Berri 2002

TS Sturt - Berri Camp
(1 to 3 March 2002)

Written by Leading Seaman Smith -  TS Adelaide

We left TS Adelaide at 5.30 pm Friday night on our way to TS Sturt in Berri.   We arrived with a warm welcome from the Cadets and Staff of TS Sturt.  That night we unpacked, had our briefs and got to know each other.  On Saturday we went down to the local lake (Lake Bonney) and went sailing.  The day was turning out to be a great one until an hilarious chain of events occurred.   Whilst one Corsair was sailing it capsized a number of times causing it to take on water above its freeboard meaning it could not sail, the rescue boat was called in to assist the flooded Corsair.  After approximately 2 minutes of towing the craft the rescue boat broke down with an empty fuel tank.  While the Cadets in the boats found this to be an hilarious event the Officers did not find it as amusing.  They tried to radio back to shore but it seems we were left in a no signal area and could not reach the shore.   We decided to try and bail out the water from the Corsair and see if it could go back for the rescue boat.   As if this wasn't funny enough, whilst towing a cable on the Corsair broke leaving us stranded again.   We then decided we could row back to shore until we found we only had one oar!  Lieutenant Fairhurst and Leading Seaman Smith took it in turns to row the boat to shore, but because the tide was going out all the rowing was doing was keeping the rescue boat stationary. Eventually we got hold of the shore by mobile telephone and a ski boat was sent out into the middle of Lake Bonny to rescue a "rescue boat".  The whole situation was a humorous one, well at least the Cadets that were stranded got time to get to know one another better.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing roller skating/blading, pistol shooting and doing team games.   The weekend was a success and everyone had a great time.  

A big thank you to the CO and to all at TS Stuart (Berri) for inviting TS Adelaide to come for the weekend for fun and excitement.