With apologies, but blogging here has been light this week as it’s the AllSeeingEye blogmeet. As has been traditional for half a decade now, this blogmeet happens on the bi-annual PWOC and/or SPAG courses in Gibraltar (Principal Warfare Officer Course / Submarine Parachute Assistance Group). This usually starts with AllSeeingEye and St.Crispin lurking in the officers’ mess at HMS Rooke enjoying a Horse’s Neck or two before hitting Town.

There is, however, a slightly serious side to the week. From the local newspaper, The Chronicle:

Men from the Royal Navy’s Submarine Parachute Assistance Group [SPAG] are pictured during a training jump into the Bay of Gibraltar yesterday. Most of the jumpers are specially-trained medical staff, though two are engineers trained in submarine escape and rescue.
They were practicing for a situation that none of them would hope never to encounter in real life. In the event of a British submarine running into trouble, the group would deploy in a transport aircraft and parachute into the sea with their equipment to bring aid to the crew on the crippled vessel. Gibraltar has become a favoured location for SPAG parachute training over recent years. Key factors for this include the favourable weather and sea conditions.
The primary reason, however, is the proximity of the drop zone to the airport.
That means the jumpers can be picked up by the Gibraltar Squadron and whisked back to land ready for another jump in very short time. “It’s a faster turnaround than anywhere in the UK,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence.
The training exercise will continue until Thursday of this week with daily jumps.

The phrase “has become a favoured location” is incredibly ironic considering…ah well, more of that some other time.

Our thanks to those who Commented and especially emailed to say that they would have liked to have been here. Several toasts to “Absent Friends” have been raised.