DAY 1 total: 359.2 miles - Southampton to Harlingen, Netherlands

DAY 2 total: 268.5 miles - Harlingen to Kiel, Germany

DAY 3 total: 358.1 miles - Kiel to Hel, Poland, via Denmark

DAY 4 total: 241.6 miles - Hel to Visby, Sweden

DAY 5 total: 194.2 miles - Visby to Nagu, Finland

DAY 6 total: 429 miles - Nagu to Parnu, Estonia, via Tallinn

DAY 7 total: 568 miles (inc. late declarations) - Parnu to Riga, Latvia, to Klaipeda, Lithuania, to Karlskrona, Sweden!

OVERALL TOTAL: 2431 miles!  

THE EVENT:

Usually at the end of March we’d be welcoming young people on board Prolific for our first sail training voyage of the season. This year our trips are likely to be delayed further by the pandemic, but we’re still as keen as ever to get back to working as a team and raise some funds to further support our charitable work.

Given that we’re not able to get out on the water just yet, we are setting our young crew, volunteers, and supporters a challenge: to get Prolific ‘sailing’ again. 

Over the course of a week we’re going to virtually recreate a typical trip, and will travel as many miles as we can, by any method. Of course we’d all ordinarily choose to sail, but for now we'll be cycling, running, walking, swimming, cartwheeling, skateboarding… and with each mile travelled, we’ll get Prolific closer to the next port. Day by day we’ll add up everyone’s combined mileage and see how far we’ve got – maybe 10 miles towards Cowes, a further 40 miles towards Weymouth, or how about 60 miles from there towards Cherbourg?! Plus we’ll need to make it back through the Needles to Southampton again, so as the week progresses we might need even more help to cover the distance back towards home.

If this sounds like your kind of challenge and you're keen to get involved, send us an email with your pledge to hollyvint@oytsouth.org  and please remember that you can add as much or as little to the mileage as you like - every little bit will help! Don't be intimidated by some of the huge distances already pledged, if you can "only" squeeze in 2 miles - that's equally as great. We just want as many people to get involved as possible.

WHY SPONSOR US?

Ocean Youth Trust South is a registered charity (no. 1079959) which grew out of the Ocean Youth Club, founded in 1960. We are the first sail training charity to have been awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service – equivalent to an MBE. 450 young people sail with us each year as active crew members in a purpose-built sail training vessel, Prolific. 

Visit our website here http://www.oytsouth.org/charity.asp for more information on our charitable work.

We take groups of disadvantaged and vulnerable young people to sea every year, build their confidence, widen their horizons and change their lives – for good. Voyages are designed to develop confidence, team-work, communication, the ability to cope with unfamiliar situations and more - all skills needed by families, schools, employers and the wider community.

We do this by giving the young people responsibility for the boat, the voyage and themselves. Steering a 32 metre boat, hoisting her sails, keeping watch, navigating – as well as cooking for the whole crew and cleaning the vessel – are new experiences that build skills and confidence. We don’t just tell the young people what to do; we involve them in decisions and make them a part of the team.

The pandemic meant that we weren't able to sail at all in 2020, which had a huge impact on our income. Your support will help to ensure that once it's safe to do so, we're able to keep delivering such life-changing voyages.

THE PLEDGES:

We currently have 1462 miles pledged by 36 people! They are:

Charles Kingston, 50 miles

Halima Mehmood, 62 miles

James Maltby, 70 miles

Brigid Stoney, 26 miles

Sara Abdur, 50 miles

Georgia Watson, 40 miles

Ben Hawkins, 40 miles

Hilary Croft, 10 miles

John Hicks, 70 miles

Glyn Collins, 70 miles

Penny Scott Bayfield, 30 miles

Lauren Mackenzie, 125 miles

Fred Cole, 28 miles

Tansy, 20 miles

Andy Gissing, 26 miles

John Jones, 50 miles

Caz White, 30 miles

Millie Doodson, 20 miles

Anne Dunn, 40 miles

Niamh Lamin, 10 miles

Joshua Caudery, 100 miles

Holly Vint, 50 miles

Callum Doyle, 50 miles

Andy Viney, 30 miles

Rosalie Sanders, 50 miles

Mark Boggis, mystery miles

Kieran O'Malley, 40 miles

Willoughby Matthews, 70 miles

Toni Koczy, 12 miles

Abi Davies, 7 miles

Jaqueline Taylor, 7 miles

Ben and Helena Martin, 50 miles

Jon Seddon, 51 miles

Phil Loutsis, 52 miles