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Times
18-07-2025
- General
- Times
After freezing dead Somali pirates running ports company will be plain sailing
Clearing a food freezer for the bodies of dead pirates isn't a typical day at work for most people. For Captain Susan Cloggie-Holden, it was a grim necessity while sailing off Somalia, and just one of many 'salty sea tales' from a career that has taken her around the world. A passion for messing about in small boats on the River Clyde as a teenager morphed into supporting peacekeeping operations in hostile seas, as well as being chased by elephant seals on a remote island in the South Atlantic. Thankfully the 42-year-old did not inherit the seasickness that made her father feel queasy, even when using the Renfrew ferry. Cloggie-Holden has just become the first woman to be group harbour master at Peel Ports Group after a decorated career in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA). In the RFA she was also the first female to become a commanding officer when in 2021 she took charge of Tiderace, a replenishment tanker for Royal Navy warships. Raised in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow, Cloggie-Holden found her calling when she joined the Sea Cadets in Clydebank. 'Pretty much every summer I used to spend on boats somewhere,' she said. 'I think I gave my parents an easy ride because they didn't see me all summer, I'd come home, get my washing done, pack my bag and go off again.' A two-week stint on the tall ship Stavros S Niarchos as it sailed from Greenock to Aberdeen cemented her ocean ambitions. By her fifth year at Bearsden Academy she had decided against university and was set on going to Glasgow College of Nautical Studies to prepare for a life on the waves. The choice between Royal Navy and merchant navy came down to practicalities. 'I'll be honest I don't like sharing toilets and showers, I quite like my own space,' Cloggie-Holden said. 'I spent about three days on HMS Somerset and absolutely hated every minute of it because there was 27 people sharing the same space and I had a locker the size of a kitchen drawer. 'So I thought maybe I don't really want to live like this.' While the RFA is staffed by civilians it provides support to the navy and its vessels have defensive weapons. Cloggie-Holden was on ships that supported operations against the Taliban in 2001-02, worked with the Iraqi navy in 2006-07, engaged in counter-piracy off Somalia in 2008-09 and supplied Royal Navy vessels off the coast of Libya in 2011. In the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia, she was tasked with communicating with vessels that were being approached by pirates. 'They used to attack at sunrise and sunset and we found that having a female voice on the other side of the [radio] was actually quite calming for the crew of the merchant vessels,' she said. 'I used to chat to them, tell them what to do, how to evade the pirates. 'One of the warships that was out there, they boarded a vessel and the pirates basically pointed guns at them. The Royal Marines, as you can imagine, don't like having guns pointed at them. 'We ended up taking the pirates on board, we had two dead ones and nine living ones on the ship and took them into Kenya. 'I was telling someone the other day, we just had to clear the freezer and put two pirates in it and then we had to do a burial at sea.' Cloggie-Holden acknowledges life at sea can be dangerous, but says one trip, from Plymouth to Florida, in December 2011 was her worst. She said: 'We got absolutely battered. We had a storm from pretty much every direction as we crossed the Atlantic. 'We were taking damage, a wave came over our poop deck and ripped loads of guardrails off, we lost some mooring lines, it flooded a few cabins, we lost our port-side navigation lights one night. 'Nothing got done on that ship on the way across, we just had to protect our people and get across there as quickly as possible. 'It's probably the only time at sea that I thought 'this is a little bit hairy, this is not very comfortable'.' Travelling the world, Cloggie-Holden often came up-close-and-personal with wild animals in their natural habitat. While sailing around the island of South Georgia, she and her crew saw penguins and were chased by elephant seals. 'I think when you're at sea you see things that you take for granted,' she said. 'More stars than you will ever see when there's any sort of light pollution. Just sitting on a flight deck at midnight you see that sort of stuff — like dolphins, whales, flying fish, plankton blooms.' The maritime industry is still very male dominated — one report by the International Maritime Organisation suggests women account for just 1 per cent of seafarers. But Cloggie-Holden is working to change that. In 2021 she received the Merchant Navy Medal for her efforts to improve the gender balance in the industry. Cloggie-Holden says she had to work harder to prove herself in her early days. One incident, when a senior colleague made a lewd comment in a bar suggesting her most recent promotion was because she was a woman, stands out. 'I said 'you can do one',' she recalls and there was an apology to her about the incident the following morning. But the onlookers in the bar who didn't know her might have taken the words as true and 'that's the comment that females at sea don't need'. Having achieved the dream of becoming a captain of a vessel her more recent RFA work included being captain of port operations. That meant auditing ports around the world where the Ministry of Defence has an interest and the switch opened up the possibility of more time spent on dry land. There was also a 'huge' change going on in her personal life at that time, as her husband Peter Holden, a retired RFA captain who previously commanded the helicopter training vessel Argus, became seriously ill with cancer. He died in February and Cloggie-Holden said: 'He knew I was coming here [to Peel Ports]. 'He said it's the best decision you've ever made, and actually I had a new adventure ahead of me.' The Peel Ports role, where she will oversee the operations at Clydeport on the River Clyde, the Port of Liverpool and London Medway, is exactly that, an adventure. As the person in charge of all maritime operations such as vessel traffic, navigation, safety, security, harbour services and pilotage it is not going to be a 'cushy nine to five job'. 'I've got enough working life left in me that this is a second career. I've had my career at sea, this is now my career in ports,' she says. Outside work she has taken up curling and is soon to try padel. She added: 'I've decided in life since I started with Peel, since I lost Peter that I'm just not going to say no to anything new. 'So when someone says 'Do you want to go and do that?' Yeah, let's do it.'
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Refinancing risk will bring apartment acquisition opportunities
This story was originally published on Multifamily Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Multifamily Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: A $120 billion maturity wave is going to hit commercial real estate loans maturing before the end of 2026 with an in-place debt service coverage ratio below 1.20x, according to a new report from Trepp. The data firm said that multifamily loans are the 'largest slice of upcoming maturity volume' and 'a key hunting ground for acquisition opportunities' for apartment investors. 'For opportunistic buyers, that means the potential for discounted entry points, even in otherwise strong markets,' Trepp said. A significant portion of apartment loans maturing over the next 18 months are tethered to legacy sub-6% coupons and have DSCRs under 1.20x, making them unlikely to refinance at par without an equity infusion or a meaningful rebound in net operating income. Dive Insight: The South Atlantic region has $9.4 billion in maturing securitized multifamily debt — the most in the nation. Nearly 70% of those loans carry a current debt yield under 7%. 'Value-add investors willing to recapitalize and reposition older Sun Belt multifamily may find an opportunity to acquire below replacement cost,' Trepp said. In the West South Central region, there is $6.7 billion in maturing securitized multifamily loans. Around $1.2 billion has in-place coupons below 6%, while over $250 million is tethered to debt yields above 13%. 'Core, core-plus and value-add investors with regional expertise can selectively target acquisitions, whether by buying distressed paper or direct acquisitions where in-place net operating income stability supports permanent financing for better-capitalized sponsors,' Trepp said. The Pacific region has $4.6 billion in securitized multifamily maturities, with $1.4 billion priced under 6% and nearly 90% at sub-10% debt yields. Mid-Atlantic apartment debt comes in at $2.5 billion, with around 14% at double-digit debt yields. 'While high-quality locations and resilient tenancy limit distress volume, few assets can refinance cleanly without some basis reset, creating opportunities for bridge lenders, structured equity and core-plus or value-add investors,' Trepp said. The Mountain region has $2.5 billion in maturities, while the East South Central contains $1.05 billion. Only $109 million in the Mountain region carries debt yields above 15%, which Trepp said reflects 'healthy levels of leverage and/or high in-place cash flow.' While investors may still covet multifamily, not all properties are in a position to refinance. 'For those seeking to deploy capital into discounted assets or provide rescue capital to strained sponsors, the next 12 to 18 months may be a window of opportunity,' Trepp said. Click here to sign up to receive multifamily and apartment news like this article in your inbox every weekday. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
12-07-2025
- Science
- Forbes
A Biologist Spotlights 4 Birds Of Earth's Most Remote Island. Hint: The Island Belongs To Norway, But It's In The Opposite Hemisphere
What's your guess for Earth's most isolated island? It's not Hawaii. It's not Fiji. In fact, if ... More you're thinking beaches, palm trees and turquoise water, you'd be dead wrong. The most isolated island in the world isn't exactly your vacation paradise. For one, it's 93% glaciated. The average water temperature is just slightly above freezing. And you won't find a single tree, or even any vascular plants, on the island. I'm speaking of Bouvet Island in the south Atlantic Ocean. Bouvet Island (or Bouvetøya in Norwegian) is a subantarctic volcanic island that lies about halfway between South Africa and Antarctica. Nearly all of the island's 19 square miles are covered in glaciers, punctuated by rugged cliffs, lava fields, and just a few ice-free stretches along the coast. The island is uninhabited by humans, battered by constant wind, and often hidden beneath fog and cloud cover. Hand-colored photo of Bouvet Island, taken during the German Valdivia expedition in 1898. Despite its desolate appearance, Bouvet is surprisingly rich in bird life. The island is surrounded by nutrient-rich waters, making it an ideal nesting ground for hardy seabird species. In fact, it's so biologically significant that BirdLife International has designated it an 'Important Bird Area.' From rockhopper penguins to elusive petrels, here are four of the most incredible birds you can find on Earth's loneliest island. 1. Snow Petrel (Pagodroma nivea) A snow petrel rests on the ice, its white plumage nearly indistinguishable from the frozen ... More landscape. Among the birds of Bouvet Island is the snow petrel, a dove-sized seabird with pure white plumage that blends seamlessly into the island's glacier-covered landscape. Snow petrels are the southernmost breeding vertebrate, found across Antarctica and the subantarctic islands. They have even been recorded at the South Pole. On Bouvet, snow petrels build their nests in rocky crevices on cliff faces, scree slopes and beneath boulders, which offer shelter from the fierce winds. In these nests, they lay a single egg that both parents incubate. They are expert fliers, capable of traveling hundreds of miles in search of food. Their diet includes fish, krill and squid, but they will also occasionally consume carrion from seal or penguin carcasses. Snow petrels are highly associated with pack ice, among the most ice-dependent of Antarctic seabirds. At sea, they tend to stay within the Marginal Ice Zone, the transition zone between open ocean and dense sea ice. They prefer foraging areas with moderate ice cover (12.5–50%), according to research published in Polar Biology. Despite their delicate appearance, snow petrels are survivors, well-adapted to one of the harshest climates on Earth. 2. Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) Macaroni penguins gather in dense breeding colonies along Bouvet Island's rocky shores, sporting ... More their distinctive yellow crests. Named for their unique yellow head crests, macaroni penguins are among the most colorful characters in the otherwise bleak landscape of Bouvet Island. These medium-sized penguins breed in noisy, densely packed colonies on rocky shores. Though they're not exclusive to Bouvet, the island provides crucial nesting grounds from December to March for thousands of breeding pairs. Macaroni penguins are natural swimmers, spending much of the year at sea and returning to land only to breed and molt. Their diet consists mainly of krill and small fish, which they catch during deep dives (sometimes reaching depths of over 200 feet). Despite being one of the most numerous penguin species globally, their population is in decline due to climate change and fluctuations in food availability. 3. Southern Giant Petrel (Macronectes giganteus) Southern giant petrels soar over the frigid waters surrounding Bouvet Island, riding wind currents ... More in search of carrion or prey at sea. With a wingspan of over six and a half feet, the southern giant petrel rules the skies of Bouvet Island. These formidable seabirds are scavengers and predators, often called the "vultures of the sea." They feed on everything from squid and fish to the carcasses of seals and penguins. Giant petrels are one of the few bird species capable of traveling thousands of miles across the Southern Ocean, using soaring to ride wind currents for days without flapping their wings. On Bouvet Island, they nest on the sparse, ice-free cliffs. Like the snow petrel, they lay a single egg. Though they may look menacing, giant petrels are sensitive to disturbance and are increasingly threatened by habitat degradation, longline fishing and plastic pollution. 4. Antarctic Prion (Pachyptila desolata) Antarctic prion flying low over the Southern Ocean. Last but not least is the Antarctic prion. The Antarctic prion is a small seabird that thrives in the cold, wind-swept reaches of Bouvet Island. Often mistaken for gulls at a distance, prions are members of the petrel family and are superb oceanic flyers. Their unique name comes from the Greek word prion, meaning "saw," referring to the ridged structure of their beaks, which helps them filter plankton from seawater. Antarctic prions breed in large colonies on sub-Antarctic islands, where they nest in burrows or under rocks. Bouvet's approximately 7% ice-free ground offers limited nesting sites, but prions make the most of it. Their soft, flute-like calls fill the air during breeding season. At night, thousands can be seen wheeling over the waves. Though small and unobtrusive, these birds play a vital role in the marine food web and are a key indicator of ocean health in the southern hemisphere. Are you an animal lover who owns a pet, perhaps even a pet bird? Take the science-backed Pet Personality Test to know how well you know your little friend.
Washington Post
08-07-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
New tax law makes Planned Parenthood choose: Abortions or basic care
The day before Congress passed President Donald Trump's massive policy bill last week, nurse practitioner Anne Logan Bass had another difficult conversation with a patient. The young woman was struggling with infertility, stemming from a sexually transmitted infection that had gone undiagnosed. Bass, the clinical director at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, broke the news and comforted the tearful woman.
Vogue
02-07-2025
- Vogue
One of the World's Most Remote Islands Is Now More Accessible Than Ever
Saint Helena's trio of peaks pierce through a sea of cloud, six hours after our flight departs South Africa—a blink of time compared to the six-day sea voyage required until 2017. Located 2,000 kilometers from the continent, and almost halfway to Brazil, this shard of basalt—often grouped with its sister islands, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, which lie only marginally closer—forms one of the most isolated territories on Earth. What secrets would Saint Helena reveal in the coming days, shrouded in the same enigmatic mist through which it first emerged? Until 2017, the only way to reach Saint Helena was by sea—a six-day voyage from South Africa. Photo: Jethro Kiernan Though best known as the island where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled and ultimately died, Saint Helena's historical footnote belies a far richer identity—one rooted in extraordinary natural beauty. When Charles Darwin landed on its shores in 1836 as part of his round-the-world HMS Beagle expedition, he marveled at its otherworldly biodiversity. Saint Helena, he wrote, was a 'remarkable' place that 'excites our curiosity.' How right he was. Roughly the size of San Francisco, the island is home to more than 500 endemic species of flora and fauna—25 times more per square kilometer than the Galápagos Islands, whcih famously helped shape his theory of evolution. Stepping onto the tarmac, the first sensation is of alpine-fresh air, laced with a salty fret that drifts in from the South Atlantic. Forged by volcanic eruptions that ceased around seven million years ago, Saint Helena rises dramatically to 800 meters above sea level. I drive north along a steep, slaloming road to Jamestown, the capital—a cluster of Georgian buildings ensconced within one of the deep, narrow ravines that define the island's singular topography.
