After Captain Rudi (Aniek) and Captain Danny (Layla) noticed they were practically passing each other in the South China Sea they decided to meet.

Unfortunately the sea was too rough to shake hands but they managed to exchange some Indonesian Bintang beer, from Layla's stock, with Aniek's stock of San Miguel beer, from the Philippines.

Cheers!

The sea trials showed impressive performance on both speed and fuel economics and after some final adjustments Layla headed for Singapore on 7th of July for taking stores and bunkers.

After Singapore she carried her first cargo from Cilegon, Indonesia to Laem Chabang, Thailand.

At this time of writing Layla is carrying her 2nd cargo from Batu Ampar, Indonesia to Naoetsu, Japan.

The SAT-1 cable, spanning from South Africa to Portugal was originally laid in 1968 and put out of service in 1993 when it was replaced by the SAT-2 cable.

Lida has undergone a major conversion in order to carry out the recovery work as efficient as possible. The 800 km of cable she brings back to shore on her first trip was recovered from depths of upto 4.5 km. Lida will set out to sea again as soon as she has discharged the cable in Cape Town to recover the remaining 7,000 km of cable.

The hard work has been rewarded as she has become a beautiful ship.
She loaded her first cargo in Mariupol/Ukraine and is currently heading for Barcelona to discharge.
You can check her daily positions (and of our other vessels) at the vessel positions on this website.
The hull has been renovated and also the accommodation had a complete “make over”.
For a little impression please have a look at the pictures.
We at the office wish Captain Tijs and his crew a “bon voyage”.

Captain Tijs vd Weerdt has already been employed by WIND where he coordinated several project cargoes.
Furthermore he was in charge onboard the mv Lida as relievers-captain.

The rebuilding of mv Aniek is progressing and she is expected to sail this Spring.

Captain Tijs vd Weerdt will then be in charge of mv Aniek. Until that time he will be busy recruiting officers and engineers.

Lida Shipping has a new captain as well. Arian Poortman will be in charge alternating with captain/ managing owner Arne de Jong, who is currently in the Caribbean on board the Lida.

At the moment she is heading from Algerie towards the North Sea. She will collect a projectcargo from the port of Antwerp and is expected to arrive around 28th November 2008.