Home from home....

26th April 1982

We left Rosyth today en route to Portland via Portsmouth then on to the Falklands. Time to properly take in my home for the foreseeable future.

This ship is not what I was expecting. Leeds Castle was commissioned in 1980 so is pretty new. It is extremely well appointed - the crew's cabins are actually carpeted! They have comfortable bunks and are not over crowded - no more than, from memory, around 6 in the cabin (compare this to around 30 on the Yarmouth).

The sick bay appears brand new - has certainly seen very little use - reasonably well equipped with a couple bunks.

The crew consists of 50 souls - average age around 18-19 years. The Leeds Castle is a fishery protection ship - it has a large flight deck and very little armament. This consisted of one 30 mm BMARC cannon and 4 L7 General Purpose Machine Guns - not really going to frighten the opposition. Although our skipper was a little gung ho - I think he would have loved to have screamed down bomb alley in the Falklands - giving them hell. Yeah, right - one good hit and that would have been it for us.

Our main task was to ferry supplies around the fleet - mundane but necessary. I have spent most of my time over the past few days helping to store the ship and to ties things down securely. We have bits of kit everywhere.

The crew is, I'm sure, not used to having a medic on board so, it will take a little time for them to get used to me. Most of my shipmates of similar rate to me are extremely busy with their work so I concentrate on making sure the ship is in good shape medically. I get involved in other areas where I can be of help. You just muck in when needed - you are a member of a team and you get stuck in (something civilian businesses could learn from).

Over the next few weeks we will exercise, exercise and exercise again. More later......