Trinity Cadetship by Aidan Gerry

Update form Aidan Gerry - Trinity House Cadet
Overview of the first 2 months......
It's been a varied few months certainly a change from the mundane office job I left behind.

Week One: First Sea-phase: As new cadets we didn't even have time to unpack our bags before we were chucked onto a 42ft called Freedom. Luckily the weather was good so we set sail for Cherbourg covering the Competent Crew syllabus. An amazing way to start the course. We even got to go swimming in Lulworth Cove (without a wetsuit).

Week Two: Nav 1: Learning all about how to navigate from EPs to secondary ports and computation of rates charts up to Yachtmaster level. Bill Gardener as our instructor certainly made things interesting. Another successful week.

Week Three: Small Ships Radar: This was all done in the Transas suite. A room with no windows and loads of computer screens. I learnt a lot but didn't fancy spending anymore time in there than I needed. After all we're here to sail.

Week Four: Long Range Radio: No more interesting than the title. Paul Martin the lecturer was a legend. I cried with laughter when he brought out the puppets. It was a serious amount of information to take in with an exam at the end of the week so pretty heavy, but we all passed and are now MCA approved radio officers.

Week Five: Sea-phase Two: Spirit. An interesting (and wet) experience on the UKSA's only multi-hull. We started off the week with wall to wall sunshine but knew this wouldn't last forever. The force 6 northerly winds soon brought rain and big seas on the French side of the channel. Some of the crew saw their dinner more than once and if we didn't know each other before this sea-phase, we certainly do now. It was hard work but rewarding, and all felt a sigh of relief as we crashed into Gunwharf Quays (a long, embarrassing story). Why is it there is always loads of people looking when you mess up?!

Week Six/Seven: These were the weeks where we did our STCW95 course and the UKSA were kind enough to give us a couple of days off. Firefighting was definitely the highlight of the 2 weeks. We went to Ryde fire station and got kitted up with all the gear and BA sets then went into a burning building, (not something I'd recommend for the sleepy or un-alert)! We also did first aid, PSSR (which i won't go into as most people struggled to stay compus mentus), and sea survival with Bill Gardener; an outrageous day. I learnt an amazing amount and definitely never want to get into a life raft again.

Life at the UKSA is certainly different. There's a lot of different people from all walks of life and all over the globe, so finding something to talk about is never hard. It's nice not having to cook for yourself when on land and the swimming pool in the morning is a good start to the day.

We've got our self skippered sea-phase coming up and our Yachmaster after that so some more interesting weeks ahead (and no doubt some embarrassing crashes) which i'll keep you up to date with.