Well the day that I thought would never come has finally arrived. I’ve stepped off HMAS Ballarat for the last time. It’s been an enjoyable, if sometimes frustrating and challenging three years on board. I’ve had the pleasure of making some great life long friends, as well as working with some exceptionally talented and dedicated people.

Tomorrow I’m off to the UK and Europe for a couple of months.

Well we’ve nearly made it to the Arabian Gulf. Only a few more days to go and we’ll be there. So far it’s been a pretty boring trip, there really isn’t anything to see in the middle of the Indian Ocean. About the only thing we’ve seen is a couple of whales and some flying fish, so a pretty uneventful trip.

Nothing too exciting at the moment. We are making our way north west across the Indian Ocean. We’ll have one brief stop for fuel on our way to the Arabian Gulf. For those not too sure where I’m headed have a look at this map. We’ll be operating mainly in the northern end of the Gulf, protecting a couple of oil terminals that belong to Iraq.

Well we’re finally on our way to the Persian Gulf to undertake our role in Operational Catalyst.

We’ve had a busy few days in Western Australia reducing the ships magnetic signature, ammunitioning, taking onboard stores and fixing our last few niggling defects.

Had a couple of good days in Fremantle, spent more than I intended to but I’m pretty sure I’ve got everything I need to the trip.

Some more boarding party training starts tomorrow, by then end of this six months I should be reasonably fit, the challenge will be maintaining that.

Well we’re part way through day 2 of our Sea Qualification Trials, and the very beginning of or work up for deployment.

Things haven’t been too bad, yesterday was extremely busy with lots of little things needing sorting out. Most of the equipment that I am responsible for is working as it should. I’ve a couple of little faults but nothing that is going to stop us achieving what we need to.

Today I got to drive the ships RHIB for a little while. When we deploy my job when I am duty in a foreign port will be driving the RHIB, so I got some practice at sea today. I was a little hesitant at first but in the end it wasn’t all that difficult. A bit more practice and I’m sure the Buffer will let me drive his boat without having anyone else looking after me, I hope.

With any luck I’ll be able to get some photos posted too.

Well, that’s the better part of the year gone already. Things have really flown by this year, it’s quite surprising really.

Tomorrow I’m back to sea for another 5 months or so. Should be back in Sydney around November. Hopefully this deployment goes by pretty quickly. We’ve got a couple of exercises that we will be participating in, a couple of South East Asian ports and then a month or so of Op Relex, border enforcement patrols. Not looking forward to Op Relex, but the rest of it shouldn’t be too bad.

I might even be able to get in a few days of kite surfing, well, attempted kite surfing. Who knows, by the end of the trip I might actually be able to get up on the board!

I’ll try and post updates here every couple of days, it might not be too exciting but I’ll try and get some pictures here as well.

Today is Anzac day here in Australia. For most of us Aussies this day marks a signficant point in the history of our young nation. It was on this day, 90 years ago that the brave young Australian Diggers landed at Gallipoli and began the legend that has helped to shape our nation.

For more have a read of The Anzac Day Tradition over at the Australian War Memorial’s web site.

Well it’s been a bit of a busy week. I’m off to sea again at the beginning of next week. We are only going out for a few days, but it is the first time in nearly 2 months that the ship has been to sea. We’ve had a few people post off and a few new ones arrive, not all the new faces have served on and ANZAC before so there are a few things for them to learn.

After we load up with ammunition we will head into Sydney for the first time in about 6 months. All the Sydney natives are looking forward to being home for a little while. Unfortunately we’ll only be there for about a month, then off again to serve and protect.

Well, back to sea tomorrow. It’s been nice to have a week or so off, but I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

The TV brackets finally got delivered to the ship, hopefully we can get them to the various Junior Sailor messes and get their televisions and home theatre systems installed for them. We also received or video intercom system for the POs Mess. Guess I’ll be getting that going over the next couple of days.

Hopefully a couple of defects have magically fixed themselves whilst I was away. If not then I guess I’ll have a bit of work on my hands. I should be getting another Kelic in the next couple of weeks, or actually a Kelic. Since my last one hasn’t even sailed with us as yet.

Hopefully we don’t get the shitty weather that the ship had on the way down from Sydney. Apparently it was really, really crap with a minor flood at 5:30 in the morning and a few people thrown from their racks. Ah that’s life in a blue suit I suppose.