The RONA sailing trip was a lot of fun. We stayed on a boat with 19 people for five days and we sailed around the South Coast of England, travelling from Southampton all the way to Weymouth over a very long day of learning and feeling sick. We learnt how to hoist up sails, tie knots, and all the different parts of the boat. Below deck, we had to cook in a narrow, corridor kitchen, all sleep in tiny bunks and of course we had to clean the heads (toilets). On the first day we already had to get up in the middle of the night and make sure that our anchor was working and we weren’t moving. On Tuesday, we went to Lulworth Cove where we anchored and some of us jumped in the water - it was extremely cold and I was shivering for minutes after getting out! The views there were amazing and it was a lovely day. One of the best parts of the trip was that night when we were up for three hours sailing in the pitch black night. We drank hot chocolate in the cockpit, did lots of sailing and watched the sun rise. That morning, we had another lovely meal for breakfast before having some fun and games. We traversed the boat all connected together, we had a rope throwing contest (which Mrs Purdy won) and the cornflake eating contest, where we were blindfolded and eating cornflakes. After that, we tried to raise our anchor, but it wasn’t coming up. We were stuck! Our anchor had caught on something at the bottom of the ocean. In the end, we left our anchor there for some divers to go to try and dislodge and rescue. At the end of the day, we made it to Cowes in the Isle of Wight. The last day was a tiring day full of cleaning and packing to leave the boat - we had to leave the boat spotless for the next crew to go onboard, including cleaning the galley, the floor and the deck. It was a great time and I’d love to go again. Nathan Sams 9P