September 2008

It has been an extremely busy year for the ship and one that now finds us on patrol facing the challenge of protecting the Iraqi oil infrastructure and wider peace and stability in the North of the Persian Gulf.

The ship left it’s home port of Portsmouth on the 21^st Aug 08 and will return at the end of Feb 09 after a very busy 6 ½ months away from home.

I have attached some photographs of your visit to the ship in February this year and also one of HMS Lancaster leaving Portsmouth last month, over flown by a Lancaster Bomber from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

As it has been such a busy year it hasn’t left us with much opportunity to raise funds but since we have been away we have taken up the challenge and our Charity Fund is building steadily.

To date we have raised over £700. The main event was when we raced the ship through the Kiel Canal. 100 of the ships company took it in turns, on the rowing machine, to row 1000 metres and we managed to beat the ship, taking just over 6 hrs to finish and raising £400.

At the moment 48 of the ships company are taking part in the Deployment Charity Weight Loss event. They have all managed to lose weight, the most being 1st and 4lbs in 4 weeks. Sponsorship for the event has been very good and the figure stands at around £1000 on current targets.

We have also been running a Shaft Line Lottery. The shafts that power the propellers through the water have been numbered. Before the ship goes alongside tickets are sold to try and predict the numbers that will appear on the shafts. There are 100 numbers up for grabs and the winner gets the ‘Winning Pot’ with the rest going to the Charity Fund. It is very popular and a good way of raising funds.

We have a number of long patrols ahead and we plan to have a beard growing competition during one of these patrols. This is normally a popular event as it means not having to shave for 3 weeks!!

An on going fund raiser is to collect all the foreign coins that the ships company have at the end of each foreign visit. When we get back to the UK these will all be changed into sterling and added to the fund.

We have a Charity Fund Raising Committee on board with each Mess having a representative. This spreads the word about your charity and also is a great way of capturing ideas for future events.

11th October 2008

We are in the middle of a Beard Growing Competition at the moment so I sit here typing with 2 weeks worth of growth on my chin which is a strange feeling. 117 of the Ships Company are taking part so we all look a bit rough!! We have all paid to take part and anyone who shaves before the judging gets fined for the privilege. The judging takes place next Thursday, just before we get alongside in Bahrain. We have 2 female Officer on board and they have agreed to do the judging. I will include pictures in your October Update which I will send out later this month.

This is our first patrol in the area and our longest one for the whole time we are out in the Gulf area. It will be good to get this one out of the way. Morale on board is very good and most of the Ships Company are getting into their training routines which is one way to beat the monotony.

I cannot finish an email without mentioning the sun. Things have cooled down here a bit so we are enjoying temperatures of around 30°C which is very acceptable!! I understand there is a need to switch the central heating on in the UK at the moment which is a shame. When we arrive back next February I think we might be in for a bit of a shock!!