Theo’s Blog – An Internship Adventure at Sea

We are always excited to discover inspiring stories involving young individuals!

This blog post is from Theo, a Jack Petchey Foundation Intern who recently took a group of young people from his organisation on a sailing trip around Europe as part of his internship!

My name is Theo and I am the Youth Project Intern at The OutHouse, on the Jack Petchey Foundation Internship Programme 8.

On the 17^th of July 2026, members of the Outhouse youth project, staff and crew of the Pioneer Sailing Trust set sail for 9 days to Belgium and then Holland. Before this was possible, it took a lot of preparation!

I first heard about the trip when I joined the Outhouse in late March 2026, however I never thought just 4 months later I would be exploring incredible parts of Europe with 6 young people.

The planning for this trip took a long time, with many members of the team at the Outhouse involved. Insurance was sorted by the Outhouse finance and admin staff who also helped immensely with paperwork and food budgeting.

Fern, who is the Youth Project Manager at the Outhouse and my line manager on the Internship Programme, oversaw the entire trip. She communicated with the Pioneer Trust to put together consent forms, choosing young people to attend and organizing meetings around the trip every other Monday night. Admin staff at the Pioneer Trust helped to plan a route and book places to moor, and the crew made the trip possible! Each young person had to fundraise the cost of their food for the trip. This gave them valuable experience speaking to members of the public, as we attended several Pride events to sell our products in the lead-up to the trip.

On the day itself everyone was buzzing with excitement in their matching pioneer Europe sail T-shirts, although slightly apprehensive about the 18-hour North Sea crossing. This was hard work for all, especially Robin, our skipper, as he needed to stay up through the night to keep an eye on our course.

The young people, Fern and I were split into teams led by Simon and Mick, and we took it in turns to sleep for 3 hours and then sail the boat for 3 hours. Everyone learnt to steer the boat via compass. Using the AIS was incredibly interesting, especially when calculating when to cross “shipping lanes” to not get too close to container ships. The wind was fairly strong, and this led to some slightly rough conditions, but we all felt very proud of the resilience our young people showed. It also taught me an important lesson that I can stay positive in any situation.

When we arrived in Belgium, we first found border control in the local police station before exploring Zeebrugge and of course eating ice cream.

The next day was spent travelling to Middelburg, where we explored the harbour via a dinghy ride and walked through the town. Each night we made dinner as a team, with different members helping to cook and wash up in the galley, teaching the young people important skills for future independence.

We also experimented with the GoPro, filming jellyfish around the boat. All the young people had been sailing at least once before, but it was lovely to see the more experienced members passing on knowledge to others and competently sailing the boat.

To sail to Goes we took incredibly scenic waterways, including lots of lochs where we were greeted with interest by local sailors as the Pioneer is a very unique looking boat, being the last of the large Essex smacks to survive! We even welcomed people on tours when we were moored in each location.

During our two days in Goes, we explored the town on foot, visited a museum and two beautiful churches, and enjoyed plenty of shopping at our favourite Dutch supermarket, Albert Heijn, along with eating ice cream in town. Each young person was given a small budget to buy Dutch food to taste test as a cultural evening activity!

On the way back to Zierikzee we perfected our team sailing skills with the young people capably handling many tacks and sailing under the longest bridge in Europe. Zierikzee was wonderful for wildlife spotting and the young people got free time in the town, the views from the mooring were lovely during the evening and we all had a meal on the deck, cooked entirely by the young people, watching the sunset.

We were nearing the end of our trip, with just one more night in Holland, which we had all fallen in love with. We sailed back to Middelburg and had lessons from Simon about wind direction which the young people used to further their steering skills. I found learning to steer by looking at the wind direction challenging, but it was a lot of fun.

The final day in Holland felt bittersweet, but everyone had stocked up on pistachio spread and Stroop waffles ready for the 20-hour journey back across the North Sea to Harwich. There was very little wind which meant we all saw a variety of sea life including porpoises, seals and jellyfish. The last few days of our trip were spent sailing back to Brightlingsea and cleaning the Pioneer as well as organizing all of our food supplies and catching up on sleep after the epic North Sea crossing.

On land, each team member got a certificate with the destinations and distances we travelled. We were all very tired but agreed that the trip was a great success. It taught me a lot about myself as an intern and greatly improved my leadership skills, helping to keep everyone safe and happy. I especially enjoyed the organisation tasks and working with a budget. I feel I pushed myself to the next level and never thought I would have the confidence to do any of it.

This trip was a huge achievement and built strong bonds between us all, with the young people making friends for life. We hope to run more trips abroad with the Pioneer Sailing Trust and their awesome crew next year!