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Clyde Fleet Tender 26 June – 03 July 2009

Monday

It was an early start this morning. Being woken by the booming Baltesz was not one of the more pleasant experiences of my life so far but... It appeared that no one was suffering from a lack of sleep. We had to pack everything in a very short space of time.

We arrived at the mess to a very pleasant breakfast – cereal, porridge, sausage, bacon, eggs – fried or scrambled, tomatoes, baked beans, toast, tea, coffee and juice. Once breakfast was over we grabbed all our kit and headed off to the minibus for the next leg of our journey. We hopped on the bus and headed off to HMS NEPTUNE to meet our Fleet tender and store ship. Once through the big metal gates, and the miles of razor wire piled very high, and did I mention the Royal Marines with guns doing the guarding thing? We came to the guard house – it was very big and busy. It was here that Mr. Scorgie had a dilemma – how to get us in!! Passes had been produced but another school had taken them along with their own – it took a bit of tracking down and after amusing myself with the “most” addicting game ever possible (it’s a secret!) it was time to continue on our journey. The Fleet tender was almost alongside the jetty – shame it wasn’t the one we were on! We turned round and went to the other jetty to meet CFT OMAGH, handed our passes back to the Petty Officer who helped us get into Neptune and after a brief from the Skipper (Jimmy) and storing the ship, we set sail – where to?? Less then an hour away was Greenock, the first stop of the day – why?? Well it appears that Mr. Scorgie has a heart after all and he wanted us to have a wash - whether we needed it or not!!! Once we berthed and found our swimming kit we headed off to the pool, after a brief wait we entered what in my eyes was paradise! After an hour of spinning and fast exhilarating slides we made a huge rush to a huge Tesco store (and I mean huge) and after what seemed like ages trying to find the snacks aisle we hurried back to the boat because the crew were preparing lunch – it was delicious, and after our swim, really welcome.

After Lunch we set sail again for Rothesay doing some 'officer of the watch' manoeuvres on the way, learning how to “drive” the ship – it has two propellers and bow thrusters, she was really easy to handle. We were doing 'coming alongside' drills on one of the massive ship buoys near Rothesay Harbour when we had a call from the Rothesay Harbour Master asking us to help rescue a small cabin cruiser that had broken down and had strayed into the path of the ferry about 10 minutes away from the dock. So off we went – did the hero thing and took it alongside and whilst we were there we decided to dock for a little while (Jimmy told us where we could buy the best ice-cream on the island and also of the “claim to fame” that Rothesay has – the oldest working Victorian public toilets in Scotland). So off we went to investigate – the ice cream was very tasty and the toilets were quite amazing, spotless and beautiful in old Victorian style marble and brass with glass cisterns above, it was most impressive. We spent a good hour doing what seemed to be pointless fishing until Charlie Moore caught two fish, which seemed most impressive. We then set sail for Loch Striven to the refuelling depot – our home for the night.

We had an interesting arrival at the refuelling depot as a very large RFA was alongside the jetty – the only jetty! After negotiations we had a ladder put down for us to climb up and onto the big ship – it was a long way up! We all had a nervous climb from the top of the roof of OMAGH – thank goodness for the safety line attached to us. After retrieving our bags we headed to our overnight accommodation – a conference room. Many arguments later about who “shot-gunned that table first,” we settled down for an interesting night fighting off the midges and putting the world to rights. A great day and now I am looking forward to a good sleep – as if...

Rupert Pople

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