Reminiscing

We went to Plymouth today, both to visit the Apple shop (I bought nothing, honestly!) and to see The Box, a sort of museum in the centre of Plymouth.  The Box was very well curated, great for all ages as well as preserving much of Plymouth's history and giving access to archives.  I loved the restored ship's figureheads (Extra) hung carefully above the foyer; they were huge!

It was also a bit of a trip down memory lane, visiting the site of RAF Mount Batten.  There's almost nothing left of what was an important part of every aircrew member's life: sea survival training.  We would be loaded on to a RAF pinnace, dressed in immersion suits and fitted with life preservers and personal survival packs (PSP), the box on which we sat in the ejection seat.  The pinnace would motor out beyond the breakwater in Plymouth Sound and we would be thrown off the back of the vessel and dragged at about 10kts (to simulate being dragged by wind in a parachute across the sea) before being allowed to disconnect the harness (a tricky manoeuvre with some of them) and release the PSP.  Then we would pull a release handle on the PSP to inflate the dinghy and board the blasted thing before bailing it out and waiting for help from a SAR Sea King.  In cold weather it was a bit of a trial!