HMS Diamond has left Portsmouth to begin her second deployment: another six-and-half-month stint in the Gulf region.

After three weeks of training with FOST off Plymouth in a very blustery and wet opening to 2014, the destroyer paid a whistle-stop visit to her home port yesterday to load final stores and ammunition before heading for warmer climes.

Diamond is due to relieve the RN’s current ‘Gulf guardian’ HMS Montrose (who is actually presently in the Med on international duties helping remove chemical weapons from Syria).

With pantries, storerooms and magazines topped up, the Type 45 left the Solent at 10.30 last night to begin a six-and-a-half-month stint in the Middle East – where she conducted her maiden deployment in 2012.

Since then, there has been a considerable turnover in the 236-strong ship’s company of sailors and Royal Marines, from Commanding Officer – now Cdr Andy Ingham, who’s taken over from Cdr Ian Clarke – down to new able seamen, such as 20-year-old steward Rachel Batty from Bromham in Bedfordshire, on her first deployment.

“I’m excited but nervous at the same time as I don’t know what to expect. I’m sad to leave my family but am looking forward to the challenges ahead,” she said.

Diamond’s time away will be a mix of working with international navies operating in the Gulf region, to teaming up with the military of Middle East nations, flying the flag for the UK, and generally keeping the sea lanes safe.

“Whilst it has undoubtedly been difficult for us to say goodbye to our loved ones, I and my crew are looking forward to the task in hand and doing what the Royal Navy does best,” said Cdr Ingham.