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19th & 20th June 2010.

We have had a fantastic Junior Sea Cadet Giant Sleepover weekend, the best yet.

We met up with Moray Junior Sea Cadets and went swimming in Keith, visited the Buckie Lifeboat 150th Anniversary Gala where we saw round their lifeboat and the Coastguard tied some cadets up, had chips on Cullen links where a wave soaked one lad throwing a stone into the water, played cricket at Duff House park, and learned about lighthouses, morse and flags before sleeping over at the Scottish Lighthouse Museum.

That was only Saturday! Sunday we visited the Macduff Marine Aquarium, the Macduff Lifeboat Station (which is home to the only lifeboat that lives on the back of a lorry, to be launched anywhere), and back to Duff House park for another game of cricket (without the adults cheating this time!).

30th Apr - 3rd May 2010
Cadets and staff from all eight Units of Highland District gathered at our Unit on the Friday night for our DAfT (District AFloat Training) weekend. This was the first time all the Units had been together, from as far afield as Orkney, Elgin and Campbeltown and all points in between. This came to over 11,300 miles of travelling!!

Friday night we had classes to prepare us for the courses we would be qualifying in over the weekend. There were a great variety of courses on offer - power boating, sailing, pulling, kayaking and Canadian canoeing.

Lights out was at 2300 but some naughty cadets capered till the early hours, and nearly got sent home!!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for breakfast, Colours, then headed to the Muirtown Basin and Dochgarroch on the Caledonian Canal to start work on the practical element of our courses.

After the evening meal (which we were very glad of to warm us up after the tiring boating), we all went back to the Muirtown Basin and had a District Pulling Regatta. The winners were Thurso, with Campbeltown very close behind them.

As the Staff team was being knocked out, someone mentioned that it was amazing, considering they are the professionals!

Lights out was at 2300 again, but nobody made a noise this time, apart from the snoring.

Sunday it was back on the water for more course work and assessments. There was not so much wind for the sailors, and skill was needed to keep the boats moving. (CI Buckley under full sail was overtaken by a Junior reefed down, both in Toppers! What was that about?)

Sunday night the boys played football while the girls did girly things, and generally chilled out after our days of working hard.

Monday we tidied up, had the awards awarded, and moved some boats around, before dispersing after a very satisfying weekend. Many thanks to the staff who make it possible.

52 Qualifications were awarded – unfortunately there were no camping awards this year because it was too cold - new snow on the hills on Sunday! Still an amazing and very satisfying result!
Well done everyone!

13-Apr-10
We (the cadets and staff) visited the Coastguard at their base on the harbour. They showed us their gear, demonstrated how to use it and then we had a go.

Here we are throwing a throw bag into the air aiming for a pail while other cadets inspected the Coastguards vehicle.

The Coastguard grabbed a small cadet and we trussed him up to a stretcher, much to our delight.

Here is a cadet is ready for his helicopter ride home!

It was a very informative evening and we really enjoyed it. Many thanks to the Coastguards for allowing us visit and to our staff for taking us.

9th February 2010.
Our RNP (Royal Navy Parade) started with the Colours Ceremony. Cadets enact all the parts exactly as sailors do on ship, with Commander Redstone as our Inspecting Officer. The Colours are raised and we had prayers. Commander Redstone then asked our VIP, Admiral of the Moray Firth, Provost Jimmy Gray, to present our Burgee for 2009 to Cadet Scott in recognition of being one of the best Units in the UK. He then inspected every cadet on parade and invited mum’s and grannies to come onto the Main Deck to take photos of their little darlings, much to our disgust!

Next was the major evolution in which we showed everyone how to go boating, named the parts of a boat and the safety equipment required. We had to work hard to learn what we had to do to get it right on the night. All the cadets were involved even if just carrying on a piece of equipment to display it. We enjoyed it and so did the audience.

Then we had our minor evolution which had 2 teams of cadets and one team of juniors. We had to take turns to grab one item of clothing out of a box which contained gloves, oilskins, a hat and white deck shoes. Each team had to dress a cadet, who was not allowed to move but we could order them, for example, raise your right arm or lift your left leg. Strangely enough the juniors had the smallest one to dress whilst the two teams of cadets had the tallest and even more strangely the juniors clothes fitted and the cadet’s clothes didnt!!!!!

Some how the juniors won! Was it a fix?????

We finished with Evening Colours, which was carried out by the Junior Section. Again they enacted the roles as the Navy does and were nearly as good as us Cadets. (Nearly? – CO)

We finished with a bun fight (refreshments) prepared by our committee – thanks, we enjoyed them. We also thank Mrs Macintosh for baking a special Sea Cadet Cake for us which attracted a lot of attention and was delicious. Thanks for this.

It was a very successful evening and we enjoyed it, and we hope all our guests did too!
 

17th January 2010

Match Report

This year we had two teams represent Highland District, Junior Boys and Senior Boys, made up with cadets from Orkney, Wick, Moray, Inverness and Campbeltown.
Play started promptly and was fast and furious from the start. Our first game was for Junior Boys team against Fife & Tayside with us winning 2-1. The pattern was set and their other league games saw us beat Tyne South (4-0), Edinburgh (4-0 again) and a draw with Clyde South (3-3).

The good fortunes of the Junior Boys were unfortunately not quite repeated by our Senior Boys team. Once more play was fast and competitive from the start, but they were eclipsed in all three matches by the very high standard from the other teams.

Through to the semi-finals, our Junior Boys proved strong again and we beat Clyde North 3-2. That put us in the final against the only team to beat us on the day, Northumberland (1-3) who took home Gold medals and the cup. We are delighted with Silver medals though, and that the Man of the Match trophy between all 8 District teams in the Junior Boys went to AC Christie from Moray Unit.

In the end, the Senior Boys team cheerfully enjoyed the day and shared the Highland glory.

Team managers this year were PO Ross & S/Lt Hay, with CI McCauley timekeeping.