Capesize bulk carrier CAPE KESTREL is en route from Australia to China, a regular voyage of a modern bulk carrier, managed by a well-known company. The ship was sailing full speed in Celebes sea, when In the morning Jan 4, local time, her AIS positioning put her to North sea at Zeebrugge anchorage, where the ship, according to AIS, remained for several hours, and then returned back to Celebes sea, to her normal course and speed. Quite a glitch. What it was, and what was the cause? Malfunctioning?
Such glitches happen, regularly, but mostly with AIS of substandard ships, or ships already decommissioned, but very rarely with modern ships of recognized owners.
There are some glitches of epidemic proportions in some areas – like well-known 2014 Black sea glitches in Russian waters, or in Chinese waters in or near Chinese ports, which I spotted last year. No doubt those glitches were spoofing, initiated by sick authorities and their sick agendas, so I differentiate them from random glitches of random ships, which randomly happen here and there, though rarely with the ships like CAPE KESTREL. If there are navigators on bridges of such ships, trained and on watch, such glitch won’t be of much trouble, if any.
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