A day before crossing the Strait of Hormuz, an Indonesian seafarer aboard the Al Rayyan tanker published a picture of a rainbow cutting across the bow. “When the dream ship becomes reality,” he wrote on social media, thanking God for the blessing. Then the liquefied natural gas carrier switched off its transponder and began to move out of the Persian Gulf.
The Al Rayyan, loaded with Qatari LNG, tailed another gas carrier coming from the emirate, the Fuwairit, which was preparing to cross the waterway under a deal between Pakistan and Iran. For the seafarers in the second vessel, who had no such government protection, it was a safety beacon through a treacherous corridor, mariners recounted later.
