By Lieutenant Michael Andrews ANC

Training Ship Melbourne cadets recently got to spend a weekend in HMAS Melbourne through the twinning program between the two ships.

The first official duty was to perform a ceremonial sunset, held at the Docklands on the Saturday evening as part of the Melbourne to Osaka
pre-yacht race celebrations.

Melbourne turned on some classic freezing weather with a strong southerly bringing the chilling wind straight off the bay.

HMAS Melbourne provided a guard for the ceremony, who were assisted by the Royal Australian Navy Band from HMAS Cerberus. TS Melbourne was asked to assist by having our cadets line the boundary of the parade area.

We all arrived early, which gave us time to enjoy quite a few songs performed acoustically by our warm-up act, Killing Heidi. After this, the cadets, guard and band formed up. When the parade was announced, and the band fired up, the first thing the public got to see was TS Melbourne march on the parade, and take up their positions around the parade ground. A little bit daunting for some cadets, being their first parade in public.

They were soon followed by the guard and band, and the ceremonial sunset took place. It was all over quite soon, with the guard, band and cadets marching off. The cadets did a fine job – one to be proud of. On the way back to the cars, the cadets performed some “service to the community” by allowing some tourists out on the town to have their photo taken with them. Big smiles did not seem to be too hard to muster.

On the Sunday, we were invited to be on board the HMAS Melbourne all day. Its official duties were to start the yacht race, and host 150 prominent dignitaries from Melbourne and Japan.

Spending the day onboard was a fantastic opportunity to learn about many of the jobs available on a ship out at sea, and spend some time with the sailors that do those jobs. We also had an excellent vantage point on the upper deck to watch the start of the yacht race, with the Mayor of Melbourne, Lord Mayor John So firing the cannon to start the race.

The cadets enjoyed lunch on board the ship, and the opportunity to see that Navy food is pretty good whilst out at sea. They also bought up some HMAS Melbourne goodies from the canteen.

When the fleet of yachts had made their way down the bay, HMAS Melbourne chased the fleet about half way down Port Phillip Bay, before turning around and returning to Melbourne.

All in all it was a fantastic day on board our twinned ship, and we must thank the captain and crew for not only allowing us on board, but for looking after us so well and giving us such a good insight into life onboard a ship in the Royal Australian Navy.