College Student participates in Exercise Transglobe
Posted on Friday 7 August 2009
Emma Sweetman received a College Travel Scholarship to join the Bay of Biscay leg of a joint Army/Na
Emma battles against the high seas of the Bay of Biscay
Exercise Transglobe is a major Tri-Service Adventurous Sail Training Exercise open to all UK service personnel, Regular and Reserve, from June 2009 to July 2010. The aim of the exercise is to develop the personal qualities essential to Regular and Reserve members of HM Forces through adventurous sail training in a Service environment. Click here for further details.
Emma writes:
We left home late afternoon on Sunday 5 July to head down to Fort Blockhouse down in Gosport, the Navy base at which we were based for the initial week of training. Training week included briefings, meeting the crew and learning how to sail! Having never sailed before, it was quite a lot to take in at once. I was on the RAF boat, which included people from all ranks and abilities within the RAF.
Sailing officially started on the 11 July. Friends and family came to see everyone off at the start point at Southsea Castle. Waving to them from the boat through the heavy rain was like waving at blobs on the shore- it was so misty and cloudy that day! The weather for the first 48 hours was pretty dreadful, with heavy rain and rough seas.
Once on the boat, we were split into 3 watches by colour, red, white and blue. I was in blue watch, which soon became nicknamed barf watch due to everyone in the watch, apart from myself, throwing up. The toughest moments were within the first 48 hours, sitting up on deck with as many layers on as possible with full waterproof oilskins (oilies), gloves and hat, and still feeling the cold! Although my watch were ill, we still managed to keep going through the four shift pattern. This involved a rolling 4 hours on, 4 hours off for 48 hours. Followed by a 24 hours of ‘mother watch’ in which time you cooked evening meal, had a ‘decent’ nights sleep, breakfast and lunch, plus cleaning and general boat maintenance. It could be considered rest time, but it was hard work if your rest time was woken up at 2am to change the headsail due to force 8 winds!
One of the hardest parts of the sailing was the renowned Bay of Biscay- through which the seas were rough and winds were very strong. This made some of the crew feel very ill. It took us ten days of sailing to get to Lanzarote. The Navy arrived half a day before us in true naval style, and the Army arrived half a day after us. We were more than happy just to get there, and coming second was a bonus! Once arriving in Lanzarote we celebrated in true forces style with a fry-up and a night out in the local town.
After cleaning and preparing the boat, we sailed around the island of Lanzarote, up to an island towards the north called Graciosa. The scenery and volcanoes that we saw were stunning! On our travels around the island we stayed at a couple of marinas- one even had a swimming pool and shopping centre with internet cafe! We spent a few nights anchored up in bays to cut down on mooring fees. Anchor watched involved sitting up for an hour and a half in the night and taking bearings every 15 minutes. This was very hard to stay awake for if you were given a time such as 2.30am-4am; hence we were in pairs.
Although it was sometimes a struggle to stay awake doing any of the night shifts; 8pm-12pm, 12am-4am, or 4am-8am; due to very minimal light pollution, the stars were truly amazing! Throughout the trip I saw over twenty shooting stars and many constellations. We even think we were able to see a planet, a space station and lots of satellites and aeroplanes! When we were sailing along, watching the stars with the motion of the ocean it was quite relaxing, and if we happened to be steering on the night shift, you could use the stars to navigate by. In the day time we could use the clouds, but of course the clouds are always moving so this was harder. However at night, it was tougher to see the wind direction indicator at the top of the mast and the flag movement. Hence we relied on the compass as well, which was just in front of the wheel.
We sailed back into Puerto Calero, the main marina we were using in Lanzarote for mast checks and repairs. On our single day off, we explored the local island and went scuba diving in the afternoon! We went straight out into the sea with the diving gear on – which was too heavy for me to lift! - and it was scary. Sitting on the bottom of the sea was hard breathing into the mouth piece. I didn’t scuba dive for very long, but I was glad to have had the opportunity to try it out. The final few days we were cleaning the boat and preparing it for the next crew.
On the last Friday in Lanzarote, the temperature was 46.5°C at 11am, in the shade! I dont know what it peaked at, but due to Saharan winds it felt like a constant hair dryer. My shift volunteered to clean the top deck, this was the best job we thought because we could use the hose. We hosed ourselves down as much as the boat and because it was so hot, the water coming out of the hose was warm so it was just like having a shower. Myself and one of the girls volunteered to get in the dinghy to clean the outside of the boat. Using bubbles and sponges this was a great laugh, until we had to use scourers around the water line. We were given a scouring pad each and told to scrub the boat. To us, this seemed crazy, although it did look much cleaner when it was all finished!
The aeroplane home was about 5 hours to Manchester, followed by a 6 hour coach journey back down to Gosport. After the swaying of the boat, a very tiny bed for a month, a toilet that require pumping at least 30 times and boat ‘showers’, it was amazing to come home and sleep in a comfy bed, use a ‘normal’ toilet and normal showers. The best part of the trip was the achievement of arriving in Lanzarote!
