February 2012

Forbes' Forays 

Mike Forbes is a retired Royal Naval commander who lives in London with his wife. His first visit to Croatia was in the year 2000. 

 

 

Giglio Disaster

I am the last person to make light of the Costa Concordia disaster with its tragic loss of life, but it has lessons for the Adriatic. With the dramatic increase in the number of cruise ships plying the Mediterranean, I hope the Croatian Maritime authorities are urgently reviewing their plans to deal with a similar event on their coast. After all, there are similar outcrops of rocks close to many Croatian ports regularly visited by cruisers. The Grebeni reef near Dubrovnik, the Krava and Volici rocks off Vis harbour are some of the more well-marked, but there are plenty more to catch the negligent mariner. The question is being asked, "In these days of high-tec navigation systems, how can they get it so wrong?". Well, the Global Position System (GPS) is marvellous but is not without its limitations. It tells you where it thinks you are but, of itself, it doesn't know about rocks or islands that may lie in your path. Ask Jadrolinija about the Marco Polo, for example.

 

 

In Britain, in earlier centuries the coastal inhabitants of Devon and Cornwall were alleged to have enticed sailing ships onto the rocky shores, for the purpose of plundering the resultant wrecks. I would never accuse the Dalmatians or Italians of any such murderous activities, but I wonder when we'll be able to buy Costa Concordia crockery in the shops in Giglio!