From Sounding to Patrols
By SLT Jonathan Bentin, Bridge Watch Keeping Officer
March was a pretty busy month - at the end of February CDR Murray Tuffin handed over command to LTCDR Shane Arndell, and our ship spent two weeks in Calliope Dock to undergo a hull survey. With the change of command also came a change in direction for the employment for RESOLUTION. The ship has been tasked to conduct Multi-Agency patrols around New Zealand so in effect we have expanded from being a dedicated Survey ship to being able to be more flexibly employed. Rather than being committed only to Hydrographic or Oceanographic tasks, RESOLUTION can now act as a Naval Patrol Vessel to meet additional tasking as directed by the Maritime Component Commander.
The ship still retains its hybrid shallow water survey system fitted to the hull, but in order to allow greater employment flexibility the specialist Hydrographic personnel will be embarked as required, as an element from the Littoral Surface Warfare Group and they will bring with them their survey capabilities when RESOLUTION is tasked for survey operations. Following the disembarkation of much of the Hydrographic gear and most of the ‘Droggies’ this means a significant change in the way we will operate in the future.
For the time being Multi-Agency Operations and Taskings (MAO&T) will be our bread and butter. With a change-over of many in our ship’s company, we have re-orientated RESOLUTION’s day-to-day routines to operate as a Patrol Vessel, and beginning in March we began a three-week patrol of the West Coast of the North Island, Marlborough and Queen Charlotte Sounds, East Coast South Island, Fiordland, both Cook and Foveaux Straits and then a small selection of targeted areas on the East Coast of the North Island during our transit back to DNB.
Having served in RESOLUTION while she was fully configured for the survey role, I must say that this new role is a lot more exciting from an Officer of the Watch perspective; no more ‘mowing the lawn’!
During our patrol, RESOLUTION embarked officers from both the Ministry of Fisheries and the NZ Customs Service, as well as a camera-man from Cream TV filming for the Coast watch Programme. These guys added a few new faces to an already extremely “fresh” crew, and also made the patrol a little more entertaining. Our first week on patrol was spent clearing the Three Kings Islands and fishing areas around Cape Reinga, an amazing experience for some of our company, as we came across multiple sharks, a giant hapuku and numerous sunfish. After three busy days conducting compliance inspections of fishing vessels RESOLUTION altered course South to continue down the West Coast of the North Island, off Ninety Mile Beach and towards Taranaki. The next two days were a little slower due to an unfavourable swell and rough weather. The few vessels that were on the West Coast had gone inshore to seek shelter; however, RESOLUTION continued on patrol - things were a little uncomfortable for the next 24 hours.
With the first stage of the patrol complete RESOLUTION conducted an operational visit to Nelson. After the ‘battery recharge’ and refuelling, the Fisheries Officers departed and Customs Officers joined us for the next stage, which was the patrol through the Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sounds.
In addition to multiple boardings, the next few days were spent also conducting pilotage training for the Officers of the Watch. The Sounds are quite amazing at any time, but we were treated to spectacular views during some of the sunsets and sunrises we were lucky enough to witness.
As I write this, we are still on our MAO&T patrol, visiting Bluff, and we have Fiordland, Stewart Island, the East Coast South Island, and East Coast of the North Island to patrol. So perhaps no longer will ‘Drog On!’ be the favourite saying onboard. Hopefully a new saying will emerge… ‘Patrol On’ maybe?
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