Busy Summer for East Sussex 1

After undergoing a major refit in the first half of the year, the MVS national training vessel East Sussex 1 has been hard at work during July and August.

In July the 17.2 metre ex-naval launch, funded and maintained by the Eastbourne-based East Sussex Sovereign Harbour Unit, took four parties of Scouts and their leaders to sea on evening trips as part of the Unit’s ongoing programme of Scout training.

At the end of the month, East Sussex 1 headed for the Solent, staying overnight at Swanwick, near Southampton, before taking a compass adjuster on board at Hamble.

Swinging the vessel in the busy and narrow river was an interesting shiphandling exercise and resulted in a new deviation card, which was a requirement for maintaining her Maritime and Coastguard Agency coding as a workboat.

Then she sailed to Poole where the local Unit took over her operation. while some of East Sussex 1’s crew joined Poole on their craft carrying out harbour patrols.

After Poole, East Sussex 1 headed back to the Solent and spent three nights at Cowes.
This allowed members of the Isle of Wight Unit to go out on two trips in the Solent, both of which provided useful navigation and shiphandling practice, and also proved that even the Solent can be quite rough at times.

The Summer may be almost over but East Sussex 1 still has a full schedule into the Autumn.
This includes taking out a group of local special needs adults, a long weekend training trip to Brighton for Humber Unit and running a week-long series of daytime training trips for local Scouts during the half-term.

For more photos of the trip and further information about East Sussex Sovereign harbour Unit and East Sussex 1 visit www.mvs-eastsussex.co.uk

Picture: A Scout learning to steer East Sussex 1 off Eastbourne