Back in Home Waters

After two months we have finally come to the end of our deployment and will limp into the English Channel tonight. Things have been busy but that has not been a bad thing as time has gone quickly. As always with these types of exercise it was about as well organised as a piss up in a brewery but at least it is now over.

 

We only had three short port visits, not that I am complaining as with each port the pilotage got tighter and tighter, until we finally reached Valletta, which was really tight to get into with an interesting S bend going through the breakwater. Certainly not something I would want to do on a regular basis as it just doesn’t feel right steaming right towards a cliff. On the plus side though I got to have lunch with the earl and Countess of Wessex when they visited the ship.

 

Our passage back has been a bit lumpy over the past few days, thankfully the Bay hasn’t been as bad as predicted and therefore we have managed to keep our Friday arrival. Debbie and the little ones are coming down for the night which will be nice as I haven’t seen them since I joined in September. We sail Saturday but at least we will get Friday night together.

 

800 Miles

Once again I find myself sat down trying to think of what to write. It is hard to write about what I have been upto, nothing exciting but I am just cautious as to what goes out in an open forum. I must say this trip has been extremely busy but at least I am now half way through. I am really hoping that things quieten down a little bit over the coming weeks so that I can actually start to tie down our future programme as it looks somewhat of a tramsmash at present. I suppose at least by keeping busy the time goes quickly.

 

Well our last port visit was enjoyable, if stressful at times. Over the Saturday night we had 70mph winds blowing us off the berth, thankfully as we have thrusters we managed to keep ourselves pushed on overnight. We did however lift the gangway which caused a few issues for our remaining troops who came back in the early ours. Thankfully one of our consorts were kind enough to take them in for the night, I only wonder what they made of the chap that turned up in a hospital gown wearing an eye patch.

 

During the visit managed to get ashore for a skype call, unfortunately I ended up drinking far to much espresso, nice coffee but leaves an awful headache after the fifth one. On sailing the fleet had a call from the Naval Attaché as a picture of Johnny Wilkinson had gone walkabout from the local Rugby Club. Obviously they were disheartened and asked for it’s return. After a search onboard one of our troops handed it in with the story that he had bumped into a couple of drunk Belgians that had borrowed the picture and were now bored of it. Johnny made his first appearance at our 1930 meeting at which point myself and the AOO carried him up to the bridge. At this point I would just like to say that the picture was infact a life size plywood cut-out of Johnny which looked quite freaky under red torchlight on a dark bridge.

 

Well one more exercise to do and then we have our final port visit to a historic port before we head home to colder climbs. I must say having looked at the pilot book I am looking forward to the visit as it is somewhere I haven’t been before.

 

I know I moan about the long hours, but it is not all bad. As I say the time really is flying by so I really don’t have to much time to myself. I do however manage to steal 30mins every other day or so to go for a bike ride and read my book. I am still slowly chipping away at this years challenge and broke the 800mile mark yesterday. Only 200 more to go and then I have reached this years target of cycling 1000miles