Maiden Voyage Underway

I just received a phone call from the bridge of the m/v YWAM LIBERTY – an excited Ann Ford, our Ship Manager, told me “we are good to go”. They have received clearance from Ports North, and Border Force, to head to sea on their maiden voyage to Papua New Guinea. Moments later around noon local time they pulled away and headed for the channel of the Great Barrier Reef.

The crew are bound for Kimbe, West New Britain with a brief stop into Alotau where they will unload cargo, pick up local volunteers then continue on to their shake down outreach in Kimbe.

I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who has helped us make this day a reality. Lots of prayer, hard work, generous donations and encouragement has been received to make this a reality. The waiving of all kinds of fees made our dollars really stretch out. Port fees, tugs, agents, line handlers, wharfage, security, dental equipment, and ship supplies. Also the incredible amount of survey work done for a ship in-class like ours would have been a serious addition to our budget but generous surveyors, inspectors, marine licensing, and flag state fees were donated. All extremely generous. Add all the generous volunteering to the mix and the end result, YWAM has another ship deployed!

The YWAM LIBERTY will join the PACIFIC LINK for two months testing all her systems and giving us all a chance to live on her in the tropics. She has been deployed most of her life, up until this point, in cold climates as a former Antarctic science supply vessel. Now she will be in hot and humid conditions close to the equator. She will be engaged in medical and community work around West New Britain’s coast line delivering much needed assistance in partnership with the health authorities and local churches.

Thank you for standing with us and believing we could do this. On behalf of our partners in Norway, New Zealand, Australia and PNG thank you.

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Interested in knowing more? Contact us. We’d love to chat!

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