John Laing Sailing Weekend
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On the 7th October a group of 12 girls from Yr8-9 boarded the John Laing sailing boat in Southampton. After unloading our bags, realising we had brought too much, we had a talk with the skipper and the sea staff crew who were really nice and then we all went to bed.
On Saturday, we got up very early and had a nice breakfast but then, unfortunately, we had to do some chores which involved some of us having to clean the toilets!
We had a great day sailing as the weather was perfect and we had a good amount of wind. We learnt how to coil ropes successfully, tie different knots; tack using the winch and some of us even had a go steering at the helm.
After a tiring day sailing, we arrived at Cowes marina and then walked into Cowes to look at some of the different shops. Many of us were so hungry after all the sailing that we just bought chips and sweets!
In the evening, after supper, we washed our plates up… which was interesting… as we had plates thrown at us which we had to dry .It resulted in a lot of water everywhere and all over us but it was really funny!
Then we played some games: eating a chocolate mousse without using your hands and several murder mystery games! Then a group of us went to the cockpit at the back of the boat and had an evening sing-song- which was really fun for us but I’m not sure the neighbours appreciated it too much!
On Sunday, we had another great day sailing and the conditions were surprisingly still nice. It was really great and we returned back to Southampton down the Solent getting soaked along the way!
When we got to the marina it was time to unpack and scrub the boat! We all really didn’t want to go home as we had a great time and I would really love to go again if I had the chance.
Olivia Rutherford - Year 9