204 (NORTH IRISH) FIELD HOSPITAL ENJOY EXERCISE SUMMER SAIL

When I was given the task of organising unit Adventure Training (AT) over a weekend in July this year, I pondered deeply. Do I go with what I know so well and have them all mountain biking up and down the Mournes, or shall we go with something totally different like deep sea angling? I also needed to take into consideration factors like the weather in N.Ireland, which can be somewhat changeable and potential numbers which we could expect during a holiday time. Cost of course, had to come into it and the deep sea angling was looking slightly costly, so that will have to wait..

We are blessed with an amazing countryside, full of potential mountains to climb and trails to walk, but I wanted to make use of the fact that we are an island and are surrounded by water. Most of the time we find this fact to be highly annoying, but this time I wanted to make the most. Surely in July we would be lucky with the weather? 

We have already within the unit a competent sailing team, who had recently returned from a week on the Solent. I managed to pick their brains and become quite annoying as I went about learning just what it takes to launch some sea faring vessels. I wanted to run this AT solely for those people who had never sailed before.. to give them a ‘taster’ of life on the ocean wave and to try something new.

Only 20 miles from our Army Reserve Centre, is Carrickfergus Harbour, home to the Army Sailing Association (NI). With the assistance of Cpl Gribben, one of the unit’s sailing experts, I paid them a visit and I’m so glad that I did. 

Mr Robbie Richardson is the main man to deal with and there’s not much about sailing that he doesn’t know. He was able to suggest different options for us, taking into account the different levels of ability that would be attending. The ASA (NI) own two 34ft Rassey yachts and two RIBS (Power boats), so we booked the two yachts and one of the RIBS. We wanted to give people the opportunity to try all different vessels. The Power boat would actually be used as safety boat, as well as giving people the opportunity to have their hair-do totally ruined!

With 16 unit members signed up for the event, sea vessels booked, paperwork filled in, risk assessments assessed, safety measures well and truly measured up, all was just about ready to go. We were fortunate to have Capt Davy Cairns and WO2 Jim Ferguson to assist as Power boat instructors and our Commanding Officer, Col Mark Sheridan, who happily doubles up as an expert Day Skipper, available to help out.

The weekend itself threatened stormy weather, the dregs of hurricane henry… nothing would shake off our enthusiasm, just pack more layers, woolly hats, sou’ westers, hot water bottles, you name it we had it with us.

Apart from having to continuously bail out water from the back end of the RIB with what resembled a thimble, all went very well. Everyone loved the thrill of the Power boat and the gracefulness of the yachts. Anchoring up in a quiet bay near Crawfordsburn, was the perfect picnic spot and gave everyone the chance to swap round boats. 

Certainly, we all realised, there’s a lot more to this sailing than meets the eye and we’re not going to learn it all in a couple of days.We now have a new team of budding sailing enthusiasts, with much to learn about the art of sailing, keen to take on their next challenge. 

Maj C.Crozet