Picture of the Day
I look back to 20012 when I outlined some possible maritime Christmas Wishes. And then to 2019 during COVID which could be said to apply today, although then there was wailing and gnashing of teeth due to our enforced isolation. I said "All mariners are going to wonder what the fuss is about, that the population of the western world is becoming hysterical at not being able to hug their families on the magical 25th December. Not being home for Christmas can be the normal state for many mariners, and their wish might be that at least they can be alongside somewhere, not having to do very much." Here are the wishes I outlined in 2012. Can we detect any changes since then?
This is the third time the Bourbon Petrel - apparently still called that - has featured on is site. I discovered that I had recovered a photo from the Bourbon publicity showing the ship preparing to carry out some sort of transfer from itself to what seemed to be a PGS ramformq vessel. I had wondered how this would be done since it is not possible to ly=ie alongside a triangle, point forward. So what we can see is a messenger about to be recovered to the seismic ship, which is attached to a larger messenger, which is attached to a mooring rope, and one assumes that once that has been passed the support vessel sort of tows the larger ship while the transfer is carried out. Look how tidy the bow of the bigger ship is!
This is the NKT Victoria a cable layer, directed probably at the offshore wind industry, since it is apparently able to lay two sorts of cable at the same time. It was awarded the Norwegian "Ship of the Year" prize in 2017. It can carry 9000 tons of cable and has accommodation for 100 people, and like nearly all current arrivals in the wind business is a DP3 vessel. It was photographed by Jan Plug as it was departing from Ijmuiden on its way to the Moray Firth. I had never heard of NKT but apparently they have been in the cable laying business since 1891.