RFA Wave Knight visits Tortola

Residents walking past the Tortola Pier Park this week may have noticed a non-recreational vessel parked east of the cruise dock: the Wave Knight, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker currently patrolling the region.

The Wave Knight is spending more than seven months in the Caribbean, providing assistance in case of a natural disaster and conducting counter-narcotic missions. Currently near the beginning of a deployment that will end in February, the ship is scheduled to be in Tortola until Friday, providing training for the territory’s disaster management specialists.

“We are here to reassure the population of the BVI that we are ready and willing to respond to any natural disaster in the forthcoming months,” said Captain Peter Selby, noting the ship would stay within a roughly 24-hour range of all of the Caribbean British overseas territories.

Specialists on the ship can provide training in areas including low-level search-and-rescue exercises, engineering tasks like power restoration, or command-and-control exercises designed to simulate communication practices between the territory and the ship in case of a disaster, according to Mr. Selby.

The vessel will visit the other Caribbean OTs throughout the month of August, meeting with local disaster management organisations and conducting exercises and community projects.

See the Aug. 11, 2016 edition for full coverage.

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