Fort William sea cadet off to sail the BC coast

THUNDER BAY -- This Thanksgiving weekend couldn't come soon enough for Abigail Rogers.

A few days after the holiday, the cadet chief petty officer 2nd class will travel to British Columbia to live aboard a Royal Canadian Navy ORCA class patrol vessel and spend six days at sea as an integral part of the ship’s crew.

Rogers and 31 other cadets from across Ontario will undergo training on one of two vessels, whose primary role is to provide a cost-effective training platform for navigation and seamanship training for the Royal Canadian Navy and to support the training requirements of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet program.

The 33-metre long ORCA class vessel weighs-in at 210 tonnes, can reach speeds of 37 kilometres per hour, and will give the cadets a taste of life at sea.

During this deployment, the vessels will be deployed in the area of operations of Victoria, the Gulf Islands, the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver.

Rogers and the other cadets will learn how to stand watch in various roles such as helmsman, lookout and galley assistant.

They will practice exercises such as simulated firefighting, flood and casualty emergencies.

The cadet program is open to all youth between the ages of 12- to 18-years-old where they focus on leadership, citizenship and healthy living.

The skills learned by cadets are applied at school and in their future careers.