Shipping: Drug bust ship docks in Bermuda

The Naval support ship RFA Wave Knight will arrive in Bermuda later this week fresh from a highly successful drug busting deployment in the Caribbean.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker has been involved in a string of high profile counter narcotic operations.

In February the crew helped detect a suspicious speedboat running drugs off the coast of Jamaica.

A US Coast Guard boarding team from Wave Knight used the ship’s fast rescue craft to board the speedboat and recovered 170 kilograms of cocaine worth £8.5 million.

The ship was also involved in a further two recent drug busts where a tonne of cocaine worth £60 million and a quarter of a tonne of marijuana was seized off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

Wave Knight is expected to arrive in Bermuda on Friday morning for a three-day rest and relaxation stop on her way home to the UK.

Well equipped

The ship is crewed by 72 Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel and there is also provision for 26 Royal Navy personnel for helicopter and weapons systems operations.

She will be berthed at King’s Wharf in Dockyard for her stay before she leaves the island on Monday morning.

The arrival of the Explorer of the Seas into the West End on Monday signalled the beginning of the 2014 cruise season.

The liner left Dockyard yesterday and is due to be replaced by the Riviera at Heritage Wharf this morning. The Explorer is then back again on Saturday for her second trip in quick succession.

Meanwhile the LPG tanker Suez Boston stopped in off the coast of Bermuda yesterday to pick up three extra technicians.

Two stayed on board for just a couple of hours, while the third remained with the vessel as she travels to Canada.

Tomorrow the fuel tanker Astir Lady is expected into the Oil Docks in St George’s to deliver fuel for Sol.

 And finally, the research vessel Odyssey will call into Penno’s Wharf in St George’s tomorrow to refuel and pick up new crew before she heads out to sea again on Friday.