HMS Ark Royal, the British Navy’s flagship has been at sea for four weeks. She’s leading the biggest international deployment in recent years in the North Atlantic and now she’s heading to Mayport in Florida. Two hundred US Marine Corps and their twelve Harrier jets are embarked and with them is Ralph Wood, a young Royal Navy pilot who trained to fly Harriers with the US Navy. He has never done a real life take off from a carrier before so he’s thrilled that his first time will be from HMS Ark Royal’s ski slope on her flight deck. Ralph has do a marathon of seven continuous take offs and landings to qualify - and the runway’s moving too of course - travelling at 28 knots. The Big Guns are out for target practice with The USS Barry towing a huge inflatable at a distance of 3 kilometres and the best performance is achieved by the only female gunner. As they reach Mayport a young navigator gets his first chance to pilot the ship towards the mouth of the port. He’s been tasked to take her up to the edge of the basin where the water becomes shallower making it difficult for large ships to manoeuvre up to the jetty. At this point he should hand control back to the captain for the hardest part of berthing alongside but the captain’s got a surprise for him. The crew has some recreation and relaxation in the Florida sunshine but for some shore leave’s been cancelled. They have to practice for a royal visitor, HM The Queen. As they leave Mayport in Florida to travel to Nova Scotia in Canada, HMS Ark Royal is on high alert. She’s being attacked and her response is put to the test.