Page 104 - WishStream Year of 2023

Exercise SALTYDOG
OCdt Harrington
Ex SALTY DOG was dreamt up by five Junior Term OCdts in the brew room of our Old Col- lege lines. Sailing with the Army had been a
goal for many of us and we were excited for the opportunity afforded to us by RMAS and Army Adventurous Training. Led by OCdt Slee (the only one of us with any sailing experience), we planned a challenging route from Gosport around the Isle of Wight, intending to push ourselves and get the best experience possible. We had originally contemplated attempting to attain a day Skipper qualification during the expedition, building on the experience that we would have had during our Junior Term AT; however, most of us were unfor- tunately removed from the Junior AT sailing due to limited availability. OCdt Green was the only one of us to go sailing during that period, and attained his Competent Crew Qualification, bringing much needed sailing experience to the group.
Unfortunately, between our successful pitch, and the expedition itself, two members of our group – Mr Slee and Mr McQuade - had to drop out as they were no longer on the course. Mr Harrington took on the position of Expedition Leader, with Mr Husnu-Beresford as his 2IC. Now
lacking Mr Slee’s wealth of experi- ence, the group had to work even harder to finalise our plans and make the expedition as success- ful as possible. We welcomed Mr Mayo and Mr Hendy to our group during Intermediate Term; both had come to our company from Luc- know Platoon.
course would feature heavily in our expedition, building on the knowledge we gained from our previous AT trip.
Following the briefs, we began preparing for our voyage, with Mr Mayo and Mr Hendy heading on supply run to ASDA, whilst Mr Green, Mr Har- rington and Mr Husnu-Beresford began preparing the boat for sailing.
As Intermediate Term drew to a close, the Ex SALTY DOG crew made our final preparations and, on the Monday following the end of term, we converged on the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC) in Gosport.
Day 1
On arrival at JSASTC, we met our skipper, Jase, before taking part in a number of briefs, ranging from safety equipment to the Adventurous Leader- ship and Resilience Training (ALeRT). The ALeRT
boat, which assisted in combatting the sea sick- ness and ensuring that he did not spend the first day with his head over the side of the boat. This experience enabled him to move from Prisoner to Participant to Pilot over the course of the trip. Mr Mayo became familiar with the ‘Comfort, Stretch, Panic’ paradigm when we deployed the foresail for the first time and the boat tilted violently. At first, the unfamiliar and worrying experience of being on a boat that felt like it was about to capsize put Mr Mayo firmly into the panic zone; however, after
We began preparing for our voyage, with Mr Mayo and Mr Hendy heading on supply run to ASDA
We were keen to get going as soon as possible so, when we were ready, we cast off and headed towards the Solent. Very quickly our ALeRT knowl- edge indicated that Mr Husnu-Beres- ford had fallen into the role of a ‘Pris- oner’ as sea sickness caused by the rough water outside of Gosport had very quickly set in. Skipper Jase, realis- ing this encouraged Mr Husnu-Beres- ford to take the helm and steer the
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