Fall for sure.

This latest storm has shut down marine shipping for the north coast from Nain to Lewisport. Safety first is a good thing especially considering the age and mechanical state of the fleet; see the mv Inch Arran incident Wednesday.

I know the fleet has not been in the hands of this government overly long, but the minister for WST still is trying to have his cake and eat it, as is his want at times. He blames the former government and rightly so, but then he goes on to defend the condition of the fleet and the competence of the bureaucracy in WST, he goes further and compares the fleet with owning an old car, or having 25 year old diesel engines in hydro generation plants. They break down too he says, but then says that all vessels have been inspected therefore all is copasetic.

With the Northern Ranger hunkered down near Natuashish since yesterday I have to wonder if common sense is starting to creep into the fleets operation, there was a trip last year when the Ranger steamed right on up the coast through a worse storm than this latest.

I still maintain that all the problems with the fleet are not all political. Some where someone up the line of the bureaucracy is not doing a competent enough job IMO, and IO of others, but no one wants to deal or talk about that.