Don't fuck with grey ship's

Warships are painted grey for a very good reason they fade away on the horizon and are difficult to spot, the light grey blends with the background. Now I will ask Gravedoger to comment on this but  it would seem to me that in the 1/2 light that is dawn it would be  bloody hard to tell if a ship was painted grey and the ship in question  looks to me like a supply vessel rather than a warship but as you can see it is painted grey.

You do not  screw around with ships painted in grey .... unless you are a group of  Somali Pirate's

" The fact that it occurred at first light must be the excuse for a skiff full of suspected pirates who opened fire and commenced boarding a target ship this week. What a surprise when the 'target' fired back and launched a helicopter. As the light increased they learned why. Rather than a commercial ship which they could have hijacked, it was the flagship of EU NAVFOR itself, the ESPS Patino. "

Whoops. I would  have loved to be on the bridge when the realisaton occureed that the pirate's were going to attempt to pirate actually  the Captain of the Ship behaved far better than I would have. I would have sunk the pricks  machine gunning first.


" No doubt a little shocked by their fatal mistake, they immediately threw their weapons, ladder and fuel barrel overboard, and surrendered." 

Yeah well I guess when you are  well armed and are taking on recreational sailors, but well armed is relative.




" Five of the six men who were in the skiff had received injuries, two of which required medical treatment onboard the SPS Patino. 

Investigations are ongoing to check whether the suspect pirates’ report - that a seventh man who had been in the skiff was lost overboard during the attack - are correct.

The ESPS Patino had just completed the escort of a World Food Programme ship carrying food-aid into Somalia and was operating close to the Somali port of Mogadishu. 

Operation ATALANTA's main tasks are to escort merchant vessels carrying humanitarian aid of the 'World Food Program' (WFP) and vessels of 'African Union Mission in Somalia' (AMISOM), and to protect vulnerable ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and to deter and disrupt piracy. 

The would-be pirates might be better of in a Western jail than returning to their home village. The embarrassment could be worse than the incarceration. "


Yup I agree.  That sort off  screw up is  just hilarious , but while we laugh have we thought  about  the stealing of the  fishing grrounds. When you give a man a fish you solve todays hunger, when you teach him  how to fish  you solve tomorrows problem, but when you steal his fishing  area ?

This is more complex  than we think

Costa Concordia - Some thoughts.

MV Rena  is our disaster but let's be rational we got off  very light in many ways.  Don't get me wrong I want the blame and  costs  sent back to the owners but no one died  in human terms and while I regret the  bird and marine deaths they  were minimal.

Costa Concordia is yet another  fuck up and one that should concern us all. 40000 passengers it would seem were foolishly endangered so a waiter could wave to his family who couldn't have seen him anyway. The Master has been and should  have been arrested and charged.

I occasional  conn  ( Drive ) a commercial boat. I love it and yet dread it  at the same time because I am so scared of fucking  up. I will not  drink if I am driving a car  and I extend that to boats, with that in mind what the hell was the skipper thinking.

Yeah I know the ship was holed further out and he  went to shore but claims that the rocks weren't charted sound like shit to me in fact I suspect they have been charted well  before  Astrolabe reef in NZ.

The ship is fucked.  It will be cut up but  29 people are dead and that raises an issue about ship design and  cruise ship tourism.