I was just wonderng, has anyone on here been in thenavy? or still is in the navy?

Im almost definitely going to join the military, and was thinking I would join the RAF, till i spoke to someone yesterday…

They made the Navy sound like a good idea, in a lot of ways. I was wondering how long have people been at sea for? Do you get much time of the boats when you are at a port? And she was also saying that alot of people in the navy take bikes with them, and ride alot when they are on the mainland…

I havent spoke to the navy careers yet, but plan to call them tomorrow, was just wondering if anyone enjoyed their time at sea…

Cheers, aNDY

Not Navy, but was under Naval command. Did some time on Ocean, a few weeks at a time normally. Shit the bed it was boring. Not for me I'm afraid (not knocking it) some enjoy it.

You can't mountain bike on a boat

My brother is Merchant Navy.

From what i know with speaking with him, when in port they either get a couple of hours ashore, no time ashore or a few days in which they can do what they want. He enjoys it but bugger me i can think of lots of things id rather do than look at a blue expanse for weeks on end.

He has been in two years now – he has been home twice in that time for a total of 8 weeks.

I suspect that part about taking bikes with you to be somewhat false, the merchant boats have sizable accomadation compaired to Military and they are not aloud anything other than what they "need"

I was a reservist for a few years. Enjoyed much of it, including being at sea, but there was also a fair bit of bullshit and boredom. Decided in the end that I didn't fancy it full-time.

When I was on regular Navy ships they always gave me office of the watch in the early hours of the morning, but oddly enough that was the time I liked most. No senior officers looking over my shoulder and quite peaceful.

officer entry or a a grunt? as a grunt, no **** way unless you have no qualifications for anything else.

i'd did a lot of work with the navy in a previous job and spent a lot of time at sea. I was close to joining when I left university and it made me glad I didn't.

some vessels have moved to better shift patterns, the ones I was on was a regular 10 weeks on, 5 weeks off.

I was in the Navy 22 years ago for 6 months. At 16 not having lived and I also struggled with the academic side decided not to stick it past my pvr date. I was training to be an aircraft engineer. In hindsight get some qualifications go in at as high a level as you can. don't go in straight from school live a bit first. You will know if it is for you or not within 6 months. Being told to be back on base upright and sober before midnight didn't help really either

Don't make a decision like that on what a person tells you. You have to be happy doing it as you may be doing it for quite some time. You need to go into it with your eyes open and all questions answered.

Start reading the websites of the respective Services and get a bit of an idea what you might like to do. Then go to an Armed Forces Careers Office and have a chat with them there – quite informal and no pressures. Deciding on what might be the rest of your working life on what a bloke tells you would not be good.

I left about 10 years ago, spent all my time on submarines, never went to many places but the work was quite taxing on the brain but enjoyable (communications) some jobs are better than others and require more between the ears, but those jobs have better pay. The guys I joined with, I still speak to and visit (was in Plymouth last weekend) they probably been in around 16/17 years now and are doing pretty well job and salary wise.
I would say the forces are great for single people but was you get paired up and kids come along, dealing with being away from home for long periods takes a very good relationship and lots of understanding.

I'm an engineer in the RN, been doing the job 6 years and love it.

As far as taking bikes away, i've spent a fair bit of time on aircraft carriers and took my bike on the last trip, ended up doing a couple of guided rides near Lisbon. You can take extra stuff if you can find room to store it (which depends on the size of ship your on).

The jobs a mixed bag and it depends what floats your boat (so to speak). Away from wife and kids is hard for guys but if you can handle it (or are single) then that element of it is easier.

What branch you looking at: engineering/warfare/logistics etc?

Cheers for the advice. I'm looking at engineering, in whichever force i (possibly) join. I rang the navy careers today, and after a bit of a discussion,. i dont think it would be for me. Now ive had time to think about it, and talk to people, i can see i really wouldn't be able to cope with being on a ship for so long… It's definitely looking like the RAF is going to be the best option.

Thanks for all your opinions though,