It seems my punishment period has been lifted and Iām now able to post on this particular incident.
STS Leeuwin II is the ship I sail aboard as relief master and Iāve been sailing her since 2006 when I left the navy.
This collision was a shocker. The Maersk Shekou just didnāt turn as normal from the entry to go to her berth. Leeuwin was berthed as usual at B Berth as indicated on the AIS recordings. That position lines up exactly to the course for entering harbour with the front leading mark (range? in US terms) on a tower a few metres from Leeuwinās berth.
I have no idea why this happened as ships come and go all day in most sorts of weather. Fremantle is noted as a windy place and the winds at the time were not exceptional. With two pilots and a good set of tugs, this would be a relatively routine arrival.
Leeuwin herself is an absolute shambles. Access is restricted. Iām not the current master but was due to sail again on 9 Sep, so I will get aboard when I can.
The two injured shipkeepers are doing ok.
The extent of the rig damage will mean a long period of repairs. Of concern is that our shore based experts eg our rigger, shipwright/spar-maker, and sailmaker, are essentially solo operations and the skills would be hard to find in normal commercial ship maintenance businesses, so hiring similarly skilled people is difficult. Weāll see later.
The essence of the ship is that of a tiny professional crew (five qualified on every voyage - master, mate, bosun, chef and engineer), and ten volunteers, some highly experienced but unqualified and others who have simply sailed once before. We would normally sail with 40 brand new trainees each voyage who embark for an adventure at sea, mostly for a week, sometimes more. Some crusty old-timers do odd jobs ashore making bits and pieces. So the organisation relies on the keen volunteers for the bulk of the workload under crew supervision. That sort of situation canāt readily fix this mess.
No doubt someone else will pay, but that may take time. The Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation which runs this scheme was recently in administration after financial difficulties resulting from the disruption of the Covid stupidity shut down operations. A local ācharismaticā billionaire, Andrew (Twiggy) Forest - iron ore mines etc - came to the rescue with his charitable Mindaroo Foundation and the ship and scheme were just getting back up and running.
The ship and scheme are well known here and held in high regard as an iconic maritime asset of Western Australia. Thereās no other scheme like this here. Any prolonged absence of the ship operating will severely damage her visibility in the public eye and make it harder to retract the youngsters to participate and for public support to keep the scheme viable.
I welcome any comments.