Adventure has had trouble with her Satcom so Disco has been providing the daily weather update to all 3 yachts.  Finally, when Challenger was roughed up by the weather bomb, tremendous moral support was given between the 3 skippers in their daily HF calls while Challenger made good the damage to her sails.  If you could distil, bottle and sell the sense of teams working within teams, you would be rich beyond the wildest dreams of man.

While writing this we have received a distress message from the Australian Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC) telling us that a satellite has observed Adventure’s emergency beacon indicating that she is in distress.  We immediately altered course towards the position of her beacon and informed the RCC that we were doing so.  Meanwhile we used all means available in an attempt to contact Adventure but to no avail.  Just over an hour later we were called by Gosport to tell us that Adventure had been knocked down by a big wave but was still in business and all aboard were fit and well.  The wave had carried away her emergency beacon, or EPIRB, which started to transmit automatically, as well as her HF mast and other assorted communications aerials.  I should imagine her crew were well shaken, as indeed we were wondering if our colleagues really were in distress.  This sort of event serves to emphasise the gravity of this undertaking.

So what do the individual crew members think of things so far?  For me, my ambition was to enjoy the next 30 years as much as I enjoyed the 40+ years of my career in the Royal Air Force, and so far it has made a very good start (although it seems to be taking rather a long time to get to the Isle of Wight).

Andy Fernie, our Skipper who is a seasoned Southern Ocean sailor, is enjoying the challenge of leading and managing Disco’s other 13 crewmembers and is finding it highly rewarding and at times quite entertaining.  He is massively impressed by the manner in which the Watches have attacked – and he uses the word ‘attacked’ quite deliberately – the catering regardless of the conditions beyond the confines of the galley and have produced consistently outstanding food.

Neil Cottrell (1st Mate for Leg 4) is the man who conceived the idea of Exercise Transglobe in the first place and, as the Project Officer, remains responsible for carrying it to its conclusion in arriving back at Gosport next Summer.  For a man with such an awesome responsibility on his shoulders, he is overjoyed with progress so far, in miles travelled as well as objectives achieved, and here I refer to the underpinning nature of teamwork and personal development enshrined in adventurous training.  Neil’s 53rd birthday was celebrated yesterday, the high point being as the sun went down over his right shoulder while he helmed Disco at over 11 knots in a fresh north-westerly breeze, the crew meanwhile preparing to sing Happy Birthday to him over a cake made aboard today.  It does not get better than this.

Owen, who has been in the Royal Air Force for a little over one year, is finding the whole experience quite breathtaking.  Life aboard, mixing with a range of widely different ages ranks and background, and a substantially different diet, has proved to be challenging, but Owen has tackled it on his own terms and will emerge ‘leaner and meaner’ for it.  After 3 weeks at sea, and in gruelling conditions at times for a novice, Owen says that opportunities are there for the taking, even as a relatively junior airman, and he sincerely recommends that you ‘just go for it’.

Sally-Ann, the Southern Ocean has learned a thing or 2 from Sally-Ann, and she has demonstrated significant generosity of spirit by sharing pudding recipes over the HF link with our sister yachts.

Buzz is pleased that, following the meagre progress of the first week or so, we now seem to be eating up the miles to go to the Fremantle Yacht Club.  “There is light at the end of the tunnel”.

Al was hoping to lose weight and get ‘stacked’ for Australia! However the food has just been too good and too plentiful at times and he may be in danger of gaining weight! As for the sailing, bloody brilliant. There are few times in life that an opportunity of this magnitude presents itself and when it does you must grab it. He knows that he will take away a lot and be a better person for it in everyday life and future challenges.

Paddy says he only went out for a packet of fags!

Gemma - my half way point was a little emotional, letters from friends and family reminded me of the love ones left at home. Reflecting on the last 18 days, it’s been bloody hard going but I wouldn’t change anything, not even one point for a second. Thoughts for the future: work hard, enjoy this experience and take away as much as possible from this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The 13-leg Exercise TRANSGLOBE is a major Tri-Service Adventurous Sail Training Exercise open to all UK service personnel, Regular and Reserve. It is the largest-ever adventurous training exercise to be mounted for the services. The guys and girls who have signed up for TRANSGLOBE are experiencing the extremes of ocean crossings from the heat of the Tropics to the extreme cold of the Southern Ocean. TRANSGLOBE is certainly testing both physical and mental stamina whilst building confidence in their own capabilities as well as those of their fellow crew members.

Tracking and position reports as well as more details about Exercise TRANSGLOBE are on the official website at:
www.exercisetransglobe.com.