We started our day in Wiltshire, some of us joining the minibus in Devizes and the rest in Salisbury. The journey to Portsmouth was long, some of us slept, but some of us were very loud and annoyed Rachel. Carrying our bags through Gunwharf Quays was hard for some of us as we had overpacked. But for Kit and Fin it was easy as they had packed their bags with military precision.

We met the crew at the entrance to the marina. James is the Skipper, he is a very nice guy, quite funny. Mark is a great guy, he talks a lot, good sense of humour. Spud is one of the watch leaders, is an amazing guy, excellent sense of humour.

Kirsty, watch leader, ‘yeh she’s alright’

Once we had got our bags on board, we had a thingy (tour) of the boat. During the tour we learnt about the safety equipment (life rafts), how to use the heads (toilets), what to do in a fire and lots of other things in between. Kit and Finn have both got the coffin bunk in their respective cabins. Both report that they are tiny, but the boat is about the size they thought it was going to be. The kitchen (galley) is smaller, and we worried about how to would ever cook anything in there.

After eating our lunches, we got into our watches (port and starboard) put our life jackets on as we wanted to get out of Portsmouth before the Brittany Ferries came out, but we weren’t quick enough so had to follow it out.

Once out the marina we put all the fenders and lines away in the sail locker, it was at this point that Dairy worked out that the roving/ball fenders could be used as giant space hoppers. We then sailed to our overnight anchorage at Gurnard Bay on the Isle of Wight. It took us two hours to get there and on route we did lots of things including hanking on a Stay and a Yankee 2 sail, learning how to tie bowline and clove hitch knots as well as practiced using the winches. Kit was the guinea pig as Mark needed help.

James ‘fairy glided’ our way (not a typo) into Gurnard Bay on the isle of wight where we anchored.

Dinner was chicken fajitas cooked by Port watch and they did very well preparing the food and cooking it with only two saucepans, Starboard watch washed up very quickly so they could go and watch the sunset, and we had some lovely views of it as it disappeared behind the horizon.

We had a quick look at a chart of the area (like a map of the sea) and worked out what our route is tomorrow, we are aiming for Poole.

Before we go to bed Mark has taught us a new game it’s called ‘The Mind’ it’s addictive, so far there hasn’t been a winner, so the game is still ongoing.

Some of us started the day very early by getting up to watch the sunrise over Gurnard bay, it was very pretty, but quite cold. After this we warmed up croissants for breakfast and devoured them quickly.

Then it was time to get going, we got the boat ready and raised the anchor and then manoeuvred our way out of the bay, avoiding the sand banks.

Then it was time to get the sails up, we started with the main sail. It took a while as its very big and heavy but we worked in pairs to sweat it up. Then we put up the Yankee 2 and Staysail and we had arrived at the needles at the end of the island.

James then thought it was about time to practice man overboard drills, first they threw a weighted fender in and to get it back on board we harnessed up Ryley and sent him overboard on a halyard to retrieve our fake casualty. Then as soon as that was done we lost another casualty – this time the danbuoy, but as we had just done so well, we aced the second go.

As part of the man overboard drill we took the foredeck sails down so to get going again we had to put them back up again. To make it fun we had a competition to see who could sweat the staysail up quickest. Laila took 1 minute 30 seconds, Lewis 1 minute 18 seconds, Kit took 23 seconds, Spud took 18 seconds, Fin took 17 seconds and James did it in 15 seconds making him the winner.

Rachel then cooked up cheese and ham/beans toasted sandwiches on the hob and we devoured them, thankfully it wasn’t to rough for her as Kit, Skye and Fin all had a go at steering the boat during this time.

We then tried to climb to the end of the spinnaker pole, which was out over the side of the boat.  First to go was Lewis, then Ryley, then Kit, then Fin and finally Jacob all attempted to get to the end, most people got all the way and some posed for photos!

As we were now nearing Poole, we had to start taking the sails down, starting with the foredeck ones. Kirsty led the stowing of one and Fin led the taking down, flaking and storing of the other. Kit is looking forward to lead putting them up tomorrow.

Then it was the time to take the main down, which took a long time as we had to flake it onto the boom before we could put the cover on it. But after about half an hour we had got it done and motored into Poole harbour. We looked at all the big houses and wished which ones we would like to live in. Some people chose Brownsea castle!

We were very quickly into the marina and this was the first time we were mooring the boat. So everyone had a job, Kit and Fin were on the bow, throwing lines and tightening them on the cleat. Daisy and Isla were on the roving fenders and Lewis and Ryley were on the cockpit mooring lines taking in slack and locking them off.

We were then allowed some free time to wander around Poole, there were lots of people with motorbikes along the quay. But the highlight was a trip to Sainsburys where we got snacks.

Starboard watch cooked dinner, which was Thai satay noodles which is something that neither Sharon nor Rachel had ever cooked before, consequently it was a bit late as it took longer than planned but it was very tasty. It was also Spud’s first time as a watch leader cooking meals.

There then wasn’t much time to play Uno after we did the washing up but we managed it. We are not looking forward to the early start tomorrow morning.

This morning we were woken with a start at 6.00am when Spud turned the engine on so we could leave the pontoon. At 6.01am we were on our way and James let fin drive the boat out of the marina and into Poole harbour. By the time we had got to the chain ferry everyone had surfaced and was on deck ready to hoist the sails. Kit was cold because Sharon had said the weather was “ok, mild, not too windy”, but unfortunately that was a lie and it was both cold and windy. We did have to dodge the Barfleur passenger ferry coming into the harbour at full speed. It took us an hour, but we got all the sails up (main, yankee 2 and staysail).

We then took off at great speed across the bay heading for the Isle of Wight, our fastest speed was 11 knots. The boat healed over in the wind (max was 36.7^o of heel) and there were waves forming making the ride much bumpier. This meant that no one wanted to go downstairs to cook breakfast because they immediately thought they were going to be sick. Kirsty took one for the team and went down and toasted lots of bagels for us and we eat them on deck.

Over the next few hours many people started to feel ill and some were actually ill, so some took themselves to bed. Isla was one of them and she fell out of bed twice until Rachel helped tie her into her bunk using the lee cloths so she didn’t fall out of bed again.

A couple more hours on and we had past the far end of the island and we then needed to turn the boat, but as we had sails up this required us to learn a new skill, tacking the boat. This involved all of us either pulling in or easing various lines on the boat for the Yankee 2, staysail or running backstays. We spotted another of the Challenge 72 boats off Sandown bay and waved at them.

It was hard work, and just as we had finished, we then had to do it all over again. After what felt like ages of this (but was actually only about an hour) we finally got to Bembridge ledge which was the turning point to head into the solent the sail flew free from the sheet and quick acting crew got it reefed in and we carried on. We did another man over board drill and this time Daisy went over to collect the dan buoy.

On the way through the Solent to Cowes, several of them stepped up to lead sail hoists and drops. Kit did the Yankee 2 and Laila organised putting the sails back in the bag. When we arrived into Cowes, Kirsty parked the boat and we put everything back in its rightful place to put the boat to bed.

Dinner was macaroni cheese with garlic bread, it was very tasty and everyone cleaned their plates so there was no food waste, which made Sharon very happy.

When we were talking about the day we found out that Skye had napped regularly throughout the day, maybe half an hour every hour. Ryley who had been ill on deck (stating that “at least the bagel was toasted” after he had thrown it up, but had then helped to dish out drinks to others showing good stamina and team work skills) had gone downstairs and also been ill, he had decorated 2 compartments, walls and floors and put the watertight door temporarily out of action. The staff worked valiantly to clean the boat whilst at full sail, triple bagging effected articles. Other notable mentions include Oli (twice) and Jacob (four). But we had travelled 67NM today, so we are very pleased with ourselves. After a few round of Uno after dinner we are all headed to bed, we are getting a lie in tomorrow!

We took full advantage of the lie in we were given and slept until 8am this morning. When we had returned from using the shore facilities, we started cooking bacon and egg baps. Sharon wasn’t happy that even though we eat all the bacon we hadn’t eaten all the eggs, so there was food waste today ☹. This took ages to clean up as the scrambled eggs had welded themselves to the pan. Three rounds of scrubbing later and it was finally clean. As we couldn’t all agree on our final meal on board before we arrived, we had to make this decision today, we were still undecided but were convinced into cooking spaghetti Bolognese as we were told it was going to be easy. But when we were all done, we got to have some free time wandering around Cowes. Some of us still had some money for the shops, but others who had spent everything they had went for a walk down the beach and tried skimming stones, the record was 8 skims.

When we returned from town most of had a go at mast climbing, Fin went first, wearing his wellies. Instead of being sweated up the main by the rest of us he got past the third spreader by climbing. Whilst Ollie was initially up for it, he then went right to the back of the queue (he did eventually return and got to the top). Daisy, Kit, Lewis and lots more of us got all the way to the top and there were fabulous views over Cowes. The Fin challenged James to a mast climb and they got their safety gear on before the trash talk started. Unfortunately, James (who does this for a job!) got to the top first but Fin wasn’t far behind. Whilst we were waiting to climb, we were challenged to tie lots of different including sheet bend, double sheet bend, monkey fist, reef and many more. Skye was very good at it and helped teach others.

We then had baguettes for lunch and the adults had a smelly weird looking baked camembert cheese, they loved it, but we didn’t. After lunch Daisy and Spud then tried to blow up the dingy, but the first pump didn’t work, and they found a puncture. After a while we did get it blown up and in small groups, we tried to row it around the marina without hitting any of the very expensive boats. Kirsty taught us about the different buoys, the cardinal marks and the points of sail. Then Mark took us through the plan for the night navigation, we worked in pairs to steer between two buoys then the next team took over.

After our dinner we then got ourselves dressed up in all our clothes and went up on deck too. Laila and Oli started off then passed over to Daisy and Lewis, who passed on to Skye and Jacob, then on to Isla and Ryley and finally finished with Kit and Finn. We all then went to bed and James and the others sailed us to Stokes Bay where we anchored for the night.