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AND SO IT CONTINUES

Once again  NAUTICAL LOG has a boating tragedy to report from Asia in our continuing monitoring of the lack of maritime safety in that region.  This time the incident has occurred in Malaysia with the loss of a "tourist boat" from Kota Kinabalu to Pulau Mengalum with 28 passengers and 3 crewmembers most of whom are Chinese celebrating the week long Chinese New Year of the Rooster.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) reports it is engaged in a "search and  rescue" effort hampered by bad weather.  From this one might conclude that the missing catamaran departed on its passage in bad weather or with bad weather forecast.  The boat is reported to have left at 0900 local time on Saturday for the 60 km trip to the popular tourist island offshore. 

MMEA is covering a 400 nautical square mile search area where storms are common at this time of year.  It is always interesting when "safety agencies" title themselves as "Enforcement" yet in the case of those involving maritime responsibility allow small craft to proceed to sea regardless of the weather and all too often uninspected.

These reports came to us from BBC World News and the New Straits Times on the Internet.

Good Watch

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