I wish i had a job like this

A friend of mine has a yacht, in Conwy in North Wales, and he often invites me to go on his yacht.

Over the years i have been going to my friends yacht i have noticed the fisheries patrol vessel docked at the marina for days, and maybe weeks, at a time and the crew doing nothing in particular. One time I even saw one of the crew on the deck reading a book, and it didn't look like a book that covered anything to do with the job that person is meant to be employed to do.

Now i know there are times when the boat has to stay in dock for what ever reason, but i expect during those times the crew do maintenance on the boat, from cleaning the vessel to painting to engine maintenance. From what i am told they do some maintenance, but mostly sit around inside the boat.

I thought what they were meant to do is in their title, fisheries PATROL vessel. The tax payer pays for that vessel to protect the British fish stocks from illegal fishing. Why aren't they out there patrolling the seas and doing what they are paid to do.

I have been told, by my friend, that they do go out occasionally, but they are only out for a few hours at a time.

This is from the North Wales fisheries website

'The vessel has a range of 500 miles and patrols 900 nautical miles of coastline and 2000 square nautical miles of sea between Cemaes Head, Ceredigion, and Haverigg Point, Cumbria. A crew of three, including the skipper, engineer and crewman, is required to operate "Aegis.'

This is the web page i found the last statement;

http://www.nwnwsfc.org/page/home.htm

So please can someone please tell me why we are paying for people to do nothing, or hardly anything, who are meant to patrol 900 miles of coastline, but rarely go more that a few miles from where she is docked.