HMAS Ararat (LCDR M O’Loughlin) recently came to the aid of a 35 foot sailing vessel while patrolling Australia’s maritime borders.
The Lady Amber (Captain Peter Madigan), a South African flagged oceanographic research vessel requested assistance during a routine hail on VHF. The schooner indicated she had very limited supplies of water onboard, due to a generator failure five weeks prior. This had resulted in her crew of four subsisting on distilled sea water.
Ararat came alongside in the lee of Christmas Island and transferred four tonnes of fresh water. Members of the Ararat’s ship’s company investigated the generator defect before the sailing ship continued her journey. Once the generator is repaired, the Lady Amber will sail for the Cocos/Keeling Islands.
The Lady Amber is a 35 foot schooner which is conducting oceanographic research of the Indian Ocean as part of a long term CSIRO and UNESCO study. Deployed since 2011, the vessel has criss-crossed the Southern Indian Ocean launching 57 ‘Argo’ or drifting robots to gather data about the health of the ocean.
[mappress] Press Release, August 30, 2012