Page 112 - MERCIAN Eagle 2015

rain, through to the doldrums, followed by a spectacular lightning display during the early evening. We set sail with the tide bombing down towards Lymington, having calculated that we would return to Gosport with the wind and tide once it had turned at midday. A brief introduction into tides and charts and some basic lessons in pilotage from
the skipper, helped to fill the windless gaps and we had a long motor back to Gosport. Once moored up, we walked into Gosport to celebrate the week with a good curry.
The following morning was spent cleaning the yacht and getting it shipshape for handback. I had thoroughly enjoyed myself, as had the other crew members. For myself, it has inspired me to take
this experience further, and pursue a
Day Skipper qualification so that I may lead similar expeditions in the future. My thanks to Lt Col Smith AAC who hosted a successful sailing expedition that tested all of us.
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Exercise Dragon Slim Skiing JUO Harriet Wilcox
On Friday December 12th I found myself in the drill hall, formed up, and wearing a Christmas jumper. This meant one thing;
I was going skiing with the UOTC again! The 18-hour coach journey wasn’t as unpleasant as previous journeys, although we had to go from port to port on a rather rough sea. We recovered from the journey at the UCPA centre in Les Deux Alpes.
The OCdts who had skied before, had
a ‘ski-off’ on day one to determine who would be continuing Ski Foundation 1 (SF1), and who would be advancing on to Ski Foundation 2 (SF2).
Now, most people like to have a souvenir or two from a trip abroad and the CO is no different, except his mementos came in the form of piste markers, and he decided to collect them as he slid down a red. Luckily there was no damage done, but the piste was then known as Sutherland slope. On the second day, OCdt Breen decided he knew a better route and found the quickest way down the slope, cutting a corner and falling down a few meters. While there were many impressive falls as everyone pushed themselves to improve, the winner of the
Best Fall was OCdt Crow, who did his best Superman impression when he failed to see a rope at ankle level.
While the weather wasn’t on our side at the beginning of the week, we saw the sun on our third day as touring skis were issued. The beginners enjoyed the conditions by doing longer runs and playing games on the slopes; OCdt L Wood was given the Best Beginner award for his efforts. As an AT
trip, we were given evening lectures on the aims of AT, mountain hazards, cold weather injuries, avalanches and weather which we could then relate to on the mountain the next day.
I joined Maj Villiers’ SF2 group when they were conducting a ‘Rutschblock test,’ to evaluate the stability of the snow pack on
a slope. To do this, we isolated a block of snow, before OCdt Lucas stepped on to
it with his skis to identify how much force
it took to fail. The lack of snow before we arrived meant that there was a large weak layer a few inches below the surface, and so we did little off piste skiing this week. On the final day with our instructors, I joined WO2 Chris Rigby’s SF2 group as they
were using their transceivers to emulate an avalanche search. It was a very cold day with poor visibility, and I ended up being chosen to be buried in the snow. Although it was warmer out of the wind, if I’m ever buried in snow again it’ll be too soon!
Les Deux Alpes was a fantastic resort to learn to ski in. However, like all things it had its challenges. A long T-bar lift going up the glacier was one of them, claiming several of our group. OCdt Mottram managed to take out the CO, while SUO Ahmed didn’t want it to defeat him, and so he held on for right minutes as he was dragged up; that’s one way to improve your upper body strength prior to attending Sandhurst. The village also had a lot to offer to allow us to let our hair down in the evenings and we made good use of that!
I’d like to thank Capt Storey, WO2 Kennaugh, and the other staff members for organising the trip. Thanks must also go to our external instructors Pete Villiers, Chris Rigby, Tony Crilly, Anna Kirkham and Jim Hawkins for the fantastic teaching!
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