No holiday for navy sailors on Fiji cruise
The Royal New Zealand Navy says booking berths on commercial cruises for navigation training is cheaper than using an offshore patrol vessel, and it is no holiday for their personnel.
In September nine navy sailors did celestial navigation training during a 10-day return trip from Auckland to Fiji aboard the P&O cruise liner Pacific Jewel.
It cost $12,508 for the least expensive cabins, compared with the estimated $160,000 cost of fuel, food and personnel required to do a 10-day trip with a navy vessel.
Captain Richard Walker said although any navy trip involved multiple training exercises, doing the navigation training aboard a cruise liner was still a significant saving.
The first cruise-ship training exercise occurred last year when the HMNZS Wellington was diverted from a planned training trip to help with recovery work following Cyclone Winston.
There have been three since, and more are planned.
The Pacific Jewel marketing material invites passengers to dance the night away, relax in the spa, feast at one of six restaurants, and get a dose of adrenaline at its adventure park.
But Walker said the trainees worked 14-hour days planning and taking astronomical observations and remained in uniform. ‘‘They don’t get to go in the pool.’’
P&O’s own cadets had also taken part in the training, and it gave the navy students the opportunity to get firsthand experience of the merchant navy, he said.
‘‘Part of being in the navy is working with merchant mariners, so it’s good for our people to understand how others work, what systems they use and what practices they have.’’
P&O corporate communications manager David Jones said the cruise line was so impressed with the way the navy team conducted themselves on their first voyage, it had extended an open invitation for them to hold more.