Gunners prepare for 3,000 mile Atlantic challenge
Thursday 16 June 2011 4:12 PM
A group of soldiers from 7 (Para) Royal Horse Artillery are preparing to sail across the Atlantic only two months after arriving back from Afghanistan.
Exercise Atlantic challenge will see the Colchester based gunners sail over three thousand miles in a month long voyage ending in New York.
Only two months ago the crew of HMSTV Endeavour were fighting the Taliban, but this week they’ve been preparing to battle against the Atlantic Ocean.
The fourteen-man novice crew are training in Gosport before they set sail from the Isle of Wight this weekend.
They have been learning how to survive if the worst should happen and they find themselves having to use the emergency life raft and buoyancy aids.
It is not the first time HMSTV Endeavour has battled against the World’s Oceans.
In the 1990s she competed in the BT Global Challenge, which saw fourteen yachts sail the wrong way around the globe.
The expedition is not only designed to help the soldiers' recovery after a busy six-month deployment, but also to raise money for Help for Heroes and the Royal Artillery Charitable Fund.
Also See