Canoeing, 'Wey-Hey-Mouth', Weymouth, Jul 2011, ID 1113

Hereford Sea Cadets

Sixteen cadets and five adults from Hereford attended the Sea Cadet Training School at Weymouth to undertake a unit course. The aim of the week was to give cadets the opportunity to experience boating activities on the sea instead of on the River Wye. This would encourage the cadets to broaden their skill-set, enabling them to develop their understanding further by taking part in sailing, canoeing or power boating. By the end of the week we could see that every cadet had gained bags of confidence and a new qualification too!

The week started off with brilliant blue skies, sun shining but rain came along later in the week, but this didn’t dampen the spirits of the youngsters.

Day 1 saw the cadets split into three groups – Power Boating, Sailing and Canoeing. The power boating team, had to work together to prepare the boat, carrying out all pre checks ensuring the correct equipment was on board ready for use. Meanwhile the sailors, had the task of rigging and launching their Pico’s for the first time which was challenging. Ivor, the youngest sailor aged 10, took to it like duck to water! With the group ready they were picked up for tow from one of the power boating crew with many screams and squeals as the boats bobbed out of the harbour. When the canoeists got on the water, one of their first tasks was to travel in a straight line which was more challenging in open canoes than in the kayaks. It was a highly successful first day with all groups operating in this unfamiliar environment. It was evident by the end of the day that their personal confidence and individual achievements in overcoming their fears in a less than benign environment would bode well for the rest of the week.

Day 2, 3 and 4 brought a change in weather with rain and strong winds making boating conditions testing. However for the power boating team it allowed them to practise their newly gained skills in a real way and as OC Ashley Williams-Davies said “it made driving from Weymouth to Portland brilliant! with the waves making the journey very bumpy”! The canoeists weren’t flummoxed either and the wind didn’t stop them getting out of the harbour and canoeing over to the beach – where capsize drills were practised and as AC Conor Tarring said “it’s just so different on the sea! the boat keeps moving away which doesn’t happen on the Wye!" For all nine cadets sailing it was sometimes a little “harem scareum”! with booms and sails flipping from port to starboard often very quickly. For AC Dawkins it became a bit too much on day 2 when she got hit on the head with the boom one too many times! But she overcame her fear and got back to it on day 3.

At the end of the daily boating sessions, cadets came back to the centre to get changed out of their wet gear ready for tea. For Cadet Pritchard it took up to day 3 to get into this routine but with the help of the others she managed! OC Walker told me that “I don’t usually eat this, but I’m so hungry I could eat anything” - a sentence I’m sure this mother would love to hear.

To finish the week off all cadets had a go at “climbing the wall” – LC Williamson making it across in record time – again for most cadets this was a trial of confidence which they achieved!

I would like to thank the Ulysses Trust for giving us the grant that enable our cadets to challenge themselves in this way. So much so, they all want to go back again next year! Without this support many of our youngsters would not have been able to afford the cost of this course and would have missed out in a fantastic opportunity to try something new in a new environment which enabled them to work together as a great team.

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