Category Archives: High Seas

Stricken cargo vessel the Shiling is likely returning to Wellington after a high-seas breakdown and rescue.

A mayday was sent from the 294-metre vessel on Friday when it lost all power and steering in rough seas off Farewell Spit at the top of the South Island, triggering a large emergency response from air and sea as the captain considered ordering all 24 crew to abandon ship.

As luck had it, open water vessel Skandi Emerald was working at Taranaki for the petrochemical industry and was able to divert to the ship and haul it to safety in Tasman Bay, where the 66,000-tonne Shiling remained on Sunday morning still attached to the Skandi Emerald.

A statement from Maritime NZ on Sunday said it was understood there was an agreement to tow the ship back to Wellington. The ships owner and insurer would pay for the tow.

READ MORE:* Drifting, powerless cargo ship MV Shiling to remain at sea overnight* Powerless cargo ship continues slow journey back to safety* MV Shiling to stay put overnight after ocean-going tug reaches ship

"While the decisions around passage, anchoring locations and towage are managed by the owners of the Shiling, Maritime NZ has oversight, and is liaising with CentrePort and the Wellington Harbour Master to ensure the process is managed safely, incident controller Kenny Crawford said.

"The Skandi Emerald is a very capable towage vessel, and its crew are highly experienced in traversing conditions such as what could be experienced in the Cook Strait.

Supplied

The container ship Shiling photographed off Farwell Spit on Friday by Carl Babe a crew member of the Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter.

It was not yet decided when the ship would be towed to Wellington,

Nelson harbour master Stuart Whitehouse said the ship was too big to enter the port at Nelson so the current plan was to haul it back to Wellington.

The terms of this were being sorted out with the ships classification society the organisation that maintains standards for the ship operations.

The Singaporean-flagged Shiling has already spent weeks in Wellington after losing power as it was leaving the capital in mid-April. The powerless ship drifted over the shallow Falcon Shoals near the harbour heads and could have easily hit the sea floor in a lower tide.

It was taken back to port in Wellington and Maritime NZ detained it in the capital.

It was last week given permission to leave but under strict orders to go directly to Singapore for repairs.

However, after leaving Wellington it hit 8-metre swells off the top of the Marlborough Sounds and, with very little cargo on board, got thrashed around in the waves and the captain took shelter.

It was finally on its way to Singapore on Friday on a route that would take it near Australias Great Barrier Reef when it had the breakdown and a mayday was issued.

Greater Wellington Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter confirmed that discussions started late on Saturday about the ship returning to Wellington and space had been found for it to dock in the capital.

But it would involve having to move it around regularly so other ships could dock, he said.

It is a hassle for the port company.

CentrePort marine operations manager Josh Rodgers said the Shiling would be moved around berths at the port as required.

However, as the Shiling is a large vessel there may be some minor disruption, which we will do our very best to minimise."

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Stricken 294-metre Shiling tipped to return to Wellington - the scene ... - Stuff.co.nz

Editors note: TPGs Gene Sloan accepted a free trip to the shipyard in Finland building Icon of the Seas in order to get an early look at the vessel. The opinions expressed below are entirely his and werent subject to review by the line.

When it comes to building the most amazing megaresorts at sea, Royal Caribbean these days is basically just competing with itself.

It's a strong statement, for sure. I'm guessing that many Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Cruise Line fans will quibble with it. But it's what kept swirling through my head Wednesday during a sneak peek at the line's next new ship, Icon of the Seas.

At 250,800 gross tons, the much-awaited, 20-deck-high vessel will be the biggest cruise ship in the world when it debuts in 2024. But it's not just its giant size about 6% bigger than the next biggest cruise ship that will set it apart.

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What became clear to me on Wednesday as Tim Klauda, Royal Caribbean's vice president for product development, took me deck-by-deck through the partly-finished vessel at a shipyard in Finland, was that it would also have no rival in the cruise world when it comes to the breadth and depth of its offerings, particularly for families.

From an unprecedently massive water park at its top with six waterslides to the most innovative interior promenade of restaurants, bars and shops ever on a cruise vessel (just wait until you see the soaring glass wall that bathes the space with natural light), there's just never been anything quite like what you're going to see on Icon of the Seas and I say that as someone who has sailed on nearly every major cruise ship afloat.

In short, Icon of the Seas, the first of an all-new class of vessels for Royal Caribbean, will be, hands down, the ultimate megaresort at sea. And as a result, it'll be the ship that finally tops Royal Caribbean's hugely successful Oasis-class vessels to reign supreme in the world of giant cruise ships.

Related: The 6 classes of Royal Caribbean ships, explained

That's notable, as the Oasis-class ships have dominated the world of megaresorts at sea for nearly 15 years. Other lines have tried to match what the Oasis-class vessels offer with new ships over the years and have fallen short though a few have come close.

To put it another way, in the great game of cruise ship design one-upmanship that has raged among the biggest cruise lines for decades, it seems that only Royal Caribbean these days can top Royal Caribbean.

It's as if the other major lines right now aren't even on the playing field.

With seven months of construction to go before Icon of the Seas is ready to sail, there is much still unfinished on the vessel.

As is typical at this stage of construction of a new ship, the exterior of Icon of the Seas and the framing for its interior spaces is mostly complete, but lots of finishing work remains. Some spaces remain little more than empty shells.

That said, the epic nature of what is to come was clearly visible as Klauda took me and several other cruise writers around the vessel on Wednesday amid a cacophony of hammering, welding and sanding.

The tour came as the ship was tied up at a wet dock at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Turku, Finland, where the nearly $2 billion ship has been under construction for nearly two years. More than 2,500 shipyard workers were on board working at the time.

Here are some of the most notable elements of Icon of the Seas that I saw during the tour that will put it over the top as the new king of big-ship cruising.

While still far from done, the top deck of Icon of the Seas already is shaping up as a sight to behold, in large part because it has a water park the likes of which you've never seen on a cruise ship.

We're talking six separate water slides none of them small.

Only about 20% of the biggest slides were in place as we walked around the area, but the massive towers from which the slides will descend essentially were finished, and the sheer size of the footprint for the park was stunning. There aren't many resorts on land where you will find something like this.

Called Category 6, the water park will include such thrills as an open free-fall slide, the tallest drop slide at sea, family raft slides that accommodate four riders at once and two mat-racing slides.

The water slides basically take up the whole back third of the ship's top deck, along with such additional signature Royal Caribbean amusements as a FlowRider surfing simulator, a miniature golf course called Lost Dunes, a rock climbing wall and a sports court.

In addition, I saw the makings of a ropes course-style attraction based around a giant version of the ship's crown-and-anchor logo (which was in place but wrapped up so it didn't get dinged during the rest of construction).

I also strolled through a large casual dining area not far from the waterslides called Basecamp, where you'll be able to grab your breath after careening down one of the slides with quickie snacks and drinks.

Collectively, the whole area will be known as Thrill Island, and that pretty much sums up what it'll be.

Balancing the thrill zone that is Thrill Island, the center part of the ship's top is devoted to chilling in the form of kicking back in lounge chairs, hot tubs and pools.

When it comes to the latter, what struck me most during the tour was the enormous size of the main Royal Bay Pool. It seemed to run half the length of the ship (Royal Caribbean claims this is the largest pool ever built on a cruise ship, and we don't doubt them).

Related: Everything you need to know about booking an Icon of the Seas cruise

The Royal Bay Pool was just one of three pools taking shape in the area, which will be called Chill Island. The others included a pool with a swim-up bar called Swim and Tonic a first for Royal Caribbean.

In addition to lounge chairs, hot tubs and pools, Chill Island will also feature cabanas available for an extra charge and a multistory Lime and Coconut Bar (a Royal Caribbean signature).

The AquaDome is one of those crazily ambitious attractions that Royal Caribbean does on its ships from time to time that just makes your jaw drop. If you've seen the North Star rides on the line's Quantum-class ships, you know what I'm talking about. But the AquaDome is on an even bigger scale than the North Star rides.

It's basically a giant glass dome and we mean giant plopped onto the front of the ship that enshrouds an aqua theater of the sort found at the back of Royal Caribbean's Oasis-class ships. There are also dining and drinking venues and even some enclosed-within-the-dome cabins.

Before I saw the AquaDome in person, I really didn't get the scale of what it would be. You likely won't, either, until you see it.

It's a glass dome to top all glass domes. We're told it was so big and heavy (363 tons) that there really wasn't any shipyard crane in the world that could lift it into place except the giant crane at the Meyer Turku shipyard, which itself is a marvel.

When you're standing under it, you're looking up four or five stories to its top.

The aqua theater itself will be one of Icon of the Seas' marquee attractions, with shows that combine diving and aerial performers, dancing fountains and other high-tech features.

The space also will attract passengers throughout the day and night with its dining and drinking venues and cozy seating areas. A version of the Hooked Seafood restaurant found on some other Royal Caribbean ships will be among the options.

Royal Caribbean already is arguably the ultimate family cruise line. But as I saw this week, Icon of the Seas will take its family focus to even greater heights.

In addition to the water park mentioned above, which will have your teens and tweens squealing with delight, Icon of the Seas is loaded with such family-friendly attractions as Surfside an entire themed section of the ship (Royal Caribbean calls them neighborhoods) dedicated to young families.

In an open-air space at the back of the vessel that is roughly where the New Jersey shore-themed Boardwalk area is found on the line's Oasis-class ships, Surfside is an all-day play area for families with kids ages 6 and under (though everyone is welcome).

The centerpiece of this zone will be a watery splash park for kids and adults called Splashaway Bay (and an adjacent Baby Bay for junior cruisers), as well as the Water's Edge pool for grownups. All were just starting to come together during my visit.

When it's all finished in a few months, Surfside will be lined with colorful deck chairs so parents can lounge with their feet up or soak in the pool while maintaining sightlines to their playing kids. It'll also have a carousel, just like the Boardwalk areas on Oasis-class ships.

In addition, Surfside will house family-friendly dining venues and bars serving exclusive-to-Surfside "mommy and me" drinks. Kids can order the nonalcoholic versions of their parents' tropical cocktails.

Plus, stairs from the zone will take you and your kids straight to the Adventure Ocean kids club, one deck below (as well as the family-friendly Playmakers Sports Bar and Arcade).

Icon of the Seas will also offer more family-aimed high-occupancy cabins than ever for a Royal Caribbean ship, including some rooms that can accommodate up to eight people.

These cabins will include a new category of Family Infinite Balcony rooms that can sleep up to six people, with an alcove featuring upper and lower beds for kids, a separate sleeping area for grown-ups, a living area and split bathroom (toilet and sink in one room and shower and sink in the other).

The ship will also be home to what may be the most epic family accommodation in the world, on land or sea: A 1,772-square-foot Ultimate Family Townhouse that will be three decks high and sleep up to eight people.

Alas, we didn't get to see the Ultimate Family Townhouse. But among its selling points will be an in-suite slide, movie-viewing room, karaoke machine and a "backyard" with a pingpong table, outdoor seating and a white picket fence leading directly to the Surfside area.

Like Royal Caribbean's Oasis-, Freedom- and Voyager-class ships, Icon of the Seas will have an indoor, mall-like space with eateries, bars and shops called the Royal Promenade running through the middle of its interior. But it'll be a Royal Promenade unlike any you've seen before.

The game-changing innovation here, which is hard to grasp from the deck plans of the vessel that the line has released, is that the space now is connected to the sea in a way it's never been before.

This new connectivity is thanks to a giant, four-deck-high glass wall that lines one side of the Promenade, allowing light to spill into the space.

Related: The ultimate guide to Royal Caribbean | The best Royal Caribbean cruise ships | The 5 best destinations you can visit on a Royal Caribbean ship

The glass wall will surely be one of the ship's great features. I know I'll be standing along it gazing out at the immensity of the ocean often when I'm on board the vessel.

However, it's also a marvel of engineering, as it is located at a structurally critical part of the ship's sidewall that ever since the Titanic split in half around its middle in 1912 before sinking most naval architects have been loath to pierce with a giant span of glass.

The naval architects that worked on Icon of the Seas got around the problem of structural integrity through the clever insertion of structural steel in a massive circular art installation/circular stairway called The Pearl that is located just steps away.

To the untrained eye, it's just an unusual focal point for the area that'll offer a show-like experience at times with sound and high-tech moving wall screens. But in reality, it's helping to hold the ship together.

We got a no-photos-allowed sneak peek inside the circular space for a very short snippet of the sound and moving wall experience that passengers can expect. All we can say is we can't wait to see more.

In addition to The Pearl, the first level of The Royal Promenade will feature Sorrentos Pizza, Starbucks, the ship's karaoke bar (called Spotlight Karaoke) and its pub (to be called the Point and Feather). One deck up, a second-story to the Royal Promenade will be home to such Royal Caribbean signatures as Giovannis Italian Kitchen, the nautical-themed Schooner Bar and Boleros (a bar and lounge for Latin music and dancing). Notably, you'll be able to circle the second story of the Royal Promenade completely, something you can't do on other Royal Caribbean ships. That's another big upgrade.

Surrounding the Royal Promenade are many of Icon of the Seas entertainment venues. The ships main Royal Theater is forward of the promenade. The ship's ice skating rink, which is newly named Absolute Zero and has a new oval design, is aft. The Music Hall and Casino Royale is one deck below, and an escape room, Diamond Club elite lounge and comedy club are nearby.

Royal Caribbean has dominated the world of massive megaresorts at sea for nearly 15 years, ever since its first Oasis-class vessel debuted.

Roughly 40% bigger than any other ship at sea when they first arrived on the scene, the Oasis-class ships are still the largest and most amenity-filled cruise vessels in the world.

However, they'll soon have a new rival in the form of Icon of the Seas, the first of a new series of even bigger, more amenity-filled Royal Caribbean vessels.

Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:

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Sneak peek: Inside Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever - The Points Guy

Anniversary festivities are currently underway for Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, which is celebrating its 6th year since launching for iOS and Android. To mark the occasion, JOYCITY has unveiled a new content update, bringing players a new Tactician, naval vessel, and a host of limited-time events.

Joining the ranks of Dark Talisman Tacticians, and adding a tough Viking aesthetic to the game, is Gunnar Nielson; a formidable sea-farer who promises to be an imposing force on the high seas. Gunnar will be helming the stunning, albeit foreboding vessel, The Hunter to the fray.

The 6th Anniversary update is also bringing a new casual block matching minigame, Blockblast, for whenever players need some respite from nautical warfare. Speaking of which, if youre a fan of the movie series then you can play through classic battles from the movies in Shansas Cave.

The highly anticipated Battle Pass is also now available, awarding those that participate with the Coral Reef Palace Territory Skin. More rewards are also up for grabs via an all-inclusive Attendance event, as well as new social events like the Gem Sweepstakes on Facebook.

With the anniversary celebration and all the new features it brings, now is a perfect time to dive into the game, especially if youre a fan of the movies. You can find Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War available to download for free on the iOS App Store and on the Google Play Store.

This article is sponsored content written by TouchArcade and published on behalf of JOYCITY to promote the 6th anniversary update for Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War. For questions or comments, please email [emailprotected]

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'Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War' is Celebrating Its 6th ... - Touch Arcade

One thing you need to know when booking a cruise is what deck you would like to be on. Cruise ships usually have over a dozen decks for guests to choose from, and they have their own qualities.

Deck 1, in particular, has a bad rap among cruisers. Many people tend to stay away from deck 1 on a cruise ship but dont have all of the facts about this level to fully inform their decision.

This article will explain where deck 1 is and everything you need to know about it.

Deck 1 is usually the lowest deck on the ship. Some cruise ships have decks lower than deck 1 for the crew and label them with letters instead (deck A, deck B, deck C, etc.).

For some cruise lines, it is the lowest available deck to passengers, sometimes containing cabins available for passengers to book. However, this isnt always the case, and it largely depends on the ship youre on.

For example, Royal Caribbean cruise ships usually restrict deck 1 to crew, and the lowest deck that passengers may book is deck 2 or 3.

In contrast, on most Disney cruise ships, deck 1 often contains staterooms for passengers to book. Some Carnival Cruise Line ships also allow passengers to stay on deck 1.

Now that you know where deck 1 is on a cruise ship, you might wonder, is deck 1 on a cruise ship bad? Lets find out.

Deck 1 isnt inherently a bad place to be on a cruise ship. However, like every deck on a cruise ship, there are pros and cons to staying on deck 1.To illustrate further, lets look at the pros and cons of deck 1.

For the most part, deck 1 has the most affordable cabins on the cruise ship because its seen as a less desirable deck, but thats definitely a subjective stance.

The top benefit of staying on deck 1 is that youll feel minimal motion sickness because the closer you are to the waterline, the less rocking youll feel from the ship. So if motion sickness is one of your main barriers to going on a cruise, you may be in luck if you book a stateroom on deck 1.

Whats more, being so close to the waterline, youll also have a great view of the ocean and have a better chance of spotting sea life from your cabin location.

One of the significant downsides to deck 1 is how noisy it is. While all cruise ship cabins can expect some noise, the worst is on deck 1. Much of this noise is from being closer to the ships operations.

In the decks just beneath deck 1 are the crew cabins, laundry facilities, and even the engine room. The engines and propellers of the ship are especially noisy and can be majorly disruptive for your stay, especially if youre a light sleeper.

If possible, avoiding rooms above these facilities is a good idea, even if you end up in a deck 1 cabin.

Another disadvantage is that, because of the decks proximity to the water, there are often no balconies in the suites offered. Some may even have no windows.

However, if you plan on doing numerous activities on the ship and only plan on sleeping in your cabin, this might be a fair trade-off for a more affordable cabin and less seasickness.

Finally, the lower deck is further from the action on the ship. This can be a good thing if you arent a fan of being around a lot of people, but depending on the size of your ship, it can also be a nuisance to go up and across the ship for your activities.

Cruise ships tend to have 12 to 16 decks, depending on the size.

If deck 1 is the lowest passenger deck, below it youll find all of the operations for the ship. This includes the crew cabins, crew dining facilities, and other important facilities such as a laundry room, engine room, storage rooms, and even a jail.

The best deck on a cruise ship largely depends on your needs. For most people, the higher the deck, the better. If youre looking for large suites and specialty cabins, you will most likely find them there. However, this preference does vary from person to person. For those who get seasick, a high deck may be a nightmare in rough seas, and deck 1 might make your cruise a more enjoyable experience.

On some cruise ships where deck 1 isnt accessible to passengers, it may be underwater. However, on cruise ships where deck 1 is accessible to passengers, it is above the waterline. This is because there are other decks for the crew below.If you want to be as close to the waterline as possible, deck 1 is your best bet!

To recap, the simple answer to is deck 1 on a cruise ship bad is no, its not. However, deck 1 is not for everyone.

If you are prone to seasickness and want to be as close as possible to the water line to catch a glimpse of sea life, you may enjoy deck 1.

Its also a more affordable option if you spend most of your time at different ports and take advantage of various activities on board. However, a higher deck is a better choice for those seeking a more luxurious cruise experience.

Continued here:

Is Deck 1 on a Cruise Ship Bad - Pros and Cons - Cruise Hive

Two oil tankers recently seized by Iran are just the latest sign of building tension with the US as the two countries engage in a tit-for-tat tanker war with vessels and cargoes of oil used as hostages to gain negotiating advantage.

More such incidents will likely follow as the two nations are deadlocked over the issue of Iran's nuclear weapons programme. Aggressive moves at sea have replaced talks at the table, with the US seeking to impose sanctions on Iranian oil exports and Iran aiming to counterbalance US-ordered seizures.

In the latest Iranian moves, the US Navy says the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Advantage Sweet was seized on 27 April by the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy while transiting international waters in the Gulf of Oman. The Sweet was, tellingly, en route for Houston. Just days later on 3 May the Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi was seized by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian regular navy probably handled the Sweet boarding as it took place further from Iran. The Revolutionary Guard naval force mostly operates small fast-attack vessels better suited to operations close to home.

Maritime security company Ambrey says that these Iranian moves may have been triggered by the US previously redirecting the tanker Suez Rajan, outbound loaded with Iranian crude, a move which became public on 22 April. US officials and those associated with the Suez Rajan have not responded to requests for comment.

The US 5th Fleet's Bahrain headquarters called Irans harassment of vessels an interference with navigational rights in regional waters that were unwarranted, irresponsible and a present threat to maritime security and the global economy. The 5th Fleet also noted that the Sweet was at least the fifth commercial vessel seized by Iran in the past two years.

For its part Iran claimed that the Sweet was seized because it had collided with another vessel and refused to stop. On 7 May, the deputy commander of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) went further. Ali Fadavi said if America and its allies pose a threat to Iranian vessels or export cargoes the Islamic Republic will be hard on them.

In theory the Biden administration is committed to rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal brokered by various European nations which would exempt Iran from sanctions on its oil exports and permit it to proceed with ostensibly peaceful uses of nuclear technology. Former President Trump pulled the US out of the deal, halting it, five years ago.

Trump continued a hard stance toward Iran, famously ordering the assassination of IRGC General Qassim Soleimani when the chance came up in 2020. As head of the IRGC al-Quds (Jerusalem) black-ops force, Soleimani had been a deadly US opponent across the Middle East for years. After he was killed by a US drone strike at Baghdad airport in Iraq, Iran stated publicly that it would no longer comply with the JCPOA.

Joe Biden, for his part, promised to bring the US back into the JCPOA during his election campaign.

Iranian diplomats, whether to be taken seriously or not, seemed keen to get back around the table on Monday. Irans foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said then that it is possible to salvage the JCPOA if western parties, particularly the US, put an end to repeated delays.

But theres not much political support in the USA for going soft on Iran at the moment. Former US Secretary of State and Trump electoral opponent Hillary Clinton is among the many Washington politicians who have recently said the US government should temporarily boycott all dealings with Iran, particularly due to its oppressive response to citizens who protest against the regime. Understandably, it would not sit well for the US to strike a deal and lift sanctions on the Iranian regime while it is brutalising its own people.

Unfortunately, the Iranian regime may not care all that much. China has been happy to take Iranian oil regardless of Western sanctions, and the Ukraine war has also seen closer links between Tehran and Moscow. Meanwhile Iran is edging ever closer to military-grade uranium enrichment.

For context, in February, Iranian oil exports to China rose to almost 1.2 million barrels a day, the second-highest pace since the start of 2017, according to Kpler data. And Iran and Russia are planning a new rail link so that they can trade without needing to send cargoes via the worlds oceans.

The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a 7,200-kilometre network of road, rail and shipping routes designed to move freight between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe, was conceived in 2000 but never completed. However, theres a renewed push to finish the project as a solution to Western interference.

Meanwhile Irans nuclear programme is still advancing. International inspectors working in Iran said in February that they had discovered particles of uranium enriched to the point where they were 83.7 per cent composed of Uranium-235, the fissionable isotope. Uranium enriched to 90+ per cent U-235 is considered to be of weapons grade, such that it can be used to assemble an atomic bomb. Iran says that it does not enrich above 60 per cent at present, a level already well above that necessary for peaceful purposes.

Enrichment of uranium is a difficult, prolonged process and most of the world's nuclear warheads are made of plutonium instead. Plutonium doesn't occur naturally: it is made out of non-fissionable Uranium-238 in a nuclear reactor, which can also generate some energy for peaceful purposes.

Getting back to the tit-for-tat tanker war, there have been various attempts over the decades by the Iranians to interdict tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and nearby waters. It has turned out each time that the US, if it decides to get serious, can prevent this: from Operation Prime Chance in 1987-89 onwards. Meanwhile the US can stop a shipment of Iranian crude anywhere in the world, by diplomatic pressure on third-party nations or direct naval action. So the US can probably win this part of the struggle. It will hurt Iran if it cannot ship its crude to China or other customers.

But the JCPOA looks dead in the water, and that deals many critics would argue that it would not have prevented Iran acquiring nuclear weapons anyway. US interdictions of Iranian oil will probably not halt the Iranian weapons programme either, not in the long run.

The world may simply have to get used to the idea that it will presently have a new nuclear weapons state, to join the existing eight.

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US-Iran nuclear struggle is playing out on the high seas - The Telegraph

The military might of India and ten ASEAN nations jointly displayed in South China Sea in the first week of May has rattled the Chinese security establishment. The Chinese are worried, not because of a few warships playing war games in its maritime vicinity, but because of Indias diplomatic success in generating consensus among ASEAN members to exercise together with an agenda to ensure peace, security and stability in the South China Sea with the assertion to keep the maritime area free and open for international navigation. This is significant as ASEAN countries have not been able to agree on the Code of Conduct between China and ASEAN for the South China Sea region.

ASEAN has thus conveyed a subtle message to China through this naval extravaganza that it should not claim suzerainty over the maritime area and China should strictly follow the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which China is a signatory, and which has been in force since 1983.

While India and ASEAN were engaged in naval war games, the Chinese sought to intimidate the ASEAN partners by sending Chinese naval militia near the exercise area.TheIndian Navy kept a close watch on the Chinese naval ships, during the sea phase of the exercise on May 7-8. Amid intense debate among Indian and international strategic circle, on maintenance of peace, stability and freedom of navigation rights in the South China Sea, the muscle flexing by India and ASEAN navies on a very grand scale irked China. By playing multi-nation war games in the South China Sea, India together with the navies of ASEAN members sent a strong signal to China that the maritime area is an open sea, and military or civilian ships can traverse the region without reporting to any national authority.

Since the international community regards South China Sea to be open and free for navigation, the maritime area must be guided by UNCLOS, but China has been claiming some of the island territories of the coastal states. Till now, the Indian Navy was conducting bilateral exercise with ASEAN members like Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Philippines etc, but this was the first time when India was able to bring all the ASEAN navies together. The way the Indian Navy succeeded in bringing all the ASEAN members to take part in the first ever India ASEAN joint maritime exercise can only be described as a masterstroke by Indian strategic planners. It shows that the entire 10-member ASEAN wants to have special strategic partnership with India, and simultaneously conveys a subtle message to China, which claims a large part of the international waters as its authority.

Though China has succeeded in creating a wedge among the ten ASEAN members through its cheque book diplomacy, the participation of ASEAN navies in the India-led, but hosted by the Singapore navy, maritime exercise signifies that ASEAN as a group is committed to the South China Sea remaining an international ocean, free of any country's dominance over the maritime area.

Not only India, but all ASEAN states besides rest of the maritime trading nations have a deep interest in keeping the area free of control by any particular power. As China continues to assert its role over the maritime area, the US and other Western powers have upped the ante against China for its aggressive moves. China has drawn an imaginary line over major part of the South China Sea, calling it Nine-dash line, which includes the Indonesian Natuna island and adjoining maritime area. This has led to a dispute between China and Indonesia. China has also staked its claim over islands near the Philippine sea, and deploys its naval militia to deter Philippine naval ships and fishing boats from roaming in the area. Similarly, China has also contested over Islands belonging to Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei etc.

ALSO READ | Why PM Modi's Papua New Guinea Visit Is Significant As Chinese Influence Grows In Pacific Islands Region

According to an Indian Navy official, about 1,400 personnel manning nine warships participated in the sea phase of the multilateral naval exercise. Indias indigenously designed and built ships-destroyer INS Delhi and stealth frigate INS Satpura, maritime patrol aircraft P8I and integral helicopters exercised with ASEAN naval ships from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The two-day sea phase witnessed a wide spectrum of evolutions at sea, including tactical manoeuvres, cross-deck landings by helicopters, seamanship evolutions and other maritime operations. Apart from honing skills in the maritime domain the exercise enhanced interoperability and demonstrated the ability of Indian & ASEAN navies to operate as an integrated force to promote peace, stability and security in the region.

Significantly, Indian Naval Chief Admiral Hari Kumar also graced the landmark event and co-officiated the first ever ASEAN-India maritime exercise (AIME). The inaugural event was held at the Changi naval base of Singapore. The ceremony was jointly inaugurated by Adm R Hari Kumar and RAdm Sean Wat, Chief of Singapore Navy, in the presence of senior dignitaries from other ASEAN members.

According to the Indian Navy official quoted above, the AIME-23 was aimed at promoting maritime cooperation and enhancing trust, friendship and confidence amongst ASEAN and Indian Navies. The harbour phase at Singapore naval base from May 2 to 4 witnessed a range of professional and social interactions between the participating navies which included cross deck visits, Subject Matter Expert Exchanges (SMEE) and planning meetings. The official explained that the sea phase, which concluded on May 8 in the South China Sea, provided an opportunity for the participating navies to develop closer links in the coordination and execution of operations in the maritime domain. In practice, this means India is trying to create awareness and show significance of united action in the South China Sea in the event of a requirement.

The Indian Navy has also been closely interacting with individual ASEAN members in the high seas. As part of Indias vision of SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region), the navy has been proactively engaging with the countries in the Indian Ocean Region towards enhancing regional maritime security. This has been achieved through bilateral and multilateral exercises, coordinated patrols, joint EEZ surveillance, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations. The Indian and ASEAN navies have enjoyed a close and friendly relationship covering a wide spectrum of activities and interactions, which have strengthened over the years.

These moves enhance the Indian Navys efforts to consolidate inter-operability and forge strong bonds of friendship between India and ASEAN members. Indias move is in tune with its Indo-Pacific policy of keeping the area safe, stable and peaceful and free of any country's dominance. As a member of QUAD also, India has been raising its voice through this platform against the Chinese efforts to control the maritime area, which is vital for normal movement of Indian merchant ships, which transports more than half of Indian maritime trade.

The author is a senior journalist and strategic affairs analyst.

[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal.]

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Muscle Flexing In South China Sea: Why India-ASEAN War Games Send A Strong Signal To Beijing - ABP Live

We had been out for about three days, almost all of it fighting seas bigger than our 115-foot boat, the MIECO (Marshall Islands Import-Export Company) Queen. The storm hit a few hours after we left Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands.

It was spring 1973. I had been a Peace Corps volunteer in the Marshall Islands from 1968 to 70. I returned in 1971, got a teaching job, and was now on a field trip for the Marshall Islands Department of Education to give entrance examinations to eighth-grade students who wanted to go to the only public high school in this easternmost part of what was then a trust territory of the United States. I was going to visit schools on four atolls Mili, Ebon, Namdrik and Jaluit and one island, Kili, where the people of Bikini had been moved prior to the nuclear bomb tests of 1946-1958.

The MIECO Queen was legendary and not in a good way. Built in 1956, she was poorly equipped and indifferently maintained. Her main purpose was buying and selling in the remote outer islands buying copra (dried coconut) in 100-pound burlap bags, and selling kerosene, TP, rice, flour, canned meat, matches, fabric and so forth. The people on these islands made and sold copra to make money to supplement the fish and fruits provided by nature. The Japanese and American influences of the past 50-plus years had added some new things to their diet and general daily existence.

Why the owners of the MIECO Queen and its Fijian captain, Moses, didnt know about the storm remains a mystery to me. Maybe they did know and thought it wouldnt be that bad. After all, they had a job to do, a mission to complete. Regardless, we were barely on our way when that storm hit. Making landfall at Mili, the closest atoll, was secondary. Surviving became paramount.

When confronted by big waves, accepted nautical practice is to point the bow of the boat into the waves. Big waves that hit a smallish boat broadside or from the stern put the boat in danger of capsizing. Were the MIECO Queen to sink out of sight of land in a storm in the Pacific Ocean, all of us would drown.

The rest is here:

Everybody Has a Story: Surviving rough ride in a smelly ship - The Columbian

PARTY boat-loving Brits have been urged to rein in their antics onboard as officials in Majorca launched a new crackdown on rowdy tourists.

The island's council said it will bring in the police to deal with noisy "floating discos" and warned of heavy fines.

A slew of locals have already lodged numerous complaints about the party boats disturbing their peace and quiet.

Residents slammed the boisterous bashes and said they have to put up with non-stop partying on boats moored by the beaches.

Hotels have even expressed their fury about parties on the water as they claim unruly tourists and loud music bothers their guests.

It is another blow for holidaymakers jetting away to the Spanish hotspot for a knees-up as the summer season swings into action.

Clubbers have already been warned they could be hit with a 25,000 fine if they attend illegal parties on the island, as officials clamp down on unlicensed events.

Insular Minister of Tourism, Andreu Serra has called for the "maximum collaboration of the municipalities" to combat the party boat problem.

"We have prepared all the operations to act, in collaboration with the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard, to put all the necessary means when complaints are made," she warned.

"At the same time, we will activate all the mechanisms to initiate disciplinary proceedings."

She said Majorca council was aware "that this start of the season is being more complicated than expected, since it is verified that there are more irregularities than in previous years."

The tourism minister said they would put extreme pressure on boats that did not comply with their zero tolerance policy for "tourism of excesses".

But the president of the Balearic Association of Leisure and Entertainment (Abone), Miguel Prez Mars said Majorca needed to take an even harsher approach.

He explained: "The city councils must be tougher with this type of action, despite the fact that they do not have powers at sea.

"We see that there is no political will to tackle this phenomenon at the root, both in terms of non-stop parties and discos on the high seas.

"Something has to happen for the administration to act, when now we are at the right time to control all kinds of illegal actions, which on top of that generate unfair competition for nightlife companies that comply with all the regulations, generate employment and pay the corresponding taxes."

Abone says noisy party boats are causing a huge nuisance not just in Palma and Magaluf, but across the island.

Hotel associations on the island are also asking the Balearic Government and council to eradicate these illegal leisure practices "because the noise bothers both residents and tourists who stay in the hotels."

Residents of Colonia de Sant Jordi on the southeastern coast of Majorca say they "can't take any more" after five years of excessive noise and no action.

At the weekend, nearly 20 party boats gathered off the popular beach and were said to have blasted out music for more than 12 hours.

The revelries reportedly started at 5pm and only wrapped up at 6am the following morning.

"This is a party organised to promote drunken tourism at sea and we fear that this will happen again," said one resident.

Another exhausted local fumed: "We have had twelve continuous hours of disco on the high seas and now that summer is coming, this is going to overflow."

The local council said they did call in the police but were told they had no jurisdiction at sea.

The latest measure comes as officials in Majorca and Ibiza attempt to extinguish booze-fuelled chaos and drunken behaviour.

Holidaymakers will now be slapped with asix-drink-a-day limit instead of having alcohol on tap.

The regulations will affect tourists inMagaluf,Majorcaand some areas of party islandIbiza.

And they mean tourists can only have three free tipples at lunch and three with their evening meal.

The block has been put on boozy pub crawls, the sale of alcohol in shops between 9.30pm and 8am and advertising party boats in some areas.

A smoking ban has also been rolled out across some of Spain's most popular beaches.

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Holiday warning over Majorca party boats loved by Brits as officials vow massive new crackdown... - The US Sun

The Clipper round the world yacht race was created for amateurs seeking the ultimate challenge. But did they underestimate the risks?

Thu 11 May 2023 01.00 EDT

On 18 November 2017, Simon Speirs, 60, a retired lawyer from Bristol, was hauling on his waterproofs below deck on a yacht in rough seas in the Southern Ocean. For nearly three months, hed endured cold, cramped quarters, soaked clothing, sea sickness and very little sleep. As one of the crews competing in the Clipper Round the World yacht race, Speirs had completed more than 13,000 nautical miles since leaving Britain, but the wild remoteness of the Southern Ocean was more challenging than anything he had experienced before.

Speirs had a hacking cough and a heavy cold, but as leader of the watch he had to get out on deck. The race had so far taken them across the northern Atlantic Ocean to Uruguay and back across the southern Atlantic to South Africa. Two months in, hed asked for a break. But after only a week his replacement had fallen out of his bunk and hurt his wrist, and Speirs had to resume his role.

By 2pm, the wind was getting stronger; the yacht lurched up and down waves the size of steep hills. The captain ordered the crew to change the headsail to make the boat easier to control. Speirs made his way to the foredeck, but, at that moment, a massive wave hit, sweeping him over the side.

Speirs was still attached to the boat with a tether. For several minutes he was dragged behind the boat in the roiling waves, while the crew tried to haul him back in. Then the clip on his harness snapped, and he lost contact with the yacht. It took three attempts and 32 minutes to pull him back on board, by which time he was dead.

Simon Speirs is exactly the sort of person Robin Knox-Johnston, the veteran sailor, had in mind when he founded the Clipper Round the World yacht race more than 25 years ago. At that time, the only people who got to race boats around the world were professional sailors. Clipper was designed for ordinary people: offering training and the opportunity to join a mixed-ability crew, it would enable customers to achieve the ambition of a lifetime.

The race is held every two years. Eleven yachts, each with a paying crew of 16-22 amateurs, led by a professional skipper and a qualified first mate, start from an English port, and take up to 11 months to cover 40,000 nautical miles. Paying crew can choose to do one or more legs of the journey, and it isnt cheap. To take part in the whole race, over seven or eight legs, costs around 50,000. The route takes in some of the worlds most treacherous seas, but you dont need any sailing experience to participate. According to Clipper Ventures, the company that runs the race, around 40% of participants are complete novices. Since it began, the race has become hugely popular.

Clipper Ventures is not the first outfit to sell an iconic and dangerous challenge to amateurs. On 23 May 2019, 354 climbers made it to the top of Mount Everest in a single day. This included a dentist, an architect, a surgeon, a CEO and a housewife, who had each paid between 33,000 and 100,000. The oldest was 64. The commercialisation of extreme adventure has been made possible by advances in technical equipment like satnav and portable oxygen metres, and turbocharged by a hunger for personal growth and fulfilment. But it has also been accompanied by accidents and tragedies. May 2019 was one of the deadliest seasons on record: 11 climbers died on Everest in nine days. According to reports, overcrowding and underprepared climbers were partly to blame.

There have been other fatal accidents on the Clipper race, too. On 4 September 2015, Andrew Ashman, 49, a paramedic from Orpington, south-east London, was standing in a known danger zone in the yachts cockpit area when he was struck by the boom and suffered a fatal neck injury. Six months later, on the same boat, Sarah Young, 40, an entrepreneur from London with no previous sailing experience, died after being swept overboard by a wave. She was not clipped on.

According to a report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) into Speirss death, published in June 2019, 17 people fell overboard from Clipper yachts between 2013 and 2018. Just over two weeks before Speirs went overboard, a Clipper yacht ran aground and had to be abandoned in a very serious incident just off the coast of South Africa. An MAIB investigation into that incident published in June 2018 concluded that the inexperience of the crew was a factor: With only one professional, employed seafarer on board, the Clipper yachts were not safely manned for the round the world race.

If you read Clippers material, youd think their number one concern was to keep people safe, but they have failed in so many ways, said Margaret Speirs, Simons widow, when we first met in 2020. I believe the company is compromised by their desire to make money out of these races.

Knox-Johnston has strongly denied such claims. Safety is a core principle of the Clipper Race, ahead of the racing element of the event itself, and therefore the most important part of the training of its crew, Clipper Ventures said in a statement to the Guardian. The company says it has made investments in safety gear, becoming the first ocean-racing company to introduce personal AIS beacons into its lifejackets to aid recovery of a man overboard.

After the deaths of Ashman and Young in the 2015-16 race, the future of Clipper looked uncertain, a source who works at Clipper Ventures told me. I thought, nobody is going to want to sign up. But, in fact, applications increased. People are drawn by the chance to do something exceptional and the risk is part of the attraction. Many customers, the source said, tend to think: This is really dangerous! This is something Ive got to do!

The founder of Clipper Ventures, Knox-Johnston, became the first person to sail solo around the world, without stopping, in 1969. In the memoir he published soon after his return, he describes the hardships he endured. His boat leaks, his water supply gets polluted, his steering gear is smashed, he shoots a shark when it comes too close, and suffers what was later diagnosed as a burst appendix. He carries on, undaunted. This, it seems, is the Knox-Johnston way. At the age of 68, he became the oldest person to race solo around the world. He had got irritated with people saying he was past it.

In the autumn of 1995, the same year he received a knighthood, Knox-Johnston placed newspaper ads to see how many people would be willing to pay to become part of a round-the-world crew. The response suggested that there may be a viable business in the idea. William Ward, a former property developer, who became CEO of Clipper Ventures, invested 1.8m.

Knox-Johnston commissioned eight new boats Bluewater 58 sloops from Colvic, a shipyard near Chelmsford, Essex. The company set up a base in Plymouth, Devon, and Knox-Johnston recruited friends from the sailing world, many ex-servicemen, as skippers. As soon as the boats were completed, they began training crew, taking on additional skippers as they went.

On 16 October 1996, the first race left Plymouth with the eight boats. The race was a success, and over the next few years Clipper built itself into an international brand. Major companies started to sponsor the boats (Garmin, Nasdaq), as did charities such as Unicef, and, from 2002, British cities such as Leeds, Liverpool and Glasgow. Since the first race in 1996, the event has been transformed from a low-key amateur sailing race into a major, and highly profitable, international event attracting the interest of the worlds media and business leaders, wrote Ward in Clipper company accounts in 2007. In the following years, the company continued to grow.

After the 2011-12 race, the company upgraded its yachts, and launched the new Clipper 70s, manufactured in China. They were longer and faster than the previous yachts, reflecting Clippers ambitions for more exciting racing. In 2018, Clipper expanded its business to Asia with the launch of a China-based division, Clipper China. In 2019, the company made a profit of 3.2m; by 2020 it had a staff of 86.

The man at the heart of this success, Knox-Johnston, is, in the words of the Daily Mail, a patriotic Englishman of the old school, who embodies the spirit of the stiff upper lip. He has little time for what he sees as unnecessary bureaucracy. In his autobiography, he criticised the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), the government department that enforces safety at sea and sets standards for the Clipper race. Knox-Johnston complained about its ridiculous and inappropriate rules for small racing yachts.

Knox-Johnston sees the race as a life-changing opportunity. Ben Bowley, a skipper and chief instructor, who worked for Clipper Ventures for nine years from 2011, was impressed by Knox-Johnstons vision and belief. He has drive, passion and his ability to convey the awesomeness [of the race] is quite captivating. Having completed the race, Knox-Johnston wrote in his autobiography, people usually feel confident to take on greater challenges. He continued: They have painted their lives with bright colours, not pastel shades, and that brightness is like a drug and they want more of it.

The moment Simon Speirs decided he was going to sail around the world came in 1992, when he was in his mid-30s. Watching the first TV footage of the Whitbread Round the World race, he was entranced by the huge seas of the Southern Ocean. It then became more a case of when rather than if, he later wrote on his blog. Ocean sailing was his wifes idea of misery, but she understood his obsession. Simon was excited about it. It was his retirement dream to do it before he was too old, too infirm, she said.

Speirs, a senior partner in a Bristol legal firm, was meticulous and thorough. He liked to-do lists and DIY, and had a dry sense of humour. He also had an adventurous side. Every two years he would take on a challenge to raise money for charity: he had climbed the Three Peaks (the highest mountains of Scotland, England and Wales), cycled from Lands End to John OGroats, run a 66-mile race in the Lake District.

Speirs originally signed up for the 2015-16 race. But he deferred his place because work was busy and his oldest son was getting married. Better to wait until the next race, 2017-18, when he would be 60 and newly retired. He kept fit by cycling six miles a day to work.

Speirs was a keen amateur sailor. He kept a couple of dinghies on a reservoir in Chew Valley, Somerset, where he had sailing Sundays with his children. He had a son and a daughter with his first wife, who died in 1991, and two sons with Margaret, whom he married in 1996. He had skippered chartered yachts on family holidays in the Mediterranean. But that in no way compares with the experience of these huge racing yachts in these wild oceans, said Margaret.

Training for the Clipper race consists of four courses, levels 1-4, each lasting a week. This process, which is compulsory for participants, covers basic sailing techniques headsail changes, tacking, gybing, helming; as well as race strategy and safety. Trainee crew also sail offshore, mostly in the Solent, and later spend a few nights in the Channel. The Solent and the Channel are widely recognised as one of the best sailing grounds in the world for training, said a spokesperson for Clipper Ventures, because of the complexity of tides, shipping, navigational hazards and inclement weather.

The people who sign up for the Clipper race tend to be middle-aged men of means. Many are at a turning point in their lives: just divorced, promoted, retired, bereaved, recovering from illness. Nathan Harrow, then 43, a business consultant, decided to sign up as a round-the-worlder in the 2017-18 race after a period of stress and depression after redundancy. Clipper was me drawing a line under the old me and getting my confidence back, he told me.

Mary Morrison, a mentor for troubled children, from south-west London, was 65 and perfectly content with her life, when she did the 2015-16 race. One of the guys I was sailing with said, Youre the one least after change, but youll probably change the most, and that was probably true, she says. She gained new friends, an appreciation of the scale and sheer beauty of our planet, and a sense of how we need to look after it more. And it gave me a lot of confidence, she said. Another woman in her 60s, who did the third leg of the 2017-18 race, told me it was the best thing she had ever done.

Crew are assigned to each yacht a few weeks before the race. The aim is to balance experience and ability across the fleet. Whether everyone gets on is a matter of pure chance. Its one big social experiment, said a crew member who did the race in 2007-8 and again in 2017-18. If youre lucky, you have a good time. Its partly to do with the characters involved.

Each boat is certified for 24 people including one skipper, who in 2017 was paid about 38,000 a year, plus 150 a day for six months of training beforehand. (We ensure that our skippers share Clipper Ventures ethos of safety above all else, said Clipper Ventures. Anyone who fails safety standards is dismissed.)

For many years, Clipper were required to have two professional sailors on board during the race, under the MCAs small commercial vessel code. However, a freedom of information request shows that in 2010, Knox-Johnston lobbied the MCA to allow him to replace the second qualified person with a trained-up member of the fee-paying crew. The MCA refused. In 2012, with the MCA under new leadership, Knox-Johnston tried again. We have tried to make the system of having two qualified people aboard each boat work, he said in a meeting with the MCA on 1 August, but, he said, it is not financially sustainable.

Knox-Johnston had a subsequent meeting with the MCA at Clippers base in Gosport, Hampshire, at the end of September. Details of the meeting were not released. A year later, in October 2013, the MCA granted Knox-Johnstons wish. From that point on, it wouldnt be necessary to have two professionals on board. All that was required was one fully qualified skipper, and a second person who had successfully completed the companys coxswain training course.

The Clipper coxswains course lasts 12 days, and is paid for by Clipper. The company aims to have two people on each boat who have taken the course, which covers use of radar, reading wind direction and force from a chart, calculating tidal flow and ocean currents, and manoeuvring the yacht safely into a berth in a port or harbour. Some sources I spoke to were sceptical about whether this training is really a match for hands-on experience. As a professional sailor youre trained to look and see things that are going wrong ahead of catastrophe, said one skipper. Youve got to have this ability to stand back and look at the whole picture, all the time.

After the deaths of Ashman and Young in the 2015-16 race, the MAIB urged Clipper to review its manning policy. The special nature of the Clipper Round the World yacht race places a huge responsibility on one person to ensure the safety of the yacht and its crew at all times, the MAIB wrote in April 2017.

Four months later, the 2017-18 race started without a second paid professional on board any of the boats.

The race was not quite what Speirs had imagined. Seven weeks in, he described the trip on his blog as acute discomfort mingled with elation and awe. High points included the beauty of the sky at night, the soft swish of the boat through calm sea, the camaraderie of the crew and an encounter with a pod of dolphins. Less enjoyable was the sea sickness, the cold and the lack of sleep. Speirs had dropped two trouser sizes since the start of the race, a fact he attributed to the physical effort of sailing. Pulling ropes. Grinding winches. I miss you very much, he wrote in a letter to Margaret, on 10 October. The experience, he said, was not a barrel of laughs. But he still planned to complete all eight stages. I am too stubborn to drop out, he wrote on his blog.

Not all of his fellow crew members were so reluctant to quit. Mark Tucker, then 40, had signed up to do the whole Clipper 2017-18 race and was assigned to Great Britain, the same boat as Speirs. (The boat was sponsored by the British government, as part of a marketing campaign to attract tourism and investment; on 2 August, the crew were photographed outside 10 Downing Street.) However, Tucker left after the first leg because of his concerns about safety. He felt that there was insufficient time before the start of the race for maintenance and repairs to the boat. At the time, he wrote a resignation letter to skipper Andy Burns, explaining his thinking, but he wasnt able to speak candidly in public because hed signed an NDA. In retrospect, Tucker told me, I view them very much as a media/PR company that happens to do a bit of sailing, rather than the other way around.

By the end of the second leg, Speirs was exhausted. At the end of the 10-day stopover in Cape Town, South Africa, he wrote on his blog that he had used the layover to repair and recharge. He went to bed early and ate healthily. He got his haircut and met up with his daughter, Katherine, and her husband. She gave him a fruit cake baked by her mother-in-law.

On 31 October 2017, the Clipper boats began the third leg of the race: Cape Town to Fremantle, Australia. A journey of more than 4,700 nautical miles, it would take about 23 days and pass through the Southern Ocean, one of the worlds most dangerous waters. An area of almost constant high wind and frequent gales, it is where the one of the highest ever waves was recorded 120 feet.

For this third leg, the crew had dropped from 20 at the start of the race to 16. The average age was 50, but the overall sailing experience was greater than on the previous two legs. Tim Jeffery, then 56, an architect from London who had sailed small boats for 15 years, had signed up for the first leg to get to know people, and the third leg for the Southern Ocean. It is the most remote place in the world, he told me. The sea is dramatic. Its challenging because of the size of the waves. You also get very fast sailing and its hard work.

The crew was divided into two groups operating a system of five watches a day: two shifts of six hours from 8am; three shifts of four hours from 8pm. Everyone was given a job: engineer, medic, treasurer. As well as head of his watch, Speirs was the nominated sail repairer. He became known as Tailor of Gloucester on account of the hours he spent at the sewing machine with glasses perched on the end of his nose.

Speirs was also the Clipper coxswain, regarded as the skippers second in command. Great Britain had actually started the race with three paying crew members who had completed the Clipper coxwains course: one was Tucker; the other, apart from Speirs, was Jon Milne, then 50, an IT director, who was injured at the time of Speirss accident. A common theme of Speirss blog was that he felt overworked.

Everyone on Great Britain was delighted with their captain, Andy Burns. Then 31, Burns had started sailing as a schoolboy in Lincolnshire. After working on superyachts and for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, he joined Clipper Ventures as an instructor in 2015. This was his first race as skipper.

Speirs regarded Burns as an ally. Both were good with people, patient, enthusiastic. Burns prioritised safety over speed. He assessed the abilities and limitations of his crew to the extent that, during leg two, he made the decision not to race competitively, but to sail conservatively, according to the June 2019 MAIB report.

Once the boat was sailing through the Southern Ocean in extremely cold weather, the shortage of experienced hands became a problem. Speirs wasnt able to rest as there was no one to take his place. The boats are set up for a certain number of crew, according to a source at Clipper Ventures. You need that many people to be able to work the boat. If youre one or two people down thats very problematic, and of course it makes the rest of the crew tired.

After the 2014-15 race, a fitness test became part of the interview. Crew have to show they can climb on to a top bunk (not so easy when the boat is listing at 45 degrees) and get on the boat without using a ladder. The source said they felt Clipper Ventures vetting process needed to be tougher. Being at sea can be petrifying. People become frozen with fear and start behaving out of character and become very difficult because theyre frightened.

One person, who did not want to give his name, signed up for leg three on Great Britain in the 2017-18 race. In the final week of training, the boats raced down to France and back. The weather was hideous. We had 18 people on board and there was probably only four or five of us that managed to keep the boat sailing. The rest were incapacitated downstairs. I was burning myself out covering for other people. When we pulled up into the dock, I packed my bags and I said, Im done, its not safe.

The dropout rate among round-the-worlders is 40%, wrote Speirs on his blog. Things must get very bad, because crew are liable for 100% of the fees if they drop out during the race. People remortgage homes and invest significant amounts of money in the adventure, said one former crew member. Sometimes as much as 100k if you include insurance, food, accommodation, flights, kit etc. Its going to take something pretty serious to knock them off course.

Apart from injuries and fatigue among the crew of Great Britain, a major concern was the condition of the boat. In an email to Clippers management on 3 July 2017, six weeks before the start of the race, Speirs had pointed out that Great Britain was leaking. Still working hard to keep water out. Not easy job and pretty hairy when boat kicking around. This should have been sorted out at refit before handover. Its a safety issue, Speirs wrote in his blog on 12 August.

The boat was still leaking when it left Liverpool on 20 August 2017. Within two days the generator packed up. The water maker, which turns salt water into drinking water, didnt work for three weeks. Andy [Burns, the captain] was spending his entire time dealing with maintenance issues on a boat that was three weeks into a year-long circumnavigation, said Mark Tucker. If hes down below sorting out why the water maker doesnt work or the generator doesnt work, hes not on deck coaching people, making sure the boats being sailed safely.

As part of its investigation, MAIB singled out an issue with the guardrail and supporting stanchions, which may have been partly responsible for Speirss death. The guardrail, which was designed to keep crew from falling overboard, was damaged in rough seas on 4 November, 13 days before Speirss accident. The crew managed to lash up the guardrail by wrapping rope around it. The repair was not great, said Tim Jeffery. We had to be extra careful on the foredeck after that.

The MAIB report identified a series of problems with Great Britain. The cumulative effect of the defects was to increase workload for the crew, contributing to their fatigue, lowering morale, and distracting from sailing and gaining sailing experience, it stated.

There were problems on other boats. Unicef had to be bailed out every four hours, on legs one and two, according to one round-the-world sailor. Unicef started the race with a broken fuel pump. The generator failed on the first leg. Two crew members who had signed up to do the whole race left Unicef after leg two, saying they were unhappy with the number of problems with the boat that needed attention.

Staff at Clipper put the malfunctions down to normal wear and tear. The boats had been around the world twice at that point, they say, as well as being used in training and for corporate events. Some people believe that because they are paying to go around the world, the boat should be like hiring a car, said Lance Shepherd, skipper on Liverpool during the 2017-18 race. Everything should be immaculate, ready to go. But that is not how boats work. They are much more fickle and difficult to maintain. Clippers management was prudent, he said. They put safety first and foremost. The boats get stripped right back and overhauled at the end of every race.

But there were also problems with the Clipper 70s from the outset. Clipper Ventures first discovered an issue in 2013, when the new hulls were shipped to the UK from China. There were gaps in the layers of fibreglass-type material, which could make the boat more prone to cracks in extreme seas, a marine surveyor told me.

Clipper had the entire fleet surveyed in February and March 2013. They had the bad parts cut out of the new boats and relaminated, according to Knox-Johnston. Not an easy job, given the scale of the problem, or the time frame in which repairs had to be done. The 2013-14 race was due to start in just over six months time. It couldnt be delayed. Sponsors were signed up, the jamboree of corporate backers, supporters and families was already planned in each port.

Crew members later expressed concerns that there were too many problems to fix in the short time before departure. Garmin crew member Kira Pecherska, an experienced and highly qualified sailor, said there was no time for proper sea trials. If you send a boat on a transatlantic journey, especially with beginners on board, who have no experience in sailing at all, at least these boats must be trusted. And you can only trust your boat when you test it. (Clipper Ventures said: Clipper Race yachts are well built, well tested and maintained by a dedicated and highly skilled maintenance team who travel to every port of call on the race route.)

The source who works at Clipper Ventures told me there was anxiety about reporting problems: There is a fear culture, that prevents a lot of that. They [skippers] are thinking, Im going to get crucified for letting that happen.

According to Clipper Ventures, on stopovers Knox-Johnston and Ward have been accessible to all sailing staff and crew for any questions or concerns. They created a culture of openness and this continues with all Clipper Ventures staff today.

At about 2pm on 18 November 2017, Simon Speirs came up on deck, wearing a foul-weather jacket and salopettes. Conditions were rough: his fellow sailors had never seen such massive seas. His wedding ring was tied around his neck on a leather shoelace: jewellery was considered a safety hazard on board. He was one of five crew on the foredeck lowering the headsail. He was attached to the deck with a safety tether.

At 2.14pm, Great Britain was hit by a huge wave. The yacht dropped into a trough, slewed violently, and Speirs was thrown into the water. One crew member, who did not want to be named, saw Speirs with his lifejacket inflated, being dragged alongside the boat. He leaned over to try to grab him, but Speirs was just out of reach. He tried pulling on the tether, but the boat was going too fast. He could see Speirs was struggling as the water buffeted him. He was constantly being hit by the waves. Never able to gather his breath.

The crew member managed to hand Speirs a rope with a lifting hook to attach to his lifejacket, in order to winch him out of the water. Speirs tried to clip the rope to his lifejacket, but he was getting exhausted. Water was going over his face and he was being bashed against the side of the boat. As Speirs was dragged through the sea, his clip bent out of shape. At 2.22pm, it snapped open.

My immediate thought was, thank God, hes not going to drown by being dragged along by this boat, said the crew member. We can get the boat under control and go back and get him. Well get him in two minutes. Its not dark. It will be fine. But turning the boat around in strong wind and very rough seas was not easy. It took three attempts to retrieve Speirs from the sea. Finally, at 2.54pm, 40 minutes after he fell in the water, six crew lifted Speirs on board Great Britain. His lifejacket was cut off and crew carefully carried him below deck. He was already dead.

After Speirss body was brought aboard, the skipper radioed to the Australian coastguard. Clipper tried to contact Margaret, but when they couldnt get through they called the family home and broke the news to their son Toby. They told him his father had died, said Margaret. A 17-year-old lad who is on his own at home. Toby is a sensible lad but Im sure it has scarred him for life. Clipper did wrong by us, very wrong by us.

We tried to contact Mrs Speirs, Simons emergency contact. Unfortunately she was not at home and her mobile phone was switched off, said Jeremy Knight, then chief operating officer at Clipper Ventures, in an email to the crew of Great Britain, after being informed that the Guardian was investigating Speirss death. This decision to break the news to Simons son has proved difficult for the family, and we understand that, Knight wrote. But the alternative, holding off and risking the family finding out through the media, was much worse.

At 7pm that evening, the race director called Margaret and told her that her husband would be buried at sea in eight hours. He was not giving me any options. He told me they had come to that decision for the benefit of the crew so that they wouldnt have to travel with Simons body on board. And they told me the burial at sea would be at three oclock in the morning our time. And by three oclock in the morning we did have some friends and family gathered. The vicar came and we read the service at home that they were having in the Southern Ocean as if we were sharing it.

The burial at sea has robbed me and my family of the opportunity of laying Simon to rest at a place of our choice and allowing us to say goodbye to him in a way that we would have wished to, she continued. It has also deprived our family of the opportunity for a coroners inquest. We didnt get a chance to put questions, hear the responses, to help us understand what happened.

Burns quit Clipper Ventures at the end of leg four. Andy didnt enjoy a second on that boat after Simon died, said the crew member who had tried to rescue Speirs. Jeffery didnt do the final leg, as planned. After Speirss death, he did not feel right leaving his wife and two daughters.

After Speirss death, the MCA would not allow the Clipper boats to sail with only one professional onboard. Clipper Ventures had to recruit a second qualified mate for each boat in the fleet for the rest of the 2017-18 race.

The MCA investigation into the death of Simon Speirs was closed in 2020. The MCA received strong legal advice that the evidence was not enough to bring a prosecution, stated a spokesperson. The MCA referred the case to Hampshire police to follow up an allegation of fraud in the certification of the boats, and they concluded that there were no grounds to pursue an investigation.

Ward was awarded an OBE in 2018 for his services to the economy and to the Great Britain marketing campaign. Knight retired from his role as COO of Clipper Ventures in April 2022 and is currently a magistrate. When we contacted Knox-Johnston in November 2022, he was at sea.

One bright morning last month I spoke to Speirss sons Mike and Toby on Zoom. For more than two years, the family had been fighting a civil action against Clipper Ventures, charging the company with an immature safety culture. They wanted to make Clipper Ventures answer for some of the failings that had led to their fathers death. If you offer a service that is dangerous you have a responsibility to make it as safe as is reasonably possible and I dont think that was done, said Toby.

At the end of February, Clipper Ventures paid the family the net sum of 140,000 to settle the case. The family believe the timing of the settlement was no accident. Clipper Ventures is up for sale. In settling the case, the company admitted no wrongdoing. But the family felt vindicated. They donated the money to the RNLI.

Nothing can make up for the loss of their father. Toby is a student at his fathers alma mater, Queens College, Cambridge. I just wish I could talk to Dad about that, he said. Mike longs to tell his father about the grandchildren he never knew.

For Margaret, the settlement has brought a sense of relief. I can hang up my sword and put all things to do with Clipper Ventures behind me, she told me recently in an email. Simon Speirs had always been a loving husband and father. Now they could once again remember him not just by the way he died, but as the remarkable man he was.

This article was amended on 11 May 2023 to correctly refer to the Solent, rather than the River Solent.

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Dark waters: how the adventure of a lifetime turned to tragedy - The Guardian

From the view deck of the Philippine Navy headquarters on Roxas Boulevard, Manila, one can get a majestic view of the famed Manila Bay sunset. It is as breathtaking and magical as the postcards show and it never fails to impress every single time.

A fleet of sleek white yachts and charming boats is backlighted by the setting crimson sun while the waters of Manila Bay glisten like a million diamond studs.

But beyond this beholding sight, somewhere between the devil and the deep blue sea, are maritime challenges which hamper our countrys full potential in harnessing the blue economy.

One recent afternoon while enjoying the view of the setting sun, I sat down with Philippine Navy Vice Commander Rear Admiral Caesar Valencia to talk about the Navys rich history, its enduring legacy and why, in this era of borderless trade, its mandate of guarding our seas is as important as ever.

I learned that there are different kinds of threats facing the Navy. The most prevalent is IUU fishing or illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing which occurs both on the high seas and in areas within national jurisdiction.

The biggest issue which is shared by other countries is IUU fishing. Its rampant. Its not just a problem within the Philippines but in the region, said Rear Adm. Valencia.

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Its disturbing to hear about this. Why do unscrupulous companies and individuals engage in such bad practices which undermine national and regional efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks?

We thank the Navy for keeping a close watch on this.

Another rampant issue is smuggling.

Topping the list is oil smuggling, which is now a decades-old problem in the Philippines. It is commonly sourced from Malaysia where oil is cheaper, said Rear Adm. Valencia.

Cigarette smuggling is also a problem and it continues to hurt our legitimate cigarette players.

Smuggling, as we all know, deprives the government of much needed revenues. But its very challenging to stop it, especially if smugglers are in cahoots with people in power.

Smuggling of guns and illegal drugs is another common problem, more rampant in the northern part as illegal drugs come from the so-called Golden Triangle or that area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet at the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers. It is said to be a major source of narcotics sold all over the world.

But of the different forms of smuggling, human smuggling is perhaps the most detrimental as it puts peoples lives in danger.

All these and of course the geopolitical tensions between Manila and China are just some of the threats hounding our porous borders.

Guarding this falls on the shoulders of the Philippine Navy, which continues to strengthen its capabilities to face our never-ending maritime challenges and to ensure the growth of the countrys blue economy.

The Navy has come a long, long way. It marks its 125th anniversary on May 20, 2023, having started on May 20, 1898 when the Philippine flag was hoisted on one of our ships.

Ahead of the anniversary celebration, the Navy will be hosting and leading milestone events the 17th ASEAN Navy Chiefs Meeting on May 9 to 11 and the 2nd ASEAN Multilateral Naval Exercise on May 9 to 16.

These twin events aim to promote the countrys self-reliant defense posture in cooperation with the navies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Aside from this, the Navy, led by Rear Adm. Toribio Adaci Jr.,also continues to modernize.

In 2021, the Department of National Defense signed a P28-billion contract with South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries for the acquisition of two brand-new corvettes which will arrive by 2025.

Corvettes are small, fast naval vessels capable of conducting anti-ship, anti-submarine and anti-air warfare missions.

The Navy will also have six patrol vessels by 2026 and a submarine.

Yet another boost for the Philippine Navy is that it would be able tobuild its own ships, particularly the small and hard-hitting fast-attack interdictor craft missile (FAIC-M). The 32-meter long FAIC-Ms are high-speed vessels equipped with quick intercept ability, remote stabilized weapons and short-range missiles.

This is because Israel Shipyards Ltd. has transferred to the Navy the keys to a newly-refurbished shipyard within the Naval Station Pascual Ledesma in Cavite, as part of an FAIC-M acquisition project. The Navy will acquire four FAIC-Ms from Israel while another four will be built in the shipyard by Filipino hands, said Rear Adm. Valencia.

In the beginning, the Navy had just three torpedo boats and now, 125 years later, it has a fleet of around 80 combat vessels and has an estimated strength of 24,500 active service personnel. It continues to grow.

While the Navy has a long way to go before it becomes a fully modern naval warfare service that is at par with the world,Rear Adm. Valencia said there is a weapon unique to Filipino servicemen and it is the brave Filipino heart.

We may lose but we will give them a bloody loss. The bravery of the Filipino soldier can never be questioned. Even if we are armed with spoons, we wont surrender, said Rear Adm. Valencia.

Hearing this made me proud too that the countrys guardians of the seas are among the bravest in the world.

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Email:eyesgonzales@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter@eyesgonzales.Columnarchivesat EyesWideOpen on FB.

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Guarding our seas and the blue economy - Philstar.com