Over the summer, Elliot Brooke, now in L6, took part in the Tall Ships sailing challenge. Here he tells us about his adventure and why he would recommend this fantastic experience to others…

“I first heard about the East of England regional Tall Ship Sailing Residential on 19 July when I was sent an email asking if I wished to represent Norfolk St John ambulance cadets on this adventure. Ten cadets were chosen from  a large number of young people across the East of England. The crew consisted of a boy and a girl from each district within the region, this includes Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Essex. Two weeks before we set sail, I met some of the crew in Huntingdon for an introductory briefing and a few icebreakers, everyone seemed really nice, and I was looking forward to the trip.

Day 1:

On 21 August I travelled to Huntingdon again and met up with the crew (Dyllon, Tanish, Jussi, James, Lala, Liv, Christina, Katie B and Katie N) to start our adventure to Portsmouth. There was a bit of awkward small talk at the beginning as everyone was a bit apprehensive but Josh, our fantastic leader, put on the playlist that had been created for the trip and turned it up to full blast and we were soon all singing along to Barbie Girl at the top of our lungs. Once we arrived in Portsmouth, we headed out for a gourmet meal (Burger King) and had a chat about what we were nervous about and what we were looking forward to.

After lunch, we headed for our boat (Challenger 3) and were greeted by our skipper and the rest of the crew. Our crew introduced us to members of the International Association of Cape Horner’s who funded a large amount of the trip. Once we had been given a quick tour around the boat, we set sail for the Ilse of Wight and cast our lines away for our maiden voyage. We arrived in Cowes after a short sail across the Solent; once we were moored up, we stepped ashore and went for a trip to the beach and even had a trip to Sainsburys!

As we had been such a good crew and our skipper was impressed with how well we were getting along with each other even though we hadn’t met before, she cooked our evening meal for us and I have to say, the fajitas were other worldly.  After a very long first day we went to bed and prepared for the next day.

Day 2:

On day two of our voyage, we woke up early at 06:00 ready for the longest sail recorded on this residential. We had fun getting the boat ready and preparing breakfast and once we were underway we raised the spinnaker pole ready for some fun activities. After a short break for bacon rolls, we began hoisting each other up the spinnaker pole (a pole that sticks out over the side of the boat), where we were met with stunning views as we sailed past the needles just off the coast of the Isle of Wight. The process of hoisting on the halyard is known as sweating, and I certainly was after hoisting 12 people up! The most entertaining member of the crew was Josh our leader; his attempt to scale the heights of the spinnaker pole was rather comical and his scream could be heard for miles!

Once we arrived in Weymouth and docked back in port, we were told that our voyage had taken 10 hours and that we had covered 60 miles (a normal voyage is about a third of this). Later in the evening, after our delicious fish and chips, we were escorted to the funfair by our leader. We had fun on the waltzers and got to listen to Josh’s infamous screams once more. After a long day at sea, we got ourselves ready for bed and climbed into our coffin bunks.

Day 3:

Weymouth to Poole - a much shorter day of sailing. After the usual morning routines and a lovely relaxing sail down the English Channel, we arrived in Poole, where we were told about our clumsy crew member ‘Kenny’. Kenny turned out to be us sitting on the pontoon! We had fun attempting the man overboard drills and hoisting each other onto the boat. Later in the day we stepped ashore for a refreshing ice cream (courtesy of St John) as the temperature had been in the high twenties all week. In the evening we went out to the arcades and managed to win over a thousand tickets and get ourselves some sweets and some Dorset coasters.

Day 4:

We woke early in the morning for a session of mast climbing and although the 92ft mast looked quite daunting but everyone had fun climbing it. Josh provided entertainment again with his screams which attracted a large audience along the quay as Poole was quite a busy marina! After another fun morning we set sail for the Isle of Wight again and once we arrived outside Cowes, we attached ourselves to an offshore mooring buoy and prepared for our night sail into Portsmouth! After a delicious meal we planned our course and set sail at 21:00. As we approached Portsmouth the lights looked beautiful; we entered the port and moored ourselves up and by the time we got to bed it was one in the morning.

Day 5:

We woke up early again and all felt a little bit sad that it was our last day. After a busy morning tidying the boat, we met with the Cape Horner’s again and were presented with our yachting qualifications and our Tall Ships voyage certificates. Katie N and I were asked to go back to Tall Ships as trainee watch leaders. Once we had all talked about what we had learnt from the trip and who had helped us along the way, we collected our Tall Ship t-shirts and lowered our regional flag in a closing of the flag ceremony.

Once we had left the boat we headed to Nando’s for our final meal together after which we headed back to the bus for a fun filled journey home, during which the singing didn’t stop. As we neared Huntingdon everyone got a bit emotional as we had become our own little family but Josh, as lovely as ever, told us not to worry because we would meet again a week later for some Domino’s pizza and some sweets to plan for the St John Ambulance regional youth conference that we had been invited to speak at as a result of our achievements over the week!

I would recommend Tall Ships and other similar experiences as it was really fun, and I have made some great friends. Tall Ships also gives you an opportunity to develop essential life skills such as leadership and service and these skills can change your life and your perspective on things. I know that I certainly feel more confident after my adventure and if I had the chance to go again I most definitely would. I am really proud of my achievements especially considering that I suffer from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) which has affected me since I contracted Covid-19 in 2021.”