Full Moon Deployment

Float Freddy Cougar ready for deployment.

Apologies for the late post. After the ship filled up again with passengers from Tristan da Cunha, internet bandwidth was hard to come by. We have now returned to Cape Town, South Africa and I am enjoying the small comforts I've had to do without for 5 weeks. Lightning fast internet and being able to decide what to eat are the biggest ones.


A SOCCOM float was deployed soon after we departed Tristan on our transit back to Cape Town. Probably the loveliest deployment of the cruise, it took place in calm weather, under the full moon.


Float 'Freddy Cougar' was adopted by Melvin Krepps Middle School in East Windsor, New Jersey and named after their mascot. I considered drawing a mash-up of a cougar and Freddy Krueger, but quickly decided it was beyond my very limited artistic abilities.

Perhaps you've heard the phrase 'fair winds and following seas.' It's what you say to sailors to wish them a safe voyage. While much more important to sailing ships, even a ship like Agulhas II benefits from good weather. On this particular night, we indeed had a following sea, which means that the surface current and swells are moving in the same direction as the ship. Before we stopped for the deployment, the ship was making nearly 14 knots with much less effort than usual.

However, a SOCCOM float need to be lowered into the water with the swell moving away from the ship, so that it does not get banged into the hull or run over. So in this case, the ship had to turn around in order to deploy the float. This is not without its own risk though, as after the deployment takes place, the ship has to turn around again in order to continue on its way home. With a good crew, like that which we had on Agulhas, it just takes some planning. The maneuver was performed successfully, and Freddy Cougar is hard at work!

Myself and the bosun's crew deployed the float in smooth conditions.