Things Go with a Splash..

I was up bright and early, for the forecast great day of weather in North East Scotland – however someone had obviously not told the skies, as it was cold,dark and squally looking – still I was to go out on an adventure..

Firstly I drove out to RAF Lossiemouth http://www.raf.mod.uk/raflossiemouth/ where I met Wayne and his team, who were to go out to sea at Buckie to complete their ‘sea drills’ http://www.raf.mod.uk/raflossiemouth/gallery/202sqngallery.cfm?start=1&viewmedia=4  – which entails being dunked into the sea in all their equipment, and whilst attached to a cockpit seat, simulating an ejection from their aeroplane, and landing in the sea below, ready to be collected by a search and rescue Sea King helicopter…and I was to be able to be present and witness everything from the boat..something different, that not many would usually be able to witness !

We were soon at Buckie, and loaded onto the ship – the Smit Yar - which was to take us out into the open sea.Our first disappointment was that the helicopter which was due to winch the aircrew from their rafts in the sea wasn’t coming, so they would all have to be collected from the sea, and have a dripping journey back to Lossiemouth in the van with us…ah well ! The ship bucked and yawed as we left the shelter of the harbour wall, and into the grey swell of the open sea…soon getting to the designated exercise area, and ready for our first ‘volunteer’ to jump off the end of the boat into the cold Moray Firth /North Sea , be dragged behind the boat to simulate a parachute landing  and then to inflate their liferaft, clamber aboard it, and to await ‘rescue’…all in the cold icy sea, with the wind blasting them in their little boats ! – 4 aircrew were dumped into the water, and then left to sit it out,dreaming of rescue – at one stage we had a surprise sighting of the helicopter roaring over the waves towards us…wiggled it’s rotors… and carry on (it was on an operational mission )  so it was left to the recovery crew to gather them up, and dump them back at our boat for the  journey back to Buckie, and ultimately Lossiemouth, with only a short diversion for fish and chips for everyone !

I jumped out at Lossiemouth to return home, whilst the ‘boss’ supervised his team in sorting everything out..and an early night, before I start out on my travels again tomorrow

Thanks Wayne for arranging a great day for me               it went with a ‘splash’ !