Moonlight II (courtesy of Yachtcharterfleet)
Having gotten my foot in with Burgess they offered me to join Moonlight II in UAE as they were looking for a Captain. I accepted as it was rotational and I also new the technical management from my time spent in Greece. It was agreed I join in UAE and relieve my back to back, a Greek national that was there carrying out a small wetdock refit. It was planned to finish the refit and then the time would be right to arrive to Med for the summer season.
Moonlight II was classed as a small passenger vessel and as such is under much more scrutiny than the ordinary yachts as she ascribes to a different set of rules, that are more stricter. The benefit is that she can then carry up to 36 guests without any issues and is perfect for charter to larger parties.
I signed on in Dubai where she was sat alongside at the jetty at Barasti, these docks were demolished shortly afterwards for other developments. The refit was made a bit difficult as the owner liked to visit and use the vessel at his leisure. But we make do. My first maneuver was a bit of a disaster and whilst maneuvering alongside somehow the bowthruster was lost so I had to improvise. Luckily I got her alongside without any damages and then had a look what actually had happened but according to engieers they had not seen any faults (in their logs).
I realised then that she is a bit underpowered and quite heavy being of all steel hull and superstructure, so she needed a firm hand to get going where one wanted. The following maneuvers went much better when using the throttle like you mean it. Then we also discovered the propeller pitch adjustment, the KaMeWa system, being a bit outdated, also had quite a bit of play in the physical moving parts so a plan was drawn up to update these systems.
Crew profile was all eastern European with a sprinkle of Asians. All were very talented in their jobs except my 3rd mate that I was afraid to lead a watch on his own so I also did the 8-12 watch whilst at sea. Eventually upon our return to EU he was sent for indefinite leave.
We left in good order from UAE and took also security detail onboard that used floating armories to deposit the hardware into. The transit was uneventful and we arrived to Greece at the Flisvos marina without incident. There we did some more maintenance for the season to the sewage system and main engines. Eventually it was time to finish works and then attend to the open day event in Nice, France. We left Greece and sailed across the Mediterranean where I then handed over to my back to back after the event having met most charter agents in the SOF area.
I had a nice summer on leave and I returned onboard in Croatia almost at end of season and there we were then sent to Sardinia where we sat for awhile with owners, I then also discovered that the Italian Castoldi tenders we had onboard were not really suited for choppy weather, unfortunately they took the smallest wave onboard instead of passing the wave over.
Eventually we got orders to proceed to Yalikavak marina in Turkey where we spent some weeks before I handed over and I also resigned as I was used by owners rep's as a rubberstamp to dismiss all petty officers that they planned replacing with Turkish and Egyptian nationals with no industry background.
It was a pity but I was more interested in joining Lady S with a better program than this one, I did not like dismissing people that depended on their jobs to feed their families just to someone else whim, not to mention the bad feeling I got from all this. I joined Lady S the following day in Spain.
Moonlight II is also the former yacht for the famous Andreas Liveras that unfortunately lost his life in 2008 during a terrorist attack in Mumbai at the Taj Hotel in India. Originally built by Neorion at Syros island and Alphamarine with Nikos Dafnias she also has a sistership that was called Delma, these days Queen Miri. I met her captain in Singapore in 2022 and he explained that she had in her latest refit larger engines fitted and was great to maneuver now.
Specifications of Moonlight II:
Built 2005 (refitted 2020), Neorion Syros Shipyards, Greece
Length 91.4m (299.9ft)
Crew 36
Beam 14.4m (47.2ft)
Draft 4.2m (13.8ft)
Gross tonnage 3,052
Maximum speed 13 knots
Cruising speed 12 knots
Fuel consumption at cruising speed 500 litres per hour
Guests 36
Cabin types 18 (10 × double, 8 × twin)
Engines 2 × 2,750hp Caterpillar
Engines 2 × 2,750hp Caterpillar
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