BOW WAVE 264

Bow Wave Issue 264--Frozen South Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2004 WavyLine.com	Issue No 264 12 Dec 04
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. In the Wake--The view of Gray Page for December
3. Web Pick
4. Trip Note from Antarctica
5. Insuring Safety at Sea
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

1277

While we were fearing it, it came -
But came with less of fear
Because that fearing it so long
Had almost made it fair -

There is a Fitting - a Dismay -
A Fitting - a Despair -
'Tis harder knowing it is Due
Than knowing it is Here.

The Trying on the Utmost
The Morning it is new
Is Terribler than wearing it
A whole existence through.

Emily Dickinson,
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Little, Brown and Company

New Readers this week include:

Kathleen Brennan of Marsh
Mehraban Reza
Clayton Dias of Surveyors Andrew Moore
Matthew Fenton of CTC
Stuart Downie
Irene Zhou

News of Readers

Nick Fairfax, who runs the London office of PL Ferrari, the insurance brokers, is organising a rather exciting motorcycle trip across Russia:-

http://www.whitenightsride.org.uk/index.html

Julia Mavropoulos, Claims Director of International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC), is retiring at the end of this month. Her many friends can scarcely credit that the evergreen Julia is going to be taking it easier. Such a fine colleague to have and such a sense of humour.

Readers' Wants

Gerald Cooke of recently-formed London City law firm Masseys is trying, quickly, to build up his firm's maritime law library. If anyone has current (or nearly current) editions of English maritime and/or international sales and carriage of goods by sea text books for sale,please coontact him at:-

geraldcooke@masseyslaw.co.uk

or call him at:-

+44 (0)20-7038-1220."

A first for Bow Wave, a letter from Antartica features this this week.

Our Xmas edition of satire and humour is approaching rapidly, please let us have your items asap.

Enjoy.

2. In the Wake--The view of Gray Page for December

--> An OPEC Powerhouse -- That Would Not be a Question

The recent commentary on the marriage of Frontline and General Maritime has touched upon a variety of issues of significance to the entire breadth of the maritime world. Some have questioned whether Genmar's statements that a ‘deal' with Frontline would essentially be a merger might be actually be real, given Frontline's apparent lack of response. In the reverse, some say the stakes in Genmar taken by Frontline's executives questions whether it is a Frontline action at all. Others point to the fact that a combination of Frontline and Genmar, however it might occur, will lead to an entity that controls some 16% of the world suezmax fleet (55 of 326 vessels by Clarkson's' count). This would represent enormous economies of scale for the new operation ("Frontmar" or just Frontline?), huge savings in costs, some saying as much as $70 million per year, and considerable power to influence the market. The merging is mooted as being a smoother process due to the preponderance of spot fixtures for the Genmar fleet, making amalgamation into the Frontline fold less complex to achieve. So, a marriage made in heaven... or should that be Norway?

J.P. Morgan, quoted in Lloyds List, coined the phrase "suezmax powerhouse" to describe this potential wedding, but does that take it far enough? A combined Frontline / Genmar that would be capable of meeting the transport requirement of one third of OPEC's daily output, which is fortunately unlikely to happen, would seem to justify words like mega, mammoth and gargantuan -- in every sense of those words. What would really happen if one company did actually control one third of OPEC's oil transportation? That would be power indeed.

So will it happen or won't it? Some say it will, as Oaktree Capital, a large shareholder in Genmar from earlier days, have been selling down their position. Is it coincidence that Oaktree have been selling on a rising share for Genmar?

--> Have your cake and eat it

In the wake of a number of high profile tanker casualties, environmental activists, such as Greenpeace, placed great pressure on national governments and international transport organisations to phase out single hull tankers. Although it remains debatable whether a double hull would have prevented any of the aforementioned casualties, the aims of the environmentalists were undoubtedly laudable. Then, on a wave of public opinion, and with almost unprecedented speed, the EU announced that single hull tankers were to be phased out. Greenpeace statistics released in a recent report stated that there are some 334 single hull vessels controlled by EU based companies that will need scrapping by the end of 2005. Unfortunately, Greenpeace is against the scrapping of vessels in the yards of Asia and Turkey, the world's largest scrapping markets, again for environmental reasons. The solution, suggested in the same Greenpeace report, is the establishment of shipbreaking yards (and apparently plenty of them) capable of disposing of this sudden increase in scrapped tankers and their accompanying toxic waste.

However, even if it were possible to build these new yards within the time frame, another problem looms large, as recent events surrounding the proposed scrapping of US Navy ships in Hartlepool earlier this year suggests. These events highlight the fact that even when the correct facilities are in place, it may still not be possible to break a vessel because of the strength of local objections. The problem then facing the environmental groups is that the only practical place to break environmentally unfriendly tankers is on environmentally unfriendly beaches, such as Alang and its counterparts.

Alternatively, the EU could be the solution to the problem that it helped to create. It could provide subsidies for the establishment of new shipbreaking yards within EU countries, which could scrap the EU tankers, that can no longer trade within EU waters, because of EU directives. That is, assuming EU citizens do not object.

enquiries@graypagelimited.com

3. Web Pick

courtesy of FITA's Really Useful Sites

CUSTOMS RULINGS ONLINE SEARCH SYSTEM -- CUSTOMS DATABASE

If you deal with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a good site to visit is the Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) ( http://rulings.customs.gov ). This is a searchable database of Customs & Border Protection Rulings since 1990. You can search by keyword, or click on "Downloadable rulings" and see all the rulings for a particular year. There are also links to other useful information for international trade, such as the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, Customs Bulletins, and the Customs Valuation Encyclopedia. It's better to know these rulings upfront than to have a shipment tied up because of a Customs technicality

http://rulings.customs.gov

4. Trip Note from Antarctica

Judith Crick, who is on gardening leave writes:-

Two Fantastic Days with many Firsts
8th Dec 04

Now I am back from Antarctica and in Ushuaia, Argentina, and it was unbelievably fantastic! Really missing it, - the trips ashore at least twice (and sometimes three) times a day, the amazing sky and ocean colours, the wildlife, the shipboard life, and the delightful people I met, who all left to go home (mostly to Australia) yesterday and today. I am left in Ushuaia today on my own and feeling very sad. Writing this brings it all back - I hope you enjoy. You will have to excuse spelling mistakes, as I am doing this on a SpanishI learnt on
the first day, you have to press Alt and 64 on the number pad!

1st Dec 04
1. First landing in Antarctica
Charlotte Bay, Gerlache Strait
Today was to be our first step on the Antarctic Continent. We were out in zodiacs by 8.30 am in blue sky and sunshine, ashore on flat rocks with 1 m deep of snow on top. Even before landing had seen two crab eater seals lying on an ice floe! Beautiful clear waters with rocky bottom and lots of small turquoise icebergs. We clambered ashore and stamped out an area in the snow to leave life jackets. Left this area and with my first step sunk up to my thigh in snow and lost my Wellington boot! Thereafter following in others footsteps, up to the top of a slope with beautiful views of the bay we were in - Portal Point. Really quite warm with radiated heat coming off the snow and ice, one of the Russian crew stripped off and took a dive from the zodiac! 3 times! There was also some darker grey sky, giving good contrasts for photos. So breathtakingly beautiful here! We are finally on the Antarctic peninsular! Back at the zodiacs I asked a follow passenger to take a picture of me and as he did so, a Gentoo Penguin (distinguished by white behind blobs on either side of the back of the neck that look like earmuffs) came out of the water and stood beside me! What fantastic timing! Then had a tour in the zodiac and landed on a very small island where Weddell seals were lazing in the sun. Again through deep snow to get there. A tour of icebergs followed, going right up close into some, like a bay with a beautiful turquoise ice bottom. Traveled back on the ship from 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. out of Charlotte Bay and into Gerlache Strait. To Neko Harbour in Andvoord Bay, spent most of the afternoon on deck. Ashore at 5.00ish to a beautiful beach with Gentoo penguins in a colony up above the beach - they only nest on rocks. Sat on rocks at the beach looking at water so clear and seeing penguins coming ashore underwater and porpoising all around. Sun shining out of not completely blue sky, turquoise icebergs in front of me, and the end of a glacier at the back of the bay that kept making threatening, thunderous, rumbling noises and some small calving. Always seemed imminent to calf, but never quite did, although we all sat around expectantly, but not too close!

2. First Pack Ice
Back on board for dinner Russian style - blinis, sour cream and caviar with vodka shots! Followed by Chicken Kiev. Got dressed up and took coffee on deck and feasted on the fantastic scenery and then shared bottle of champagne in the bar to celebrate our first landing in Antarctica. No sooner had we finished this, when it was time to rush out on deck again and experience the sight and sound of the ship crashing through our first pack ice. Leaning over the bow took pictures as the bow sliced through the large slabs of ice as if it was a hot knife through butter. It was about 10 pm by this time and there was promise of a delightful Antarctic sunset to come. Stayed out on deck till 12.30 looking at the fantastic sky, pack ice, icebergs, snow covered mountains and glaciers at either side of the channel we were in. We eventually turned into the Lamaire Channel at midnight and still it was day light! The last colours of the sunset/ sunrise dissolved as Polar Pioneer followed the narrow opening, in the mirror image of the tall, black, snow topped rock walls on either side. This channel is known as "Kodak alley" as one of the most photographed places in Antarctica. The land and ice became black and white and the sea turned to sliver. In the complete calm the mountains were perfectly reflected in the waters of the channel. We turned around at 12.30 to start our journey back. This was at out most southerly point of the trip 65 degrees and now we headed north again towards port Lockroy. There were glaciers everywhere and we could see the towering mountains of Weinke Island through the mist behind Goudier Island.

2nd Dec 04
3. First walk on Sea Ice
After inspecting the unmanned (at present--the summer team had not yet arrived) British base at Port Lockroy, and the museum, there were yet more very cheeky Gentoo penguins, stealing stones from each other's nests! The Gentoos were covered in black mud, squabbling about stones and keeping their houses clean. Their impressive little stone nests are set exactly at stealing distance from each other! Even the eggs were coated in the smelly black goo. I then walked across the sea ice (another first) for about half a mile towards the towering glacier cliffs. These were all various shades of turquoise and white and we were again hoping there would be some calving! So we stayed back from the cliffs by at least 60 metres, which was reckoned to be their height.

4. First landing on a Ice Floe
Back on board we made passage through the Neumayer Channel, where spectacular crevassed ice cliffs rose out of the brash -covered grey water.Into the Gerlache Strait and into the Schoellart channel where we were bumping through ice again and on to the Melchiors island group. There was too much ice for us to land, but we found a clear bay behind the Argentinean base and anchored -- all out in zodiacs for a cruise round delightful icebergs and ice cliffs. Then close up to see some Krill feeding from the brown algae on the underside of an icefloe. One group had landed on an ice flow and was having a toast from plastic glasses - as we approached they started throwing snowballs at us. The gauntlet was down! We landed on the same flow and were given the cointreau bottle (it still had some in!) and glasses, so that we could also toast another two firsts - landing on an icefloe and drinking cointreau on an icefloe! As they clambered into their zodiac, we gathered snowballs and launched at them just as they departed, so it was too late for them to do anything about it! We then took pictures of us with the ship in the background and collected more snowballs to throw at the next
unsuspecting party that we met!

5. One meter thick Pack Ice & Leopard Seals
As we departed Antarctica and made our way towards the Drake Passage to cross back to Cape Horn and Ushuaia, we had an exciting moment when the ship came to a standstill in very thick pack ice. We rushed out on deck to see. We were soon moving again at 2 knots, with both engines flat out creating an incredible passage through the metre thick pack ice with our ice-strengthened hull. Saw two leopard seals on the ice--they are a predator to seals and penguins alike, their heads are very snake-like and they are 4 metres in length! We had not seen them before.

(to be continued)

Judy.Crick@1stClassPost.Com

5. Insuring Safety at Sea

Gordon Taylor the Chairman of the CII Fellows' Group has written in with details of their forthcoming Breakfast Seminar called Insuring Safety at Sea--the Impact of Loss Prevention Programmes

Details:

Tuesday, 18th January 2005 at
Simpson's in the Strand, 100 Strand, London WC2.

0730 Delegates arrive

0745 Breakfast

0830 Introduction to the Seminar
Gordon Taylor, Chairman, CII Fellows' Group

0835 Electronic charting and the needs of the mariner

Introduction
Dr Wyn Williams, Chief Executive, UKHO

Results of the UKHO Survey
Captain Paul Hailwood, ECDIS Consultant

0905 Bulk carrier sector perspective on navigation and casualty loss Rob Lomas, Manager, INTERCARGO

0925 Insurance impact of safe navigation systems
Tony Baker, Head of Loss Prevention, Risk Management Department, North of England Protection & Indemnity Club

0945 Questions

1000 Seminar Ends

Demonstrating a programme of loss prevention strategies from shipowners and managers for their fleets can produce a positive insurance impact for them.Safety-conscious Protection and Indemnity Clubs are using their Loss Prevention Departments to encourage their members to achieve higher standards of safety; the bonus for the members is improved loss-ratios and coverage from the best insurers. The whole marine insurance market is being drawn into this development as they underwrite much of the P & I Clubs coverage.

A major cause of ship loss and damage is unsafe navigation. The drop in skills and experience levels amongst today's seafaring navigators is undoubtedly a factor. The take-up rate of ECDIS ( electronic chart display and information systems) as the primary means of navigation by merchant vessels regulated by the SOLAS Convention continues to be very slow. This technology allows operators to use the most accurate navigational data with the least chance of human error and is being promoted by the international hydrographic community.

The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has commissioned a survey of seafarers worldwide to establish what are the operational issues delaying the adoption of ECDIS.Some of the preliminary findings of that survey will be the discussed at the Breakfast Seminar.

For Further details and to register contact:

enquiries@conferencebusiness.co.uk

6. And Finally...

Many thanks to the people from Gray Page for this one...

Parrots & Parodies

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.

John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder.

John, in desperation, threw up his hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer.

The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said, "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behaviour."

John was stunned at the sudden change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behaviour, the bird continued (in a very ingratiating manner):

"May I ask what the turkey did?"

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