We have recently recruited our next intake of cadets from Year 9, there are still places available if anyone is interested. Our senior cadets have been instructing the new entrants in drill techniques to ensure everyone is prepared for our annual participation in Remembrance events. We have also started teaching new entrants some of the theoretical content ready for future promotion assessments and ideas about how to demonstrate leadership. CNW
Some of our cadets write about their summer courses:
My Dinghy Level 1 and 2 course with the Cadets was very good. Even though we didn’t have the weather gods on our side, the majority of my cohort managed to get their Level 2 qualifications. With dinghy sailing, you have to be very careful about the weather and the tide. So if there is too much wind or too little wind, or too strong a tide, then it can mess up the sailing and cause you to overturn, which we did a great deal of times. But the people and the adults were very welcoming. It also helped that you met people without their phones and got to know them without the phone masking their personality. The only downside was the infamous Navy bag meals, which were probably the worst part of the trip!
On Day 1, we drove to Camber Harbour to start training. We started by having a briefing of how to turn on the boats and what safety checks to do before starting off. After this, we moved to the area around Drake Island to learn our first manoeuvres such as S turns, U turns and mooring against buoys and floating docks. After lunch, we went back out, this time completing all safety checks by ourselves, to practice a bit more and also complete man overboard drills. By the end of the day we were quite confident in these and ready to move onto the next skills. On Day 2, we started off at Camber by having a briefing on the second type of boat (RIB, which had an outboard motor, and a Cheverton Champ, which had an inboard motor). We learned the safety checks for this kind of boat as well. We then spent the day practicing our skills from the day before and we also learnt how to do and practiced doing confined turns in the nearby marinas. During lunchtime, we had a talk from one of the instructors about knot tying. On Day 3, before we set off, we had a lecture about towing, and the different ways to do it. In the morning, we then practiced towing and being towed as well as some extra basic skill practice due to spare time before lunch. During lunch we had a lecture about anchoring and taking all conditions into account, such as depth, tide and wind. After lunch we split up and while some of us practiced anchoring in the Champs, the others did planning with the RIBs, which was going full throttle, we then swapped mid afternoon. On Day 4, we were done with skills practice and so went on a little trip. We first anchored up near a beach and went to a nearby place for free ice cream. We got to watch the Marines’ Landing Craft arriving for family day. After this we travelled further up the river to Jupiter Point, to meet with the dingy sailors and travel back to HMS Raleigh.