Little Sullage Pump

So, the other day I was duty, and we had to empty one of the sullage tanks. The Sullage people came to us, and gave us a pump to boost the suction at our end, and, after leaving it to do it's job, I suddenly realised IT WAS ALIVE.... (and hence I filmed it, wrote some music for it, and put it all together in this comical little production...)

BOST: Week 3

Despite being taken on my really rubbish phone-camera, I really like these photos. They've come out really grey, which is exactly how I feel at the moment. This photo above, shows all the ships on exercise with us at the moment. There's a type 23 frigate close by, a couple of RFA ships, and HMS Ocean in the distance. There's a couple more too, but they had the luxury of docking alongside a wall instead of anchoring. Every time I see Ocean, I can't help thinking how ridiculously mean it looks. Well, from the side anyway. She's an amphibious landing platform... which means she doesn't deal with any jet aircraft, just helicopters, and marines. But she's nicely decorated with guns and other mean stuff. And apparently she's bigger than our current aircraft carriers, making her the biggest ship in the fleet... though I'm not so sure whether that's a fact or not.

So away from the macho stuff, I'm really bunged up, ill, tired, worn out etc etc... and I lost my voice this week, bizarrely. Everyone found that rather amusing. But the long hard days continue, and the drills and exercises are picking up more pace... It's been 3 weeks for me now, so I'm looking forward to a weekend back home soon! I think most of the mess feels the same too, judging by the mood. Don't get me wrong though, there is a lot of exhilarating evolutions taking place... but it's in the down-time; when you are always alert and waiting for something else to happen, that you find yourself wearing thin. All this in preparation for a "possibility". Buster reminded me the other day: "It's weird isn't it!? The way we live- what we're doing, what we have to put up with, how we live our lives. I mean really- who lives like this...?!"

Feeling the the first signs of Fatigue

Sleep is a precious commodity during BOST. Tonight, after writing this, I will get a solitary hour, go on watch between midnight and 4am, then treat myself to 3 hours sleep before getting involved in a Galley fire exercise. That's not so bad, as I will be largely inactive for the rest of the day, but as our programme becomes more and more hectic, people's heads will be dropping on anything soft at any time of the day... if they can get away with it!

Today we had our first 'Thursday War', where we were thrown from port to starboard with up to 40 degrees of roll as we er.... dodged incoming bombs. Quite exciting actually, as we haven't done one of these wars in almost a year now.

So as exciting as it seems, it's already starting to wear me down, and I am already looking forward to my real travels that take place later this year.

I'm going to visit all these places over the next year: France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Brazil, The Falkland Islands, Chile... and if I have my way, China, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil again! So if anyone knows any people in any of these places, or thinks there's something I should definitely not miss out on, please let me know, as I will mostly be on an aimless adventure! Many of these countries are part of 'The Mongol Rally', which I am participating in this year, over the summer. You can track my position on that by visiting http://www.gcgb.org.uk/

But right now it's back to fighting bomber aircraft and losing sleep...

Choo Choo!!! Off to Plymouth...

Having received an update from the media officer on board HMS Gloucester (below, sailing past HMS Daring, the new Type 45 destroyer, and our replacement eventually), and been made aware of the latest blogging regulations, (I had decided to stop blogging for a while, just to be sure I wasn't causing trouble), I am now able to vainly splutter on about almost anything I like.

So where am I?
Well, Plymouth mostly. We're on what the Royal Navy call "BOST" (Basic Operational Sea Training). This is, basically, lots of very experienced officers throwing lots of problems at us, and we have to deal with it for 8 weeks. Oh, and we have a war every Thursday, usually with 3 or 4 other ships, RFA tankers, and plenty of aircraft who seem hell-bent on bombing us all day long. We also have to deal with terrorists, (sometimes they look exactly like Royal Marines), fires, floods, bomb threats, hurricane and earthquake-ravaged towns, dead/dying people, and a broken bridge in need of repair above a stream of red-hot lava. (Last year I fell in...)

After all that, we should be ready to face the world.

More interestingly, whilst having a drink in 'The Barbican' area of Plymouth, I gatecrashed someones 30th birthday celebrations last week, where there was a Beatles tribute band playing. I couldn't help but notice one of my long lost brothers, who was to say the least, highly embarrassed by the occurrence, especially in front of his girlfriend. He did let me have this photo though.