Andy Dinsdale – What it’s like the first time sailing in a submarine

Simon: What was it like the first time going onboard the submarine then, when the hatch shut and you were there for real then.

Interesting. It’s hard to put it into words what it was like because … having been on a submarine alongside, as I said, Torbay, you got used to the environment and so actually getting into the submarine wasn’t a problem. I guess there’s so much else going on it becomes … you don’t even think about it.

So, you don’t think about the fact that you’re sailing away because you’ve then got something to do, so the fact that you’ve left the wall, you don’t even recognise that you’ve left the wall because you’re too busy doing what you’re there for.

But I guess you know, you always remember the first ‘diving now, diving now’ and you sort of think back to that ‘wow’, and that’s it (laughs), we’re underwater, we’re on our way. And then you don’t really think about it from there on, your just I guess there amongst a bunch of people whilst as a Part 3 you might think, ‘well, I think I know what to do if it all goes pear shaped, but I know everyone around me does.’

So, hopefully I know what to do and the bit about the operational side of it is then getting that confidence, learning things onboard, by what you actually do. Yes, so I guess it’s a really, for me professionally, it was getting towards the pinnacle of what I was always wanting to do really.