Sunday 8 May 2016

A Tale of Two Mercs in the MN


The Daily Mail is peddling its usual nonsense again. Headline story about a Merchant Navy cadet joining ISIS and his 'high-level skills and exhaustive knowledge of the nation’s shipping fleet represented a terrifying security threat after he fled to Syria'.

The bloke was a cadet, for God's sake, and reading the story he didn't even finish his 4 year course to become a junior officer, never mind about doing the remaining 8 to gain a Master Mariner's certificate of competency. How the hell that makes him an expert is beyond me. He poses no more of a threat than a similar cadet in the Pakistani, Saudi or Iranian Merchant Navy. In fact he's no more of an expert on the UK's merchant fleet (which doesn't actually exist anyway) than a forecourt attendant is about the inner workings of the oil industry.

500SL arrived yesterday and was added to the stable:




Sadly, the 300SL has to go once it has an MoT.

Some slight work to be done on the 500, but not a lot - fiddly little things like finding some buttons that only seem to be available in the USA. The seller was less than honest about some of the faults, but if you know where to look then the parts are readily available. American breakers seem to be willing to dismantle components to sell tiny items, whereas British ones aren't and make you buy complete assemblies; however, shipping costs from the USA are hideously expensive, so it's swings and roundabouts. Pulls like a train and I'm very pleased with the price paid.


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