Dauntless, Neustrashimy and Aurora
Scene on the Sound, Friday July 24, 2026
There has been quite a bit of naval activity this week – even if one ignores the Russians! HMS Dauntless sailed from Devonport, back to the local areas, on Monday morning - and that evening the German frigate FGS Sachsen returned (she was last here for a week’s training in January).
There has been much talk this week about the Russian frigate Neustrashimy conducting a live fire exercise 40+ miles (so international waters) south of Plymouth and asking HMS Trent, who was shadowing her, to keep clear .
This is unusual, as to conduct this kind of firing, the Neustrashimy will have had to flash-up all her radars, including those specific to the gunnery system. Doing so allowed HMS Trent to record all the parameters of these radars and so aids our intelligence collection effort.
However, ‘high seas firings’ (as they are called) are quite legal, and it seems that the Russians acted in the normal, professional way. In my view, this can only have been a political signal to our new government. Incidentally, Neustrashimy is the Russian for dauntless!
The most conspicuous, and largest, visitor this week has been P&O’s oldest cruise ship, the MV Aurora. She is on a 16-day circumnavigation of the UK. She left Southampton on Wednesday and will be travelling from here to southern Ireland, Liverpool, Belfast, Glasgow, Orkney, Edinburgh and Newcastle, before returning to Southampton on 7th August.
Aurora entered service in 2000 and was designed to appeal to the more ‘traditional’ end of the market – which is why she has the staggered aft decks – to give more sitting-out areas. Aurora displaces 76,150 tons, is 270m long and has a crew of 850. When full, she can carry 1950 passengers.
On the recreational front, the King’s Harbour Master has issued a Local Notice to Mariners (LNTM) advising that the NACRA 15s World Championship will be taking place either inside or outside the breakwater, depending on the weather next week (see NTM 050/26).
NACRA is the North American Catamaran Association and these 15-foot catamarans can reach 20 knots and are designed as a bridge to the Olympic catamarans. They are sailed by a crew of two and both crew have a trapeze, so they can hang out over the side to increase the boat’s speed.
If the weather gods are kind, there should be some very good, highly competitive sailing next week.
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