenger 2! An unexpected shock when walking into the 5-star hotel with double beds and finding yourself sleeping later in a tiny room with 5 hammock bunk beds squeezed in (it was quite enjoyable and felt like a sleepover).

A sudden change in weather, hit when we were in the middle of the sea. We had lots of stuff to do, and we couldn’t do it because we were cold. It took a lot of strength not to get our coats. Tired and “nearly froze to death” but we survived sneaking of to the toilets and huddling in our coats (only joking).

10/10

TO BE CONTINUED………

Today we sailed to Weymouth, passing picturesque sceneries, including Durdle Door & the Needles. We travelled over 50 miles in total today, with around 65 total overall throughout the trip so far.

Approaching the mouth of the cove/river we experienced choppy waters with large waves (3 ft at most), and one of us nearly experienced ‘the taste of the floorboards’ (words from -the man the myth, the floorboard eater 😄 – Ewan) after almost falling over constantly (no parts of floorboards were eaten/licked/consumed, however he came surprisingly close to). Although everyone had fun experiencing large waves, both above board and below.

Timmy went overboard (THE TEST DUMMY NOT A REAL PERSON) and we had to circle around him a lot. We all enjoyed trying to find him whilst practicing our effectiveness under time pressure eventually he did got ‘rescued’.

We also got taught different knot tying, this included clove hitch and a bowline which we learned are used a lot more then expected on a sailboat.

When we got to Weymouth, we all went on land where we got ice cream and played around on the beach (while throwing seaweed at each other to have fun). And then went for a walk over the lifting bridge. We also had a great time at the bow watching the world go by.

We did lots of work on learning how to put up and down sails effectively- this was very exhausting but somehow, we still had fun doing it. This evening, we are all tired but so proud of ourselves. We had fish and chips which were very nice especially after putting up and down sails.

Any who we had a wonderful day as always with our crew. 10/10​

Today we travelled back from Weymouth; across the picturesque ocean on the super challenger the second.

We set sail around 9:15 and travelled about 40 miles venturing past the needles and through the channel

After we put our blood, sweat and tears into working for the skipper, he so kindly gave us the opportunity to sunbathe on the deck (which no one ever gets to do 😉 )

We set up the spinnaker pole whilst battling the extreme weather; and towering 90-foot waves, The wind howled in our direction, and the cherry on top was the sun melting our eyes. We then had the chance to climb up  the spinnaker pole on a rope. The views at the top were majestic

Head chef Benryll and co-head chef Josephine conducted a special curry (which the recipe shan’t be told) it was exquisite but they were shocked when the crew( Ewan, Lexi, Freya, Izzy, Elijah Paul Bladen ,ruva, Gracie, Jacob ) were all too full from our yummy- yummy ice cream And hat to tell them off for eating junk.

All in all, it was a pretty good day :).

Expertly written by Josephine and benryll