November - Department of Defence

20(Continued from page 19)paid off as they pulled one back. Theirhappiness was short-lived as S LtSiphiwe Ngidi made it 3-1. The Frenchteam finally succumbed to a 7-4defeat.SpainWe left Brest on 27 August andarrived at Naval Base Rota, Spain, on30 August 2004. Naval Base Rota is aSpanish joint utilisation base, which isadministered under bilateral agreementbetween the Kingdom of Spainand the United States of America. It islocated in Cadiz Bay between thetown of Rota and EL Puerto de SantaMaria. It occupies an area of 2 300hectares, with a perimeter of 26 kmand a coastline 6 km long.The ship took on fuel and suppliesto ensure that the ship and her crewwere looked after during the final legof the return voyage. 2 September wasthe last day that the ship was in aEuropean port, before she left Spainfor South Africa. The trip back hometook approximately fifteen days. Theship sailed round the western bulge ofAfrica, across the Atlantic, andstraight into Table Bay, past CapeTown and towards False Bay.To keep the morale of the ship'scompany high, various competitionswere held aboard. There was an intermessquiz, cooking and beard growingcompetitions. His Gracious Majesty,SAS MENDI.King Neptune, theruler of the sevenseas, six oceans andall underwaterrealms, also visitedthe ship's company.He punished allmembers who hadnot paid homage tohis Majesty, in aceremony named'crossing the line'.Experiences ofthe crewChaplain (Cpln)Mncedisi Dinisomentioned that hewas impressed with the attendance atchurch services on board as it was voluntary,but people fitted it into theirbusy schedules. He added that it wasalso encouraging to have a person ofthe calibre of R Adm (JG) Litchfield-Tshabalala in their midst to share theWord of God with them. He urged theship's company to continue with theirhard work as he was privileged to witnessit and that they were to know thathe was proud of them and would continuepraying for them.The coxswain of SAS MENDI,WO1 Ronny Chetty, was tasked withmaintaining discipline and the welfareof both the Senior Rates and JuniorRates. He said that there were no seriousproblems as the ship's companyCrossing the line ceremony.was new and worked together as"Team MENDI". He mentioned thatexperience had taught him to bepatient, especially on long deployments.The coxswain felt thatGermany, France and Spain were thesame, but did not have a lot of time toexplore because of workloads. Heemphasised that the staffing of thecrew of SAS MENDI went smoothly,and took representivity in terms ofrace and gender into consideration.Leading Seaman Linky Boshielo isa steward, and since it was her firsttime on board the ship she took thechallenge head-on. She said she wouldlike to encourage other young womento come and work at sea as it was oneof the greatest experiences. Lifeaboard the ship has its ups and down,and they have to work twice as hard astheir male counterparts.Home sweet homeThe proud crew accomplishedtheir mission on 17 September 2004.To commemorate this event the SANavy held a Fleet Review in False Bayduring which all four corvettes wereseen at sea simultaneously for the firsttime. The officiating officer at the FleetReview was the Chief of the SANDF,Gen Siphiwe Nyanda.Personally, the voyage was an eyeopener.To experience what the menand women went through was bothenriching and educational. A bigthank-you to the whole ship's companyfor integrating me into the realNavy, you are the best. It was not easy,but it was worth it.S A S O L D I E R • N OV EMBER 2 0 0 4