Log Book entries: HDS to Fearless .15 minutes night
Vertrep 2.20 hours day
Action Lynx - ECM .25 Minutes day .15 minutes night
Vertrep from Glamorgan 2.05 hours night
I have to confess that today got rather hectic and for the life of me I can't remember all the detail. Anyway things started off in the dark with the need to get a lot of the SF stuff across to Fearless. The plan was to use us to fly it across. Just as I approached the deck of Fearless with the first load, the number two engine oil pressure started to flicker. Not unusual in a Lynx but this was the engine I had given severe stick to only a few days ago. Once we had got rid of the load we assessed the problem. The pressure was definitely down but was it a gauge problem or the engine about to go pop? Normally we would have carried on but because of the recent events Bob and I both decided we needed to get it checked out. The SF chaps would not take kindly to more of their stuff being dumped in the oggin for a second time. The ship decided to do the rest of the transfer by boat which took much longer. We changed part of the gauging system quite quickly but by then the job was done. This was the only time during the war that we were unable to complete a task due to aircraft problems.
We left San Carlos still in the dark. I can't remember what the Vertrep was for, probably just taking stuff around the fleet as usual but that evening it all got interesting again. Just as it was getting dark we had another scramble to deploy the jammer but once again it was a false alarm and then we were tasked to go over to Glamorgan and collect a whole load more stores. There were two issues with this. Night load lifting at sea was expressively prohibited by the rules and for good reason. (at anchor in San Carlos was a bit different) and I was pretty sure that Glamorgan hadn't twigged that we couldn't carry anything inside our cabin as it was full of electronics for the jammer. Bob 'discussed' this with the ship but in the end off we went. Sure enough we were told to land on Glamorgan and when we pointed out our cabin limitations there was an embarrassed silence for a few minutes. We then proceeded to take something like twenty underslung loads from one ship to the other. The first were quite hairy as it was a very dark night but we soon got into the rhythm. By the end we were cracking on at quite a pace. So much for yet another 'rule'.
A bloody hard day followed by a bloody hard sleep.
Sorry no photos as most of this happened in the dark!
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