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Exercise Golden Eagle was a 10 Leg “Around the World” adventurous sail training exercise. This report covers Leg 10, Boston to Gosport. The global circumnavigation was planned to mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the AAC by completing the voyage and arriving at Gosport on 31 Aug 07 to a reception party. AAC Major Units were given the task of providing the organisation and crew for each Leg. Leg 10 was the responsibility of 1 Regt AAC.
The yacht, a Challenge 67 cutter rigged vessel HMSTC CHALLENGER, was provided by JSASTC Gosport who also supplied a permanent staff skipper.
The expedition leader for the leg was also the overall Project Officer for the exercise: Capt P Brown AAC
The overall plan was to deliver the yacht from Boston, USA to Gosport, UK to arrive on 31 Aug 07. Within this time frame, the following route was taken:
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Dates
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From
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To
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Days
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Distance Nm
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Night Hrs
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21 Jul
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Boston USA
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Newport, RI
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4
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102
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8
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10-11 Oct
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Newport, RI
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New York USA
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3
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164
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8
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12-13 Oct
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New York USA
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Azores
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16
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2123
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103
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16-18 Oct
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Azores
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Bayone Spain
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9
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935
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55
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19-22 Oct
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Bayone Spain
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Jersey CI
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6
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563
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38
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25 Oct
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Jersey CI
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Cowes I.O.W.
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3
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111
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10
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27 Oct
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Cowes I.O.W.
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Gosport UK
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2
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7
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0
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TOTAL
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43
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4005
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222
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On reflection, the weather was extremely kind during the whole exercise. For the majority of the route from Boston to Spain, the winds averaged Force 3 although there were periods of very light wind. This provided an opportunity for the majority of the crew to indulge in a little swimming. There was also one period where the wind reached Force 9 and provided a challenging time for many of the team. Crossing the Bay of Biscay, the yacht was confronted mainly by head winds and as a consequence, the engine was used to keep the overall time frame into perspective.
The final hop from the Isle of Wight was the first time the wind was aft of the beam and ironically, the first opportunity for the crew to hoist the AAC sail.
The following individuals were instrumental in their assistance and advice during the organisation of this leg:
Mr Peter Battley – Fleet Manager JSASTC
Lt Col (Retd) Weaving- SO1 G1 Welfare
Mr George Rumney – Log Sp (UKSC(G))
Maj (Retd) Ancliffe – Garrison Welfare
Mr Graham Grigg – Travel Councellors
Mrs Sue Hughes – Musto
Mr Chris Burns – Cotswold Outdoor
Mr Geoff Barker – Store Manager JSASTC
Sgt Louise Thornton – New York Embassy
Mr Andy Walker – Webmaster (SAAvn)
Mr Shaun Haney – 2nd Mate
Special thanks must also go to the skipper, Mr Robert Briggs, who allowed the crew enough freedom to run their own exercise but ensured at all times, the correct level of supervision was provided in a truly professional manner.
WEEKLY SUMMARIES
Introduction
After 11 months of overseeing and administering the first 9 legs, it was now time for the project officer, Capt Phil Brown, to head off and join the boat himself.
The crew were all extremely enthusiastic at the thought of taking part on this trans-Atlantic leg and after completing their mandatory Sea Survival Course at Kiel, they were now ready to complete the task ahead. 9 of the 10 legs have been successfully completed and it now remained for 1 Regt AAC to put the finishing touches to the last stage of the exercise and deliver the yacht safely back to Gosport.
18 July 07 – 22 July 07
Only a half week, but a particularly busy one none the less. Expedition members met on Wednesday morning less the skipper and two crew. Departing Hanover and safely arriving in Boston following a brief stopover in Amsterdam. Despite anticipation of lost KLM luggage and difficulty in entering America, all past smoothly and we had arrived in Boston, our first port of call.
With two days to explore before picking up the boat, all crew members hit Boston with eager anticipation. Pancakes were eaten, Red Sox games watched, Cape Cod visited, countless bars explored and credit cards generally abused.
Although some crew members made a little more effort to cover the historic aspects of the city, during a visit to the open state building the only questions posed by the skippers were ‘Do you know where Laura is?‘ and with our exped in mind, ‘Why are pirates called pirates?’
Suffice to say they exited the building quite rapidly.
Saturday came and the crew were certainly ready to collect the boat and settle into the adventure, with a brief stopover in New York. Moored not far from the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned still in-active-service naval boat, the Challenger yacht sat in all its glory. By Saturday night the crew was complete, although our final two crew members and Bob Briggs the skipper, having arrived less luggage. Sunday saw our first full day on board. Most had settled into their bunks, but for some it may take a little getting accustomed to.
A full day of lessons and boat familiarity followed and by close of play curbed by the hot sun and full on Spaghetti Bolognese, crew complete were tucked up in their beds. Week 1 summary complete and looking forward to setting sail for New York and onwards.
23 July – 29 July 07
What a week this has been, this is with out a doubt the trip of our lifetimes with expectations for it to be so, it became a reality as we set sail from Boston at the beginning of the week, and is even more apparent now as we sail out of New York Harbour today into the Atlantic and onto the Azores.
This week we have experienced the small, medium and big City cultures of North America, from Newport, to Boston, to New York. Friends have been made with fellow sailors (many who recognised the yacht rather than the crew). The watch system has been embraced and many laughs have been had by all.
Our stop at Newport offered us a chance to experience American holiday resort life, and impressed us all. At last the trip had started and in a civilised fashion with the opportunity to get accustomed to the boat with breaks in between to see America. We left Newport into the Ocean and headed south, next stop New York. On route, our first wildlife spot of this trip included Sharks and copious amounts of Jelly Fish. Fishing success came in the form of a fat tuna, caught by Andy Smith whilst multi-tasking from him mother watch duties of spag-bol cooking. Landed with ease it was then up to those eager fishermen to kill the fish in preparation for it to be eaten. Surprising hesitation ensued with Chris King giving it a good effort (if a little reluctantly) with a winch handle before our two skippers, Phil and Shaun took control and finished it off.
New York, highlight of the trip so far, has surprised everyone’s expectation, in our whistle stop tour; all the sights were seen and entertainment enjoyed. With all the shopping complete, fuel and water stocked, engines checked we set sail yesterday from New York Harbour, past the Statue Of Liberty, and into the Atlantic with fond farewells to the City, excitement was tangible for this the most exciting bit of the adventure.
30 July – 02 August 07
As the great sail has commenced, this week has brought some epic sailing conditions to test all sailing experience on board. During the last 24 hours the winds, rain and waves have piled up significantly, testing Mother Watch to the extreme and attempting to teach all others where their sea legs are!
Without instruments telling us wind speed, a great deal of what we are doing is guesswork based on the conditions. However, in Gale Force 8 and 9 conditions sails have been changed and the Challenger boat sailed at over 10 knots. I suppose the first two days of this week gave us a gentle introduction as to what to expect from Ocean sailing with hot sun and calm seas. During this time wildlife spotting preoccupied most of our time and even as I write we have been joined by two beautiful long tailed white seabirds. On our list so far are whales, turtles, dolphins (lots of them and always a morale boost when they arrive), flying fish, sharks and many seabirds.
With instruments to a minimum the sextant has been employed by both mates to track our progress, whilst the bright screen of the GPS remains our long last ally – or depending on how many more Mother Watches are involved before we arrive in the Azores, our greatest foe!
03 August – 15 August 07
A big hello from the North Atlantic!
I write to you with nine hundred miles to go until the Azores, and one quick glance to the GPS screen proves the surreal position we are in. To paint the picture of our location without going into Scientifics, draw a horizontal line East to West from New York to Spain. Mark off the centre point and approximately, we are there. The small group of islands to our East are our next port of call and the excitement is building about the proximity of firm ground
We have been at sea across the ocean for ten days now since our departure from New York and the experience has lived up to and surpassed our expectations. The initial few days were calm, hot and relatively windless, with a hint of disappointment more than one person commentated that it wouldn’t be an Atlantic crossing without some rough weather. And so the rough weather came and following a three day pounding, we were all eating our words.
It is probably worth explaining that my last blog entry was written just at the end of the storm with sea sickness affecting a few members of the crew, myself included, which led to an inability to do anything below deck bar lie horizontal or be sick. With the blog deadline pending it was written on the steps of the doghouse, sheltered from the driving rain, gulping at fresh air. With the storm passed, conditions improved to provide us with perfect sailing weather, dry and windy and only today has the wind died off just a little too much as we enter through the door of high pressure and forces us to learn to sail.
For the crew, we have been challenged now in all conditions and we have had to learn all the sailing and watch trades quickly in order to keep up in some testing conditions. Whilst watch crews donned goggles in order to achieve some visibility in driving walls of rain and put in reefs in Gale Force 8 - 9 conditions, mother watch merely struggling with severe lack of sleep, motion sickness and the significant tilting of the boat to provide warm meals for watches and clean living conditions.
While the sun shines and how quickly you forget what has passed, we are currently enjoying crew sailing, wildlife spotting and fishing. Time to revise knots and learn the academics behind the art. Reading, listening to music and baking preoccupy our off duty time, and wide ranging conversations quicken the four hour watches. The night sky is now clear of clouds and in the ebony blackness of the pre moon night, stars blanket the sky. In the long hours on watch there is plenty of time for reflection on the solitude of our situation. Despite being contained by a sixty seven foot boat with thirteen other crew for company, it isn’t possible to feel freer.
We made it!
Well, across the bulk of the Atlantic. On Friday morning, Stu Meacher’s prediction correct, having followed distant lights through the night, we pulled into Horta on the Isle of Faial in the Azores. Having moored alongside the pontoon we concluded that to get the block jobs all done on day one would allow us to be free for the next few days. So, with that in mind, we set-to with sail checks and repair and thankfully got our generator fixed so we now have our water maker back on line.
The Azores are very remote and the Portuguese communities small and close. However our timing could not be more perfect as their annual festival was on during our stay, and they certainly know how to party!
By day the crew explored the island by moped and on foot, climbing volcanoes and swimming in the clear blue seas. By night, we enjoyed the fine Portuguese food, wine and live music. Rejuvenated we met back at the boat yesterday at 0800 and after preparation and shopping have begun our journey again.
Next stop - Spain and the Port of Bayona.
16 August – 20 August 07
It is interesting to see at our arrival at the Azores we considered that we had made it across the Atlantic, in fact we still had five days of hard sailing to undertake before our arrival in Spain and the culmination of the Trans Atlantic portion of our trip. For all on board these five days have been challenging, perhaps partly for the reason that psychologically people felt that at the Azores we had accomplished our quest.
Despite concern the wind stayed in our favour throughout and we were able to make good progress despite some rough conditions. After three days on solid ground, sea sickness and a few bouts of illness affected various members of the crew and moral ebbed. With seas too rough we were unable to swim during this leg, temperatures have cooled and the sun refused to appear from behind the cloud for the majority of the trip.
As all the watches settled into their routine, three factors continued to play their parts in boosting spirits:
1. Sunrise and sunset - With our 360o vista, no two have been alike and often they are memorable enough to see all the crew on deck to watch.
2. Food - The standard has remained exceedingly high and competition between the Mother Watches rages on, and finally, and probably the most memorable - wildlife spotting, most prominently dolphin spotting takes morale form low to high instantly.
3. Dolphins - During this leg, rough seas precluded much wildlife spotting, however on Saturday, as we approached Spain, a huge pod of dolphins arrived alongside the boat for an hour or so. Two played at the bow and put on a spectacular display. It was quite frankly awesome.
We arrived in Bayona late Saturday night and after being followed for half an hour by a frigate we were boarded by customs from a rigid raider that sped alongside in the dark. So finally we have now made it back to our home continent and are enjoying the relative luxury of sleeping on a stable ‘Challenger’ moored up alongside a pontoon, eating seafood and preparing for the last major challenge, the Bay of Biscay.
21 August – 27 August 07
And so to the final long sea voyage as we set sail from our idyllic few days of good food and fantastic wine in Bayona. Anticipating a rough crossing of the Bay of Biscay we stocked up on rations to keep us going for six days taking into account the Northerly wind that had been forecast. We had decided to use up as much of the left-over’s on board rather than waste food. This has meant attempting to get creative with 20 tins of beef and pasta stew and a sack of dried pulses. I mean! What had been intended for those?! Although we thought about bringing them home to be reunited with their purchaser the arrival of a furry friend on board led to a complete clear out. The mouse, despite this, the re-positioning of food and two mouse traps, has eaten the food from the traps and still evaded capture. To add to Bob’s frustration he seems to take delight in flaunting himself when only Bob is present before running into one cabinet or other!
As we left the relative calm waters of the Bayona Bay the sea and wind began to pick up. Unfortunately the Northerly wind has not been in our favour and has resulted in the use of the engine to provide some penetration, and a carefully managed course to minimise the negative effect of the headwind on the boat with time wasted off heading. Despite all the warnings to the contrary (most notably sailing with ‘Biscay Bob’) after the first few days the seas calmed substantially and by the final day along the Northern coast of France heading East to Jersey, flattened considerably.
Wildlife spotting has continued despite moving into the cooler climates of the Northern Atlantic and the European coast has provided for some great experiences, the calmer seas making it easier to spot. Longer periods with dolphins playing in the bow surf, a wide array of seabirds and one of the most memorable spots of the trip, a Blue Whale surfacing 50 m off our Starboard beam. With the boat getting seemingly smaller by the day, to everybody’s relief we motored into Jersey harbour on Sunday morning at 4am. After mooring up, a cup of tea before bed gave all the chance to reflect on our fortune at the conditions across the Bay of Biscay. As the adventure nears closure anticipation remains high for the arrival in Gosport and the long awaited reunion with family and friends.
27 August – 31 August 07
Two days in Jersey afforded all the crew the opportunity to explore the jewel of the Channel Islands. For the first time in six weeks it felt as though we were on home turf, with fish and chip suppers available and a solid British pint! With the end now in sight we began our final preparations for our home coming including some last minute shopping for family and friends who have patiently awaited our returns.
On Tuesday at 4 pm we set off to cross the Channel. All watches embarked on what were to be their final shifts on board, so as mother watch cooked the final supper, those on duty settled back into 4 hrs on/4 hrs off routine, whilst eagerly awaiting their first glimpses of England. We made excellent speed with a strong wind carrying us across the channel and as the sun came up on Wednesday 29th August we entered the Solent en-route to our final Port Cowes.
At this point we were fortunate enough to be greeted with perfect sailing conditions as we tacked up the Solent enjoying the company of many other yachts enjoying the conditions. With two days in Cowes entirely for preparing the boat for its home-coming we stripped it completely, cleaning any sign of its adventurous year. A good effort was made by all crew members, and tasks included dingy rides to clean the algae from the hull. Rather like weapon cleaning, it was only after the 5th show parade that we received confirmation that it was to a high enough standard to present to Gosport and so in celebration we headed out for our Crew meal at a fine Cowes restaurant and a few beers on Thursday night.
Friday morning arrived and while we waited for our escort ‘True Blue’ to arrive with Brigadier Thompson, press, media and other Corp personalities we had our final crew chat and discussed the imminent home-coming. What a day Friday turned out to be…a spectacle that surpassed expectation. As we slipped from Cowes we were met by the Blue Eagles display team. They performed some outstanding displays above our heads across the Solent and remained with us until a final fly past at Gosport. As we negotiated our way into our final resting place in Gosport harbour welcomed by the sound of the military band with the Blue Eagles over head, it was a proud day to be a part of the Corps.
The welcoming party was a joy to see, with so many familiar faces, family, friends as well as many from the Corp. Champagne flowed and interviews with local press took place. All that remained was for those interested parties to be shown around the Challenger before we all adjourned to the JSASTC Club house for a curry lunch.
A challenging yet successful Expedition had been completed, and enjoyed by all involved. With final goodbyes and special thanks to Captain Phil Brown for his part in providing us with this fantastic opportunity, the crew of the final leg of Exercise Golden Eagle dispersed. The final leg Boston, USA, to Gosport, England was complete.
Summary
Two months ago a group of 1 Regiment soldiers met outside Sqn HQ on the first day of Exercise Golden Eagle. Under the guidance of Captain Phil Brown all were to embark on an expedition to return the Army Air Corp 50th Anniversary ‘Round the World’ yacht from Boston to Gosport. Over the last two months this group have become ocean crossers, most from novice sailors. We have visited Boston, Newport, New York in America, the Azores, Bayona, Jersey and the Isle of White in Europe, and in each place experienced different cultures, environments, food and drink. At the most we spent two weeks continuously at sea, showering at best every three days.
Gale Force 9 storms blew threw and made the yacht an uncomfortable place to be, but provided for some thrilling sailing. This followed a period of calm and with the sun out we were able to enjoy life a little more, swim in the middle of the Atlantic, spot whales and dolphins and unwind after a year of operational commitments. We were also able to eat food without fighting 40 degree heeling of the yacht, with cutlery, drinks and plates flying around the galley.
Despite all of the personal challenges that we each faced, what will be remembered most is the fact that as we sailed into Gosport everyone had smiles on their faces; the individuals that had met for the first time on day one of the adventure have become friends and more significantly a team, all from 1 Regiment AAC and all capable of sailing a 67’ yacht across an ocean.
This has truly been an outstanding venture. Admittedly, the sailing aspect has not been everyone’s forte, but all will reflect upon the whole package which they have been apart of and all will be able to take away a mixture of “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences which will be re-lived for many years to come. Overall it has been a tremendous challenge and one which 13 members of the Regiment have proudly risen to meet, all with experiences surpassing their greatest expectations. The exercise was part of a package to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Army Air Corps. I am sure that the memories of this adventure will last for the next 50 years.
Phil Brown
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