Stanley's Navy

Busy, busy!

2013-09-25T13:29:00.002+01:00

Its been a very busy year at work. I started the year preparing for Tynwald Day and the State Opening of Parliment on the Isle of Man.

I have now entered my final 2 years of Service and will leave the Royal Navy on 14 January 2015. I have had a great time but now I am looking forward to leaving. It isn't the Navy that I joined and sad to say but I am looking forward to leaving now.

At the end of February I delivered the Commissioning Parade for HMS Astute in Faslane. That was an interesting time, trying to mould scruffy submariners into some semblance of smart sailors. True to form though, they delivered on the day!

During Easter leave Maggie Thatcher passed away so my leave was cut short and I participated in the funeral parade at St Pauls Cathedral. It all passed off with minimum disruption. Some scumbag lefties tried to heckle along the Strand but they were drowned out by a group of Falkland veterans.

In July I took a group of sailors over to the Isle of Man for Tynwald Day. Nobody got arrested, so I deem that a success!

Divisional Nightmare

2012-12-10T10:17:00.000+00:00

I am sat in week two of Divisional Officers course. The course is full of very immature Junior Officers. Their constant prattling on is giving my arsehole headache!

Do as I say, not as I do!

2012-10-12T20:16:00.000+01:00

The time has come for annual reports to be submitted to the promotion boards which sit in Portsmouth.

Over the last three months or so my least favourite officer, who also happened to be my Divisional Officer has been constantly reminding people of the importance of completing the annual reports. This has been especially important due to the ship decommissioning and people moving to other ships.

Now I find myself in the unfortunate position of waiting for the same person to complete my report. He left the ship before it paid off and now I am in limbo, unable to contact him to finish what he started.

Maybe I didn't hide my disdain for him quite as well I thought!

HMS YORK Decommissioning Ceremony - Portsmouth Dockyard 27 September 2012

2012-10-04T21:17:00.002+01:00

Its Roll On Me Time

2012-09-24T21:39:00.000+01:00

My final entry in to base port has now come and gone.

Procedure Alpha passed off reasonably well, as did the Gun Salute with Fort Blockhouse, and Round Tower and Old Portsmouth were full. Pleasingly, the Gunnery Officer had left the ship in Hull and so couldn't interfere!

As we moved up harbour some ships manned the side and cheered as York passed by. That was a nice touch and they looked very good.

Now all that remains is to decommission in a few days.

Some Jock talked about Freedom!

2012-09-24T21:18:00.000+01:00

HMS York has now handed back the Freedom of the City of York. The parade went off without a hitch and my boss only cocked up a little bit.

The Junior Ratings looked presentable and marched fairly well. The Senior Rates however were a shambles. They let the side down, thinking it would all be easy.

In the lead up to it all the Gunnery Officer was really getting on my tits. He is one of those Naval Officers who just has to say something, even when he doesn't know what he is talking about! Such a simple parade, if only he could just do as he is told. The kind of bloke who makes things more difficult by his actions. Non stop panic but now he has gone and I am glad to be rid of him. It has been increasingly difficult to hide my disdain for him as the year has gone on. It just goes to show, a posh school and university can't stop a bloke being an imbecile. Quite a few times I had to point out to him that I didn't join up as an admiral and work my way down! I don't expect my annual report to be glowing!

Frenchies

2012-09-24T20:52:00.000+01:00

My last foreign run ashore has just passed me by. I never imagined 21 years ago that my last foreign port would be Brest! I went for a run down to one of the coves along past the U-Boat pens. It was on a Friday and the Frenchies obviously secure early. Needless to say the back and side gates were shut when I got back to the dockyard and so I had to run round to the main gate. By the time I got back to the ship I had run 7.5 miles and was done in.

Whilst conducting some parade training on the jetty in the naval dockyard one of my fine Petty Officers was impressing with his pace stick. All was going well until he found the only hole in the jetty.... now his pace stick is floating somewhere in a French dockyard.

Ashore again

2012-07-08T12:24:00.000+01:00

Well, had a couple of runs ashore now. St Petersburg was good, what a difference to 18 years ago. No leave in Baltisyk, so it was just me and a bottle of Pussers in the Warfare Office with Salty Dick for company!

Falklands

2012-04-29T22:55:00.000+01:00

I've just been looking at my blog traffic on Feedjit Live and I've noticed a viewing from the Falkland Islands. Annoyingly, it also list Falkland Islands as Malvinas in brackets.

Oxygen Thieves

2012-04-29T19:57:00.000+01:00

Well, been out on the grey crinkly stuff for a few days.

One good thing over the last fortnight is that I have got rid of two idiots finally. They were in the Navy for all of , I don't know, maybe a year, probably less actually. Anyway, however long they served for, they were both a complete waste of skin. The appalling thing is that they were paid a decent wage and blatantly didn't earn it. Good riddance to them, they certainly won't be missed!

http://getstuffedargentina.weebly.com/

WTF!

2012-03-17T23:03:00.000+00:00

Never forget, your kit is made by the lowest bidder!

2012-03-16T23:25:00.000+00:00

http://www.needtiles.co.uk/

http://www.needtiles.com/

Do one Argies!

2012-03-16T22:47:00.000+00:00

http://getstuffedargentina.weebly.com/

End of an era

2012-02-18T21:42:00.000+00:00

My oppo has now handed in his ID card and is on terminal leave after 23 years in the RN. It is strange to think of the Navy without my best mate in it anymore.

He had a good send off yesterday with a lot of blokes turning out for a run ashore. It made the PT Disco worthwhile for the first time in years. The night ended with him falling/jumping in Commercial Rd Fountain. I heard a splash and turned round to see him wallowing about and struggling to get out! I managed to get him back on board and into his pit. This morning he woke up with a baggy head and a waterlogged phone!

Be lucky Mariner. It won't be the same without you....

Do I need my uniform on board Chief?

2012-01-30T21:34:00.000+00:00

Today a senior officer came on board and I wanted to provide a ceremonial sentry at the bottom of the gangway. So, I detailed an Able Seaman for the duty and he then informed me that he didn't have his best dress uniform on board. "It is being cleaned Chief". Okay, fair enough I thought, they have to be cleaned sometime. At least he has thought about it, most matelots are absolute scran bags with appalling kit. The next lad had taken it home because he had attended a funeral in uniform. He didn't think to bring it back with him! So, at Both Watches, the sailors will be mustering and proving their Number 1 uniforms. I expect to be handing out kit musters!

An uncaring Chief

2012-01-30T21:16:00.000+00:00

As part of communal commitments I have put an Able Seaman in DHP. On being given the good news she immediately tried to worm out of being a flunkey for the next 3 months. The reason? Playing rugby, apparently, should take priority over all other considerations. I don't think so! The AB then commented to someone else that I don't really care about her rugby playing career. And do you know what? She is dead right!

A waste of a white front!

2012-01-26T20:55:00.000+00:00

My two favourite sailors are causing problems again! I shouldn't even describe them as sailors really. I managed to get one of them drafted today and they were supposed to start courses for another ship in a few days. Cue lots of crocodile tears and wringing of hands, and the result is..... I am still stuck with them. So I thought about drafting the other one, but that is a no go unfortunately.
I know we have a duty of care to individuals but some people do not deserve my time. The worst thing about some of these young cretins is that they get a good wage for doing very little. I would like to see them struggling on a building site for sod all money.
I have three years left in the Andrew and I am done and to be honest I am looking forward to it.

Scrimshankers

2012-01-11T23:50:00.000+00:00

My two youngsters who decided that they didn't want to sail in December have been at it again! Whilst they were landed because we were at sea, I have positive control of them when the ship is alongside in base port. So, they are fit to work on board alongside, they just can't go to sea and do the job they are drawing the pay for!
Today they tried to get the Medical Officer to sign off on an employment form which would mean they wouldn't turn to on board. The brains behind the scheme then tried the same on me. They were unsuccessful, I can tell you!
The paperwork to release them from the Royal Navy has now been started, and hopefully they will be in civvy street within a month. If it was up to me they would have been kicked out before Christmas. I would have taken great delight knowing they were unemployed at Christmas time!

ROMFT

2012-01-05T23:51:00.000+00:00

This year my best friend leaves the Pusser,having completed his 22 years, and a bit more. He'll hand in his ID card in a couple of months and it is strange to think that he is moving on to do something else with his life. We have shared a lot of good times over the years, and a few bad ones too, unfortunately. It will be my time soon enough, but we'll never be civvies, we'll be ex-matelots.

A new man at the helm

2012-01-05T21:23:00.000+00:00

So, I went on to the Island last night for the first GI's meeting of 2012. A new President of the Association has now taken over. The outgoing President has put a lot of time and effort in during his 4 years and has really made a difference.
The turn out on a stormy evening was okay, and the usual stalwarts of the Association, mostly older members turned out. It would be good for the future of the GI's if we could encourage more serving matelots to join. I sat last night listening to the usual suspects droning on, with Harry the Dog barking occasionally! I am alongside for a few months now so I'll be able to get along for a couple of meetings. I will just have to make sure I'm not sat next to Harry!
http://www.rngia.com

2011-12-29T21:31:00.000+00:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Discuss....

Exams in January

2011-12-29T21:23:00.000+00:00

I have got 2 psychology exams to sit in the New Year. I have just checked my candidate statement of entry and I think I have been entered for the wrong ones! Not good at all. It is my own fault for not checking sooner. Work has been hectic these last few months moving between ships and I have not done anywhere enough studying anyway. It looks as though I may have to cuff the exams, hardly the right attitude for A levels! As soon as these exams are out of the way I need to start thinking about an NVQ in management, which will go towards my resettlement.

Time to move on?

2011-12-28T15:52:00.000+00:00

So many in my position in the RN are approaching their termination date to leave the Service. Quite a few others have submitted notice to leave before their termination date, which speaks volumes. Should I stay or should I go? Three more years and it is my time to leave. There seem to be plenty of opportunities to work offshore in maritime security, maybe that is the direction I should be heading in. I am close to my pension so I'll stay until 2015, unless I win the lottery! The pension scheme will be changed in 2015, obviously not for the better, so that might be a good time to leave anyway.
The Royal Australian Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy are most likely going to be taking an interest in who has taken or been made redundant from the RN. There are a lot of disgruntled blokes with good skills at the moment.

A Run Ashore

2011-12-27T01:54:00.000+00:00

I was thinking the other day about how much time I have left to serve and the runs ashore in the last 20 years. There are still a lot of places I haven't been. I have never been bothered that I haven't had a Far East deployment, but to have never had a deployment around the Caribbean is disappointing. Still, I have a few years left, so hopefully I'll get a couple more deployments yet. Since 2005 my only major deployments have been to the South Atlantic and the Falkland Islands. It's my own fault for serving on T42 Destroyers. So I decide to take my next sea draft on another class of ship, a T23 Frigate, in the hope of deploying somewhere else. Well, I will deploy but to the Falklands again!
Places visited with the RN that I remember off the top of my head;
Gibraltar - countless occasions
Malta - 2
Sicily - Catania 3
Sardinia - 1
Italy - (Ancona, Brindisi, Naples, Trieste, Venice 6
Germany - Hamburg 1
France - Cherbourg, Brest 4
Netherlands - Amsterdam 1
Eire - Cork 1
Iraq - Deployed on operations
Kuwait - Deployed on operations
Dubai - 3
Muscat - 1
Doha - 1
Greek mainland - Piraeus, Patras, Athens, Thessaloniki 5
Crete - 5
Corfu - 4
Cyprus - 4
USA - New York, Miami, Baltimore 3
Falkland Islands - 5
South Georgia - 5
Madeira
Uruguay - Montevideo 4
Brazil - Rio, Recife, Santos 7
Argentina - 1
Chile - Punta Arenas, Valparaiso 3
Latvia - 1
Estonia - 1
Sierra Leone - 1
Ghana - 1
Balearics - 2
Canary Islands - 1
Russia - St Petersburg - 1
Egypt - Alexandria, Cairo, El Alamein - 1
Israel - Haifa 1

Join the Navy and see the world!

Sick Parade

2011-12-23T00:09:00.000+00:00

Christmas leave is about to start and one of the watch keepers has turned up with broken fingers! You couldn't make it up. So somebody else has now been stitched up to do the bloke's duties. Tomorrow I have another sicknote returning to the ship. Three months downgraded and not fit for sea, but fit enough to play representative sport for an establishment. I hope he is turning up anyway!