NEARLY a year after being royally hosted by the men and women of USS Anzio, the sailors of  survey ship HMS Scott were welcomed with open arms once again – half-way around the world.

The Anzio team was asked to look after the Devonport sailors when Scott represented the Royal Navy at New York’s famous Fleet Week last summer.

Several months and many thousands of miles later, the two ships bumped into each other (not literally) in the Indian Ocean.

Scott is conducting lengthy oceanographic survey work around the African sub-continent (most recently she’s been working around the Seychelles).

The American Ticonderoga-class cruiser is part of the Dwight D Eisenhower carrier battle group.

She was right at the half-way point of her deployment (called the ‘hump’ apparently), and celebrated such with fireworks and a barbecue. The crew invited the Scott team over. How could the Brits refuse such an offer…

It has, of course, not been all burgers, bangers and bangs for the Scott sailors. Indeed, the odometer is about to punch through the 500,000-mile mark and the survey work by the ship is setting productivity records.

With her work in the Indian Ocean done for the time being, Scott slipped up the Red Sea to the Jordanian port of Aqaba – not a typical port of call for the RN.

Scott spent four days in Aqaba, where the Royal Jordanian Navy proved to be splendid hosts, and where the wardroom held a mess dinner with a Lawrence of Arabia theme (most sailors also sampled some rather older culture by visiting the historic city of Petra).