HMS Resolute Victory

1.06

7 Weeks Later AKA Monday 16th April 2012

Sarah woke up at 4.30am and tried to get back to sleep, at first unsuccessfully and then successfully. She awoke again at 5.10am.

Might as well get up, I’m not going to get back to sleep.

Sarah was too nervously excited to attempt sleeping any more. Today she was starting her work experience aboard the H.M.S. Resolute Victory! The email address Colin found for Sarah had worked, she got a reply “Good stuff… See you on the 16th April. I’ll send you our co-ordinates that morning. Archie” and the school must’ve got the signed form, as her form tutor confirmed her placement a couple of weeks ago to a few astonished and envious gasps of her classmates. Colin did come back to school after the half-term break, he had apparently been sick the day after he found the new email address, as Sarah presumed.

Not knowing where the ship was added to her nervous excitement.

I can’t believe the school went for it, the ship might not even be in the country for the full 2 weeks! Maybe the captain lied on the paperwork, or maybe there had been a slip up at the school.. I’m never usually this lucky!

Sarah had her Dad onside with her unconventional placement, he was reluctant at first, but she’d convinced him that she would be safe and that it would be a valuable experience. He’d agreed to take her to the H.M.S. Resolute Victory and collect her after the two weeks were completed, she just had to contact him every day to let him know she was safe. Sarah’s Mum was not at all happy with the situation, but hadn’t been able to talk Sarah out of it. She couldn’t exactly stop her as she had done something very similar at Sarahs age and it had been a massively positive influence in her life.

Sarah literally refreshed her inbox every 3 seconds from 6am till 6.10am and then decided to go and get some corn flakes from the kitchen.

On the way back to her room Sarah nearly spilled her cornflakes as the sound came from her laptop *bing*. The email was what she’d been waiting for, the co-ordinates:

50°35'57.8"N 2°11'17.1"W

Wow I have no idea what that means.

Luckily Sarah’s Dad’s satnav did.

The drive took about 20 minutes and as soon as the sea was visible, so too was a large ship not very far from the coast. Parked up by the side of the road, it was a rural location and there hadn’t been another car in sight for a while, Sarah and her Dad walked to the “beach”. Really more of a combination of rocks and boggy marshes. Once they were a bit closer to the shore they could see a much smaller vessel bobbing towards the coast, it looked to be a small rowboat.

The rowboat had 1 x Captain Braddox (shouting enthusiastically) and 1 x Jeremy Hurst (rowing) and once in earshot the waving captain could be heard to be shouting “Hello, Hello! You must be Sarah!”.

The captain and Sarah’s father talked for a few minutes once the rowboat was landed. Sarah overheard the captain promising to take good care of her, but she was pre-occupied looking at, and trying not to obviously stare at, the young rower who was trying knots in rope, as if it were the most natural thing a person could do. He was a little older than her and was probably the best looking person she’d seen ever, not including Benedict Cumberbatch.