fluke comments

Japan has been helpful in giving Vietnam old ships. These are for Vietnam Coast Guard and the Fishery Surveillance. As often in the past, China Coast Guard and China fishing boats like to ram Vietnam boats so Japanese old boats can be used as front line to prevent ramming attacks. It would be nice if Japan can donate some old destroyers and submarines for Vietnam navy.

Hi, There seems to be some miscommunications somewhere. I think the news should be "Japan donates 6 used ships together with equipments worth 500 million yens". The ships will surely be a great asset as they will used as frontline to counter attacks and ramings by China's ships.

The Japanese Coast Guard should be grateful to Vietnam as it can rest and recover from watching and chasing China ships from Senkaku water. The oil rig would be in Vietnam's water until around August 15 as announced, and until that time, Vietnam ships will continue to harass the oil rig. I think China would have to think many times before wanting to mess with Vietnam in the future. If China decides to open fire first, my bet is that the oil rig and some navy ships would be sunk in no time.

@ roughneck Scuba diving is safe for everyone, even if you are unfit or handicalf. You just have to stay calm and control your breathing. I read that someone even trained his dog to do scuba diving with him. The picture showing four tiring ladies does not do justice as they survived on water only for 3-4 days. The ladies here remind me of Japan's ama divers, those old women who dive for a living. Don't underestimate them. Please don't forget one lady is still out there missing. Although the chance is slim with many days pass, I hope she is still alive.

My sincere condolences to family of the deceased. May you REST IN PEACE. I hope the other lady will be found soon. She must be very frightened being alone at sea for the last few days and nights. I hope there will be an investigation into the incident. Somehow, I feel that the skipper of the dive boat didn't tell the whole true. I was an experienced diver (my last dives were 10 years ago due to family commitment). For average divers, the diving time should be around 1 hour or less, three times per day. All the divers here were able to surface and stayed together. It means that the boat was not around when they were up. The skipper claimed that he went away to refuel but the diving sites are normally far away from land (I have not dived in Bali so I do not know if this is true). I wonder where he could have gone and come back within the hour. Worst, he might have left and come back to a wrong place. I believe that the lady divers didn't do anything wrong except that they didn't bring some emergency tools to help them being visible in the middle of nowhere.