I got dragged out of my scratcher this morning at 0630 to handle an ‘Immediate’ signal which had arrived on board. Irritatingly enough, when I had collected my thoughts, dressed and so on, and had reached the MCO (Main Communication Office), the action that I was intending to take had already been taken – in fact, it had been handled before I was even shaken. Anyway, it saved me a job, and I retired to the Wardroom and ate a leisurely breakfast.
Pretty lousy weather again today, with strong winds and rough seas, which helped to curtail the flying fairly effectively. We have now ceased operating an antisubmarine screen as the submarine threat is deemed to have diminished to an acceptable level, and the helicopters were instead employed looking for a real live submarine, but one of ours – as I think everybody knows, because of what happened to the General Belgrano, we have one of our nukes down here – on a CASEX (Controlled Anti-Submarine Exercise), which fortunately didn’t involve me.