From Bernews

Two Royal Bermuda Regiment soldiers have started an intensive nautical skills course in the Cayman Islands run by the Royal Navy.

Private Donavin Trott-Burchall and Private Jessica Pimental, both members of the RBR Boat Troop, will spend three weeks with the RN’s International Defence Training Maritime Training Team learning small boat navigation, boat handling and marine engineering.

Pte Trott-Burchall said, “I’m looking forward to it – especially the third week which will be the engineering work.

“But we will be learning more, like helping people lost at sea, dead reckoning, how to plot courses on charts and transferring to global positioning systems.”

The 25-year-old hospitality worker, a four-year veteran of Boat Troop, added: “I’ve done a bit of sailing and I’ve always loved being out on the water and enjoy Scuba diving and snorkelling.”

Pte Trott-Burchall said, “We’ve done a lot of training here so we have the knowledge, we’ve done the tasks and it does all transfer to civilian life.”

Pte Pimental, 21, added, “I’ve never been to any of the Caribbean islands, so I’m looking forward to that.”

The Bermuda College art and design student from Smith’s added the course, run free of charge by the Royal Navy for the police and defence forces of the Caribbean UK Overseas Territories, would boost her resume and open up career opportunities outside the RBR.

Pte Pimental, who volunteered for the RBR more than two years ago, said: “I will be able to get a job in any marine environment and if I ever buy a boat, I’ll know how to handle and maintain it.”

She added, “I’m definitely going to sign up again – it’s mainly the people. They’re really fun to be around. We get our work done, but enjoy ourselves too.”

Pte Pimental added that being a woman made no difference to the way she was treated in uniform or her career prospects.

She said, “They do try to make things a bit easier for me – but I just say ‘no, I can manage’.”

The two left last Sunday to travel to the Caymans, where they will join uniformed services from around the Caribbean for the course.

IMAGE: Sea Soldiers – Caymans

For more on this story go to: http://bernews.com/2018/05/sea-soldiers-set-sail-caymans/