Weather: Nice and Calm probably no more than a force 2, Significant wave height 2-3m
Location: The same place as yesterday - if weve moved its no less than a few meters
Food: Rib Eye Steak, Tirramasu Mmmmmmmmm
Anthrax, Mines, Explosions and Bad Weather - "Do we get danger money?"
The mountains behind the ship!!
Still in the same place..........
Ok, got up a bit later today. We were meant to deploy the rock drill last night but the weather report stated that it would get rough - the wind was already blowing 30-40 knots and reports suggested it would get worse. Strangely the waves were under 1m. The deployment was delayed until conditions improved.
I decided to go to bed at 1ish and the rock drill was deployed around 4am. My cabin is right under the aft-deck of the ship and I was woken up early this morning my what sounded like an anti-social ghost rattling it's chains. The rock drill deployment landed within 60cm of its target!!!
I Received an email from Heather's dad last night!!! This was hilarious because I went and asked Heather that he had told me some interesting stories about her in Ullapool!! Heather thought it was hilarious (Although she doesn't know that the Captain has been informed and we will not allow Heather ashore in Ullapool in the event that we dock)
Anyway, the main battle group seems to have joined us today and there are a number of large frigates and warships from a variety of nations lingering about. There are numerous aircraft in the air and helicopters. Once again we appear to be on the main approach for aircraft attacking the battle group and have had numerous low level aircraft fly passed us including the new Eurofighter and RAF Tornados
The weather has been more of the same - you can experience most seasons in a fifteen minute period. One minute it's rainning the next it's sunny. If you don't like the weather hang around for fifteen minutes and it will change.
Sited the main battle fleet steaming around the Summer Isles at a distance - managed to get some grainy shots but for those who are interested the fleet appears to be made up of the following ships: USS Cole, USS Elrod, USS John L. Hall, USS Nicholas, USNS Laramie and a Spanish F100 destroyer. My little contact also notified me that one of our smaller research ships is in the area taking part in the exercise - the Prince Madog aka “The Mad Dog”. Hopefully we will see our little friend in the coming days.
The morning meeting was much longer than usual and we discussed the alternatives due to the weather. At the moment we are pretty much blocked in by the main battle group . The other area the scientists suggested we work in is currently being used to practice destroying mines using explosives - so I think we will give that a miss. The scientists also want us to multibeam (map the seabed) in an area which happens to be where the main battle group is sat and infringes on the submarine exercise area. Our Captain doesn't think it would be a good idea to go amongst the fleet and keep asking them to move so we can survey - I have to agree with him. We can go back to Loch Ewe as the Navy are conducting a live fire exercise. Another suggested place is adjacent to the notorious Anthrax Island!!
A little bit about Anthrax Island (Or Base X as it was known) ........
Anthrax occurs naturally, in low levels, in some animals, but when it is inhaled by humans in the form of spores it is deadly. The killing power of anthrax was demonstrated by British scientists during the Second World War when it was released on a tiny Scottish island to wipe out a flock of sheep (being a Welshman I am horrified at this) - they put them in pens and fired various munitions at the sheep. Very baaaaaaddddd. The island, Gruinard, just off the mainland, in Gruinard Bay, half way between Ullapool and Gairloch in the Highlands, was so contaminated that it was deemed out-of-bounds for almost 50 years. The 1942 test was sanctioned amid fears the Germans might attack the UK with biological or chemical weapons.
Despite attempts to disinfect Gruinard Island, the spores left by the experiments kept the island in quarantine for 48 years.
In 1986 an English company was paid half a million pounds to decontaminate the 520-acre island by soaking the ground in 280 tonnes of formaldehyde diluted in 2000 tonnes of seawater piped through 30 miles of perforated hoses. Topsoil was also removed in sealed containers.
To prove that the clean-up was successful a flock of sheep was allowed to graze the island at the behest of an independent watchdog set up by the Ministry of Defense.
On 24 April, 1990, the then junior Defense Minister, Michael Neubert, made the half-mile journey from the mainland to declare Gruinard safe by removing its red warning sign.
So it should be safe.......
Back to today.
By all accounts the Coastguard kindly asked the Americans to stop using their radio frequency this morning. It also seems that the Americans are getting annoyed that the boats that keep on identifying themselves as fishing boats are in-fact fishing boats with quite sophisticated weapons........
At the moment we are just drilling – nothing much is happening………
Panoramic image of the Aft-end of RRS James Cook.
Aft-deck of RRS James Cook. The rock drill is deployed. The line to the rock drill can be seen going from the winch in the bottlom left corner of the image to the "A-frame" and down into the sea. The containers are where the BGS team control the drill. The large device on the far side of the deck is a corer - I don't know much about this type of corer so will give you details when I find out more.
RAF Tornados over RRS James Cook. I think the right picture shows the laser that is used in these war games going of to indicate a missile launch. No more RRS James Cook
A Eurofighter Typhoon - Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and the UK all operate these aircraft and all are taking part in this exercise. This noisy piece of kit flew over our ship apparently chasing away two RAF Tornadoes....
This is most likely a Sea Hawk from one of the US ships - it flew passed us briefly - probably checking us out.
USN NICHOLAS (FFG 47)
USS NICHOLAS is the thirty-seventh ship of the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY class of frigates, and the third generation of that class.
Awarded: April 28, 1980, Keel laid: September 27, 1982 ,Launched: April 23, 1983, Commissioned: March 10, 1984, Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine , Propulsion system: two General Electric LM 2500 gas turbines, two 350 Horsepower Electric Drive Auxiliary Propulsion Units, Propellers: one, Blades on each Propeller: five, Length: 453 feet (138 meters), Beam: 47 feet (14.32 meters),Draft: 24,6 feet (7.5 meters) Displacement: 4,100 tons, Speed: 28+ knots, Aircraft: two SH-60 Sea Hawk (LAMPS 3) ,Armament: one Mk 75 76mm/62 caliber rapid firing gun, MK 32 ASW torpedo tubes (two triple mounts), one Phalanx CIWS, Homeport: Norfolk, VA , Crew: 17 Officers and 198 Enlisted
Álvaro de Bazán class frigate - BLAS DE LEZO - F103
Taken from a long long way away!!!
Spanish Navy's 'F100' frigate BLAS DE LEZO, built at the Spanish Izar shipyard and launched in May 2003. She was commissioned in December 2004. with a displacement of 5,800 tonnes, this 147 metre long ship is fitted with combined diesel and gas turbine (CODAG) machinery. Her armament comprises surface to air missiles, anti-ship missile systems, and torpedoes, as well as a forward mounted 20mm gun
USS Cole (DDG 67)
The second USS Cole (DDG 67) is an Arleigh Burke class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer homeported in NS Norfolk, Virginia. The Cole is named in honor of Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945.
Ther is a lot of history surround in the USS Cole: On 12 October 2000, while under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold, the Cole was attacked from a small boat by Al-Qaida suicide bombers, while she was harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 were injured. The U.S. government offered a reward of up to US $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of those persons who committed or aided in the attack on Cole. On 4 November 2002, Ali Qaed Sinan al-Harthi, who is believed to have planned the attack, was killed by the CIA using an AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator unmanned drone.
USS Cole returns to the USA aboard the Norwegian semi-submersible heavy-lift MV Blue Marlin
M.V Summer Queen
First and only member of the ironically named "Summer Queen" class. This ship is armed with a tea-urn and a sandwich bar. In addition the Summer Queen also carries a compliment of heavily armed camera tooting tourists. The ship has a impressive 6 knot top speed (oars deployed and favourable wind) and visits the ironically named "Summer Islands". Powered by a top-of-the-range modified Fiat panda engine this is the flagship of the Flotilla.
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