Page 34 - Wish Stream Year of 2017

this early stage, the physical effort required was clearly evident with most of us struggling before the end of the day.
Day three and day four comprised
similar activities. Both days sur-
passed 30km and 25km, which
even for an experienced kayaker is considered a “big day” paddled. On day four we made the transition from the beautiful steep volcanic coastal rock faces to soft golden beaches of the southern tip of the island.
On our final full day on the water we paddled 26km to Mai Nombre and, once we set up camp, OCdt Hunter managed to catch fish for dinner. Similarly, to previous nights, we supple- mented OCdt Hunter’s catch with some locally produced food and a freshly cooked dinner in
the wild. Our final morning consisted of a 10km paddle passing the south- ern holiday resort of Piedras Cadas to Port Morro Jable.
Our arrival into the Port of Morro Jable signalled the conclusion to an unfor- gettable journey, both in terms of kay-
aking and personal development. The exposure to challenging conditions at sea, and the oppor- tunity to utilise and develop our leadership and military field skills in conditions that most defi- nitely challenged every member of the expedi- tion, was invaluable. We would, therefore, like to thank Sandhurst Trust for their continued gener- ous support, without which such opportunities to develop and stretch ourselves while experi- encing different cultures would be considerably more difficult.
The Sandhurst Cup, 2017
At the beginning of April twenty two Intermediate Term cadets, distraught to be missing a week of drill in preparation for the Sovereign’s Parade, flew to the United States as RMAS’ ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ teams to compete in the Sandhurst Cup. The Cup is a military skills tournament held each year at West Point Military Academy; this year saw 62 teams compete from 12 different nations in the two day event, which first took place in 1967.
Touching down in New York felt like an achieve- ment in itself. After two gruelling days of selec-
tion spent trudging up and down Saddleback Hill, we were in the gymnasium at 0530hrs twice a week, being put through our paces by SSgt Blackburn and SSgt Maré before breakfast. On top of this we spent the weeks leading up to the competition, honing military skills such as navi- gation, battlefield casualty drills, and calls for fire with Capt Waring and CSgt Fleming, while QMSI Smith and QMSI Lawson took us through the M4 and Beretta weapon systems that we would be using for the competition. Following two training weekends designed to replicate the competition,
...with most of us struggling before the end of the day.
32 SANDHURST