Friday 9 July 2010

Three days afloat

After Wednesday on the canals, we had two more days afloat. This morning as we were motoring towards the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, the navy came out to welcome us. The RFA Argus came in to port with crew standing to attention.

Royal Fleet Auxiliaries (RFAs) provide support to the Royal Navy – tankers and stores ships. RFA Argus is an Aviation Training and Casualty Receiving ship: she is used to train helicopter pilots – there is space for 5 aircraft on her after deck. She is also a medical base. Because she can be armed, she doesn’t count as a hospital ship under the Geneva Convention. It appears that in this role she was operating this week: a five-day exercise to familiarise MOD medical staff with the facilities onboard – more info on the BBC web site here. More about RFA Argus here.



When we got back to the moorings, one of the swans that live in the harbour, together with two cygnets, approached us for food. 


More pictures here.

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