Day Four: 15th

Today started off at the extremely uncivilized time of 0530 as the ship was going to action stations at 0630.  I discovered to my delight that the pockets on the trousers of my uniform are almost custom made to fit a kindle so I popped it in and headed up for a bacon bap breakfast.  After that it was a case of sitting in the combined planning room reading my kindle with my anti-flash on.  We had gone to action stations because the land forces were mounting a raid ashore.  All was going well with this until the Humvees got stuck in the snow on the beach and the whole thing turned into a bit of a farce as bad weather compounded the issues.  While the temperature increased to 7 degrees the wind also increased and was gusting at about 60 knots. The warmer temperatures also meant that the avalanche warning ashore increased.

 Action stations army style

 After action stations and more meetings I did find time to go to the gym and quickly discovered there is not much more boring a place to run than on a treadmill in a vehicle deck of a ship.  I also reaffirmed that it’s a small world by realising that the Commodore in charge of the task group had been a Captain in charge of the task group that PARRAMATTA was in during my Gulf deployment.

 This is what 60 knot winds look like!

Later in the day I had a good discussion with the 2 I/C of the ship’s Marine detachment about the capabilities of the specialist landing equipment they have onboard.  The Landing craft I came out on in particular, while slow, certainly live up the Utility part of their name.  They can carry a main battle tank or 7 humvees or 120 troops with their packs.  When carrying the latter they put up a shelter held in place by positive air and heated with fans to ensure that the troops arrive on the beach in good order.  They can also carry provisions for about 3 weeks at sea for the crew (supplemented by fishing) with the main restriction in their endurance being the amount of fresh water onboard.  

Before retiring this evening I enjoyed a nice glass of Chilean red wine, something that we definitely don’t do in the RAN (the drinking not the country of origin of the wine). Cloud cover - no northern lights.