Cornish Air Force HQ...
.....'90s-ish.
OCU scratch crew "You lot are up for dinghy drill" WTF??
Get our heads down and are called at 5AM. Transport doesn't go to Newquay pool but sets off for the south coast - to Fowey in fact.
As we wait on the pier in the early morining thick mist we hear a subdued rumble of big diesels and a big Marine Craft hoves to about 200 yards off. Ferried out in the Zodiac and then set off down the channel and out to sea. Sun comes up, lovely sunny morning as we burn along the coast towards Lands End at 40 kts. Smashing full English breakfast in the sunshine.
Then emerged from his bunk the sea survival instructor from Mountbatten "Buggah"
About 20 miles west of LE we stop and we are allowed to get into the dinghy dry shod with all the goodies, solar stills,heliographs, flares etc.Boat eases away to (we thought) lurk hull down out of our sight.
WRONG!! They set of back to Plymouth at 40 kts!
I had secured the one and only live SARBE and had it tucked inside my immersion suit.
We tried out all the goodies chatted up dolphins who came to visit and eventually got bored
The Coudrose Sea Prince trundled by as we flashed our heliographs. No response.
We had imagined the scenario ; Nimrod search, drops anther dighy, calls in Seaking from Culdrose, we get winched dropped back at SM. OK let it all unfold.
Nothing happened!
Come 1800, Culdrose now shut, no Nimrod, evening wearing on.
I fetch out the SARBE which "Capt" immediately demands possession of. F*** O** Gordon.
Select the live rather than training mode. Capt objects. F*** O** Gordon.
"If I'm bobbing about here in the coming dark it's a real emergency"
Back at SM Ops, taceval umpire asks "What have you done about the crew that ditched? "EH?? WTFO"
Nimrod goes U/S. The RN (gawd bless'm) find a scratch crew who come to look for us. Find us and start winching. We hear the bang and SK departs landwards. Now what?
Stone me another SK appears and gathers up the rest of us and heads to SM.
Half way there, another VERY LOUD bang and a puff of what looks like brown smoke whips past the windows. It's a swash plate failure and loss of hydraulic oil. Limp to SM and get dumped on the first bit of airfiel after coast. No Transport. Walk all the way back to ops. No one in, all gone home, ENDEX was two hours ago.
In the bar OC Ops did apologise and buy us a beer.
An interesting day.
The Ancient Mariner