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EXERCISE TRANSGLOBE
LEG 3 – RIO DE JANEIRO TO CAPE TOWN
Lt Col Andrew “Bones” Smallbone, Pte Alex Green and Pte Ben Sowter
Crossing 3300 nautical miles of the Atlantic Ocean in a 72 foot yacht may not sound
like most people’s idea of a good time. The sea is pretty much guaranteed to be rough and the chances of a storm are pretty high at any time of the year. The accommodation is damp, cramped and uncomfortable, and the work load will be unrelenting. However, crossing the Atlantic is one to be ticked off on most people’s bucket list, and when you factor in five days in Rio and five days in Cape Town, the whole proposition suddenly sounds a lot more interesting. Three members of The Mercian Regiment, Lt Col Andrew Smallbone, Pte Alex Green and Pte Ben Sowter conducted an estimate based on these factors, and ended up volunteering for Leg 3 of Ex TRANSGLOBE.
Exercise TRANSGLOBE 15/16, is a Tri- Service Adventurous Sail Training Exercise that took place from July 15 through to August 16. The aim of the exercise is to develop the personal qualities and promote ethos essential to members of HM Armed Forces, through adventurous training. The infantry were allocated Leg 3; sailing from Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town in Sep-Oct 15.
Our 15 man crew duly reported to Gosport on 19 September. After a series of briefings ranging from how to survive if you fall overboard, to the dangers of going out in Rio, as well as trying to decipher terms such as galley, heads, warps and sheets, most of us of us were beginning to doubt the wisdom of our decision. Fortunately, any doubts dissipated fast on arrival in Rio, which must be one of the most stunning cities in the world. In between victualling our ship, Discoverer, and getting her sea worthy, we found time for a day of sailing training
in Guanabara Bay where the 2016 Olympic sailing will take place. The British Olympic team were in the Bay practising and on seeing our Ensign flying, came over for a chat; I only hope they weren’t paying too much attention to our first efforts at tacking and gibing, which were not quite Olympic standard!
We were given one day of sight seeing
in Rio which was terrific fun. We walked
up to the statue of Christ the Redeemer (a ridiculous idea; take the cable car if you go!), spent a few hours on Copacabana Beach, and went up Sugarloaf Mountain before a traditional Brazilian meal. This was awesome and a must do, unless you are a vegetarian.
We set sail on 24 September with our sister ship, Adventure, which was manned by RN and RAF personnel. After a simply stunning sunset over Rio, the weather began to turn and the first 48 hours proved to be a real baptism of fire. 10 of the 15 man crew were effectively “man down” with
sea-sickness, but you will be delighted to hear that one of the five who stood firm was a MERCIAN. I won’t tell you which one of the three it was, but he is commissioned.
The next 17 days were a mixture of high winds and rough seas; we sailed through a Force 7 gusting Force 8, to comparatively light winds and relatively calm seas. I say relatively, because the natural Atlantic swell, even on a calm day, necessitates using one hand to hold on at all times. We averaged a speed of over 8 knots for the entire journey. This may sound slow, but is good going in a ship that is bouncing around on “the Ogin”. The highest speed recorded on the voyage was 22.1 knots when Colonel Andrew was
It is difficult to convey just how immense the ocean feels when you are part of it
at the helm; a combination of a vicious gust, surfing down a huge wave and, as even he will confess, a massive slice of beginner’s luck.
Other particularly noteworthy events included Ben being winched up to the
top of the mast, and Alex shimmying out along the boom to re-attach the topping lift which had come free. While neither sound particularly difficult, the reality of doing this on a ship mid ocean is very different.
It is difficult to convey just how immense the ocean feels when you are part of it. We spent days seeing no other ships and only limited wildlife. We saw dolphins, albatross and flying fish, but sadly no whales, and the dolphins never stayed around the boat for long. I hope it is not a result of over-fishing? Our attempts at fishing proved fruitless, but we did find a dead flying fish and squid on board one morning. For those two poor
creatures to end up landing on the 100 or so square feet that was HMSTC Discoverer, out of the thousands of square miles of sea, must rank as one of the unluckiest breaks ever.
After 17 days of sailing we finally spotted land. Blue Watch, including Colonel Andrew and Alex, gave a hearty “land ahoy,” and
the rest of the crew rushed up on deck to see the faint outline of Table Mountain in the distance; a magical moment. The exercise did not finish on arrival in Cape Town. We berthed at the Royal Cape Yacht Club, and spent a couple of days preparing the boat for handover for the next leg. Of course,
this also involved getting to know the bars around the town, before being released for three days of R&R. There is so much to do in Cape Town, and the crew got up to all sorts of adventures from whale watching, cage diving with Great White Sharks, wine tasting in the wine lands round Stellenbosch, to taking the cable car up to Table Mountain. Rio was tremendous, but everyone agreed that Cape Town was even better, and is one of the must visit places in the world.
So was it worthwhile and would we do it again? The answer is definitely yes. Ocean sailing is hard graft, and the anticipated days of lazing on deck never materialised. However, we were immensely lucky; Neptune was kind and we enjoyed good winds and no epic Atlantic storms, the crew gelled really well and to have such iconic ports at the start and finish made the whole experience unforgettable. So if you are reading this and wondering if you should apply for one of the many Army sailing expeditions, our advice is clear; do it! Our advice would be to choose a challenging expedition with great destinations; go expecting to work hard and enjoy yourself. If it is anything like ours, it will be a truly memorable and worthwhile experience.
And we beat the RN and RAF by over 200 nautical miles, but they will tell you it wasn’t a race!
THE MERCIAN EAGLE