Lisbon to Aarhus

Apr 17 - May 10

Well, a lot has happened since Lisbon. A 10 day exercise with the SNFL fleet, a weekend in Plymouth, another 10 day exercise in the Skadderak and Kattegat (the bodies of water separating Denmark from Norway and Sweden), and now we're in Aarhus. We flew quite a bit during the last exercise, starting with a trip back to England. Jason and I flew into Mildonhall, a small American military airport just north of London. We delivered much needed parts, and 300 lbs of much appreciated mail to the American Ship, USS John L Hall. We have a few new ships with SNFL, so be sure to check out the "Fleet" page, from the main links on the left.

Plymouth was a fun, albeit short, port visit. Some of the guys got away for a day trip out into the countryside, but most of us stayed in town. Pat Usherwood and a few others went to visit some historic ships permanently docked in Plymouth, including HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, and HMS Maryrose. You can read Pat's story in the "Places" section below. Did you know Naval ships have been slipping from Plymouth's piers for about three hundred years? And that some of the original slips are still in existence? Famous ships, like the Mayflower, have begun their journeys from Plymouth harbour. The Naval Base itself has an interesting history of its own. Even though Plymouth is a big Navy town, it has more to offer than just military history. The downtown district was full of nice shops where many of the guys picked up souvenirs for home. My excitement began by being hit by a car! As I'm sure you could probably guess, I was fine; only a few cuts and bruises, and a little wiser. To be honest I think the driver was a little more shaken up than I was. I never thought of running as a contact sport before!

The exercise we participated in following the visit to Plymouth was a big one, with more than 70 military vessels and a wide variety of aircraft from Denmark, Germany, USA, Canada (some of our minesweepers were out here), UK, Norway, Portugal, Spain, etc... Most of the ships were minesweepers/minelayers or fast patrol boats. These guys are much smaller than we are but can be equally, if not far more, dangerous, and almost twice as fast! On the air side, there was a Merlin (the British version of the EH-101, the helicopter that was initially purchased in 1992 to replace the Sea King fleet), several large P3 (the American version of our Aurora aircraft), AWACS, and an assortment of fighters including F-16s, and Tornados. The fleet was divided into two groups, and this time our ship was on the good guy side. During the time we were in the Skadderak and Kattegat, the seas were like glass. A nice change from the stormy weather we've been sailing through since we left Halifax. I never knew water, especially sea water, could be so calm. For three days we didn't see a ripple in the waters around us. The weather was a welcomed change as well, even though it was a little chilly. You can check out the "At Sea" page for some photos of the exercise.

I've made some minor changes to the web page that should make it a little easier to navigate. The buttons on the left of your screen are now a little bigger, and a little easier to distinguish. Also each page now has a "last updated on ..." advisory on the bottom so you can quickly tell if there is anything new on the page. Just above the "last updated on ..." on each page are also links to the popular sections of the web page, in case the buttons on the left of your screen don't work for you.

This update is divided into three sections, because there too many photos to put on one page alone. The det has about five digital cameras now, and the boys don't go anywhere without taking a bizillion pictures! Really though, thanks to Rob Diwald, Rock Ferland, Don Thompson, and especially Pat Usherwood, for being so trigger happy!

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