High seas adventure
Service crews return to Gosport after spending a year at sea in the challenging Ex Transglobe
Report: Richard Long
Pictures: Graeme Main
ARMY sailors have returned to dry land following a year at sea in one of the most challenging adventurous training expeditions within the Service.
Exercise Transglobe saw personnel travel 34,000 miles across some of the most inhospitable waters on the planet as they went head-to-head with their Forces rivals in a race to circumnavigate the world.
With the expedition divided into 13 legs, soldiers from various corps and regiments manned the Army’s Challenger 67 craft on each stage, many of them experiencing ocean sailing for the very first time.
The last leg of the epic journey saw the boats return to Gosport and SoldierSport spoke to the personnel who have been onboard for the highs and lows of the past year.
“It was a fantastic leg,” said skipper Andy Fernie, who guided Challenger home from Boston.
“I had a great crew. We had a real mix of experience, from two virtual novices to two yacht masters.
“It has been said that offshore sailing is the closest thing to combat. There is cold weather, you feel sick and you do not know when you are going to get a decent meal.
“You have to muck in to get things done, just like on operations. This is as good as it gets.
“I think sailing is the best form of adventurous training for soldiers and the guys all showed the attributes needed to succeed.”
Former military man Fernie, who served with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and is now part of the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre staff in Gosport, also explained how the final leg was far from plain sailing.
With the boat just four days from UK shores it struck a pilot whale and had to cruise home at a slower speed due to the damage caused.
But their problems were insignificant compared to the perils faced by the leg eight crew.
The course from Auckland to Punta Del Este in Uruguay saw Challenger knocked down four times in the Southern Ocean west of Cape Horn.
A full search for the stricken craft was launched after an emergency beacon onboardwas triggered, but with communications down the soldiers were unable to tell the rescue party they were alive and well.
“The storm had winds of more than 16 knots with 40-foot waves,” said Fus Stephen O’Grady (2 RRF).
“Cape Horn is notorious for its weather and we expected to get tossed around a bit. At first we went through a number of gales, we thought that was bad but it seemed as though we were not going to get a big storm.
“When it hit we just focused on what immediately needed to be done and there was a feeling that we had enjoyed an authentic Cape Horn experience.”
Like his colleague, LCpl Ryan Lambert (2 RRF) heard about the exercise while on operations in Afghanistan and was keen to sign up for what proved to be the most difficult leg of the voyage.
“I had done a Channel crossing before but anyone can do that,” he said.
“As novices we were perhaps a bit unprepared and we did not fully understand what we would be in for.
“Being away and getting smashed by waves it could have been life or death, just like on the front lines. When the comms went down it was quite scary, you don’t know if they [the rescue party] are coming for you.
“But when the Chilean Air Force came it was like a Chinook coming for us in Afghanistan.”
After sustaining heavy damage the boat was diverted to the Falkland Islands for repairs before rejoining the Transglobe course.
Another notable stage was leg 11, from Antigua to Charleston, which was dedicated to the Defence Medical Services and saw personnel who were injured on operations put to work on each of the yachts.
Although Transglobe is primarily a training exercise there was no lack of competitive spirit between crews from the three Services.
The Navy were crowned overall winners with the Army second and Royal Air Force in third place.
The Army also won the finest example of seamanship accolade following their multiple knock downs on the seas west of Cape Horn.
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