Our big CAT diesel has fired up and we depart as soon as spare lube oil is shipped on board. Yesterday I took a last minute visit to the local hospital to scrounge some more…

We are 14 hours from the rescue zone off the Libyan coast, where we understand that some 8,000 refugees have been plucked from their little boats in the last 2 days. How appalling is that.…

We were at the rescue zone off the Libyan coast, where we understand that some 8,000 refugees were plucked from their little boats in the last 2 days. How appalling is that. It is said…

With 25 kt northerlies, forecast increasing to 30 kts, there will be no refugee boats departing Libya in the next 3 days. Golfo Azzurro and the German rescue boat See Fuchs have taken shelter in…

  With easing northerly winds we left Tunisia for the 10 hour trip back to the rescue zone. It is unlikely that boats will be setting off from Libya for another day or two because…

In one 2 day period last month 7,000 people were rescued off the Libyan coast. According to the UNHCR, some 98,000 refugees crossed the Mediterranean in the first 6 months of 2017, most of them…

At noon yesterday we were buzzed by an Italian navy helicopter, then circled at dusk by a Libyan coast guard patrol boat.     After the outpouring of refugee rafts from Libya a fortnight ago…

After 3 rich and rewarding weeks in Golfo Azzurro I have taken sad farewells, changed ships and linguas francas. I will now be heading back south to the SAR zone in See Fuchs, a stout…

After a week’s relentless northerlies we have had calm seas and sultry heat. By day we have been patrolling an E-W line outside Libya’s 12 mile zone. At night we move north and heave to…

Here’s an article about our Mediterranean refugee rescue activities, published in The Wall Street Journal recently. I believe its author misrepresents the position somewhat. My letter to the editor in response follows. This was not published by…