Menovering; Continued

Last week, I shared a couple of ships spotted on the Clyde. The US submarine was really catching my imagination... There was another sighting last week... note the Marine Pilot Boat escorting it.

There had also been, over a couple of weeks, constant movements overhead. Namely, a Royal Navy Merlin helicopter thundering up and down the shorelines. At one point it came so close that as I looked out my window at it, one of the Commandos leaned out and waved to me!!! I wasn't quick enough to photograph that, but I did manage to get it before it disappeared once more over the headland... You can just make out the darker patch where the side door is open, through which that fellow had peered...

You can tell I took that shot in a hurry! I did manage a front-on shot when it came back around, right over that passing sub...

All this activity had me pondering... There have been major international 'exercises' out of the Clyde before, so was there something going on? Turned out there very definitely was! You can read about Exercise Strike Warrior at this link. There was no sign of the German boats coming up the firth, but I don't have eyes-on 24/7, so you never know! And it is entirely possible that there is more than one helicopter patrolling...

Source

Something I didn't manage to photograph was the passing of a frigate with the hull number F88... It looked rather whing-ding and wasn't coming up on the AIS... a guaranteed prompt for the YAMster to go burrowing!  Well, it seems I had spotted the HMS Glasgow going out on sea trial. For a glance at the specs and purpose of this F26 class of ships, you can read here. In fact, that is the Glasgow in the photos on that page, in a much less finished state than when I spotted it. For the extra geeky (like me), you may like to watch this short video, made just prior to this sailing taking place.

Preparedness is the key to the success of most endeavours... But as much as the engineering-geekery part of me is fascinated by the systems in air and on water, the very heart of me wishes they were unnecessary, and the preparedness could be elsewhere focused...