By
SBLT Amanda Dickerson
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HMAS
Whyalla rafted up to her very big sister HMAS Manoora.
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One
Monday in July, HMAS Whyalla (LCDR Tim Byles) sailed from Cairns
to begin a routine patrol, arriving in Darwin on July 12 for a
logistics visit.
Three days later she sailed from Darwin to conduct routine patrols
of Australia’s northern waters and enforce the Australian
Economic Exclusion Zone.
But when a cryptic phone call was received the next day, Whyalla
was sent east, with her only instruction to be in Cairns by the
20th.
With the boat fighting her way through the Gulf of Carpentaria,
the ship’s company was informed they were going to support
a multinational police force in restoring law and order to the
troubled Solomon Islands.
The afternoon of Thursday July 24 saw the ships’ companies
of Whyalla and the two LCHs HMA Ships, Wewak (LCDR Etienne Mulder)
and Labuan (LCDR Donna Muller) farewelled by COS MC, CDRE Nigel
Perry, the Federal
Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch and the Mayor of Cairns Cr
Kevin Byrne, as well as friends and family of the
crews and several TV camera crews - an oddity for a Cairns departure.
After the formal farewell, the personal (and tearful) farewells
were made until the crews closed up to leave Cairns.
At 1pm Whyalla led the two LCHs along the channel leading out
of Cairns before increasing speed, eager to get to
the Solomons and begin her operational tasking.
It was a rough couple of days across the Coral Sea, with a number
of the crew “feeding the fish” during the transit. They
say there are two stages of seasickness - first you’re afraid
you’re going to die, then you’re afraid you’re
not going to.
A number of crew members were very close to the second stage,
while everyone on board was heartily sick of the roll of the ship
by the time land was sighted.
Whyalla arrived in Honiara on Sunday July 27 and rafted alongside
HMAS Manoora (CMDR Martin Brooker), who had arrived two days earlier
and was providing logistical support to personnel already on the
ground.
Manoora celebrated Whyalla’s arrival with a steel deck BBQ
on the flight deck.
Whyalla spent a day and another night alongside Manoora for logistical
and operational briefings before departing to patrol the waters
around the island nation.
