People Just Want to Know

There's a great deal of fun and of satisfaction being a Submarine Guide on HMS ALLIANCE. I suspect these feelings are also felt by enthusiastic guides at either attractions and sites. Today was no exception. I took two tours through the submarine, both of which were really well received. People find the experience a real eye-opener as they (probably for the only time in their life) get to walk through a submarine and witness the conditions in which submariners used to live. They enjoy both hearing about the way submariners would live and of some of their experiences.

But it's also a pleasure for us guides because of the people we meet. As an example, today I had people who went out of their way to come and say 'thank you' after their tour. There was a American engineer working here in the UK with whom a colleague and I had a pleasant conversation that ranged from gun control to US submarine museums. Another couple were directly related to one of the casualties on HMS THETIS. Others today would have spent ages talking about aspects of submarine life revealed to them.

If you're a submariner reading this then come and become a guide at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum. If your someone with a keen interest or experience in a particular field and not already involved, get involved! People just want to know.

It's A Small, Small World

Over the summer months I help the Royal Aero Club Records Racing and Rally Association (the 3Rs) run their series of handicapped air races as the Chief Marshal (www.airraceuk.co.uk). In the past we've held races on Menorca but also hold ones at Abbeville in France and on Alderney as regular and annual events.

In my other job as a guide on HMS Alliance, I was taking a group through the boat this afternoon. At the end I chatted to one gentleman who was Spanish and from Majorca. I replied that I only had ever been to one place in Spain which was Menorca and that wasn't a holiday but for air racing. We chatted a little more about his interest in submarines and military matters before he asked me if I had said 'air racing'. I replied that it was and he said that he had a friend who also air raced. "It's not Gabriel, is it?". Astonishingly,  this man who is a Spanish commercial pilot currently flying from Stockholm to Vietnam and SE Asia, and I both knew the same man who generally attends the 3 air races above. In fact this man, Onofre, and Gabriel have been friends since childhood and Gabriel was responsible for getting him into flying (and for helping him get a flight at 7 years old!).

A clip from the Schneider race on Alderney with Gabriel at the controls

I can't imagine what the probability of this happening must be as for one thing, our running order as guides is decided on the cut of the cards, and this guy could have appeared at any time during the day.