This expedition involved chartering a Challenger round the world racing yacht through the Tall Ships Youth Trust for a five-day voyage in and out of Portsmouth. Ten cadets, a cadet force adult volunteer and female chaperone from Tile Cross Academy took part. Tile Cross Academy, in Birmingham, is the fifth most disadvantaged secondary school in England and is part of Solihull School CCF through the Cadet Expansion Programme. February will always be a challenging time of year for offshore sailing, especially for novices and the month lived up to expectations! Arriving at lunchtime on Monday the cadets were swept into safety briefings by the crew before setting off across the Solent to spend the first night alongside in Cowes. The passage was made with just headsails up as the watches got used to sailing the boat and preparing food and drinks below deck.
We awoke on Tuesday to bright sunshine and strong winds and the cadets had already impressed the skipper enough for him to risk leaving the shelter of the Solent and head down to Poole. He also decided to hoist the largest headsail, the stay sail and the full main sail. Hard physical work for cadets in years eight and ten. The wind direction meant that Challenger Two could sail close hauled straight from Cowes, passed The Needles, and on to Old Harry Rocks at times making 11 knots. With nothing to compare this against, the cadets did not truly appreciate how amazing this was! As we approached Poole and began to take down the sails we were distracted by the SBS practicing picking up ribs and their crews from the sea with a Chinook helicopter! This activity made it into Thursday’s edition of The Times.
Wednesday’s weather was a complete contrast. Driving rain was accompanied by wind gusting to gale force seven and the associated rough seas. We ran down to Yarmouth on just a stay sail, surfing down the larger waves. The cadets were outstanding and showed no fear although they must have been quite scared. Many had to seek refuge in their bunks but only one was seasick and he managed to soldier on above decks. After entering Yarmouth on the high tide, we went on a lovely walk up the River Yar accompanied by hail, rain, sunshine, and rainbows!
Thursday dawned bright and sunny, and the cadets took turns at being hoisted to the top of the mast whilst we waited for high tide. We had been sailing in a loose flotilla with another Tall Ships Challenger yacht with a crew of young adults with special needs. Departing at roughly the same time set both boats up for an Eastwards race towards Cowes. Challenger Two started from behind but closed in to ‘fire’ a barrage of bananas at our opposition. This was followed by a man overboard practice with one of the cadets being lowered over the side on a bosun’s chair to grab the ‘body’. That evening we anchored in Osbourne Bay for dinner and to allow each watch to plan a night navigation route around various marks to get us back into Portsmouth. It was a beautiful star lit night with the planets aligned above us.
Friday was clean up and debriefing before heading back to Birmingham. All the cadets achieved their RYA Start Yachting certificates. It was an amazing week enabled by a fantastic crew from the Tall Ships Youth Trust, their generous bursary, and the significant grant from the Ulysses Trust.
‘I didn’t know what to expect but it was much better than I expected! It was great fun and hard work which really developed my self confidence and team working skills.’ Freya, year 10.
