Dutch Treat 1

Fairplay 21 and crew were lucky this day back in 2009.  It lost power while assisting Lars Maersk into a berth.  It managed to get away.  Fractions of a second elapse between a story to tell and tragedy.

Here’s one of the captains of Fairplay 21, Joop Schaar, assisting a vessel into a berth in Rotterdam recently.  He was not on board in the first foto above.

Here is Fairplay 21 in drydock, Captain Schaar inspecting the hull.

Full frontal.

Lunch.  Fred Trooster, left, has supplied these fotos, giving us a “virtual gallivant,”  if you will.

Another shot of Fairplay 21 in port with a Zhen Hua vessel in the distance.

You may recall that a Fairplay vessel (an identical one) capsized in November 2010 while assisting a Stena ferry into port on a stormy dark late afternoon, resulting in the deaths of captain and engineer.    Here and here are youtubes of this tragedy.

I leave on my own gallivant off the continent  Sunday morning, and although I’ll try to get one more post up tomorrow, there’ll be a few posts appearing while I’m away, compliments of Fred Trooster, resident of Vlaardingen, my father’s hometown.   Dank u veel, Fred.