CANTERBURY! HMNZS - Royal New Zealand Navy

BOOK REVIEWSFLEET PROGRESSINTERNATIONALHMNZS MANAWANUIMIDs Mike O’leary (nearer camera) and Adam Flaws taking sun sights during OOW trainingHMNZS MANAWANUIBY AMED SARAH MELLSOPWITH the completion of Op ORION back inMay, MANAWANUI berthed in Tauranga fora weekend and on the Saturday night hostedSundowners. Family and friends joined usonboard to witness a sunset ceremonyand enjoy a few drinks. ACH Ben Davidsondid a great job of catering for the supper;a successful night was enjoyed by all whoattended.The Operational Diving Team joined inTauranga on 21 June to commence Op NI-AGARA. MANAWANUI sailed from Taurangaand we positioned off the coast to anchorover the various contacts that we had foundearlier [see NT 122 June]. Once anchored thedivers headed out in the small RIB, calledthe Red Knight, and started diving to identifythe contacts - these mainly turned out to berocks, but piping, a tree stump and a chunkof metal were also found.Once all the contacts down to 50 metreshad been identified it was time to send theROV down to the deep water contacts. Anchoringover these contacts proved to beslightly difficult, due to the weather. Oncein position the ROV was deployed but developeda problem…. We made a decisionto head into Tauranga a day early, pick upthe needed part for the ROV then sail tocontinue operations over the weekend. Bythe time the ROV was repaired and tested,the weather then got worse! We returned toAuckland for a week alongside.During the week at DNB our NavigatingOfficer, WOSA “Johno” Johnson, postedoff. Johno initially joined MANAWANUI for ashort term posting - and stayed for 3 years!During his tenure he provided continuity forthe watch keeper/navigators position andalso built up a wealth of special knowledge.His smiley face and deep knowledge willbe greatly missed. A farewell afternoon teawas held onboard for Johno and ASCS DaveWells who was also posting off after servinga year onboard. SLT Damion Gibbs is Johno’sreplacement.After the long, Queen’s Birthday weekend,we embarked six of the current Grade 2OOW course members - and MANAWANUIset off for a week of star gazing! HMNZSKIWI and WAKAKURA (with the other halfof the Grade 2 course embarked) sailedwith us – naturally we conducted OOWmanoeuvres once clear of the harbour.Man Over Board and Engineering CasualtyControl Drills (ECCD’s) were then conductedwith the Grade 2 OOW’s taking charge ofthe bridge for these evolutions. We thenheaded off on a steady course so the coursemembers could practice with their sextants,taking and plotting sun sights during the dayand stars/planets night and morning. Thiscontinued for the next three days until, onthe Thursday, 50cal machine gun drills andfirings were conducted. By then the coursehad achieved what they set out to achieveAMED Sarah Mellsop (nearest camera)assists with the launching of the sea boatand with the weather packing it in again, weheaded back to Devonport.The second week of the OOW Coursebrought the other half of the Grade 2 studentson board MANAWANUI for their weekof astro. An unusual wakey wakey occurredearly one morning when one of the Grade 2officers bent over to get their sextant and accidentallyset of the abandon ship alarm! TheCO came flying up the ladders wearing justhis night attire – but, after he was told whathad happened, calmly stood there discussingthe stars with the Grade 2s.During the week the same sort of exerciseswere practiced for this group of Grade2s, including a TOWEX and a DCEX with afire taking out the galley, therefore alternatemethods of messing were practiced and aBBQ lunch was enjoyed by all!This is my first sea posting and it hasbrought a big learning curve and a few challengesfor me. Being the sole charge medic,the work load medical-wise hasn’t beenhuge, but keeping up to date with medicaland other aspects of the ship has been achallenge. I have had an insight into whatthe other branches do, having had the opportunitiesto work with these other branches.These include bowman on the boats, beingpart of the anchoring and berthing party, theslipping party during the TOWEX, helping inthe galley, starting emergency fire pumps,being part of DCEX’s and MOB, and mostof all doing quartermaster watches. This waseasy to learn as long as you can learn fromyour mistakes…and I made a few!Before posting on MANAWANUI, I knewvery little about what Divers and Hydrographersdid. But after having both thosebranches onboard I now have a better ideaof their jobs. It was great and amazing tosee how you need every branch to comeLEFT: ACH Tamielle Monk made ‘the best choc-banana cake’as a farewell for WOSA Johno Johnson. The arm visible atright belongs to POSCS Hardgrave. ABOVE: ASCS Dave Wellsreceived a dunking from his shipmates before he posted off.MANAWANUI’s main armament – a 50cal machine gun firingtogether to achieve a certain goal. Being atsea has been great fun and has given me ataste of what the Navy as a whole (shoreandsea-based) is all about. Being a mediconboard MANAWANUI hasn’t been all aboutmy medical knowledge but more about thegeneral knowledge I gained in BCTs and theability to learn new roles and responsibilities.This is the unique posting that MANAWANUIcan offer to Medics in particular. And… theNZ port visits have been fun as well!30 NT123JULY07 WWW.NAVY.MIL.NZWWW.NAVY.MIL.NZNT123JULY07 31