If the study I’ve just read is correct ( https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021EF002396 ) there’s is a huge erosion problem, and it affects fishing and obviously shipping. So if the shipping industry wants to minimize their carbon footprint and avoid getting their ships aground, and harbors and ports and stuff want to minimize costly dredging operations, then looking into Regenerative Agriculture may offer some kind of solution.
No - the ship is not in the channel and I have seen several ships go past IN the channel and not get stuck.
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If in Neverland already no need to smoke anything. Must be nice.
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A local TV station reports that the reason the Ever Forward grounded could be that they “boated outside the fairway”:
Anybody here familiar with the “blowout tide” phenomena and how much that could lower the water level in the area of grounding?
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IIRC from living in Annapolis MD in late sixties, two or three days of strong northeast wind would lower the bay around a foot and a half.
Exactly. I don’t know how long the wind blew out of the north for, but it had no affect on the grounding. The cause as bug put it was “boating outside the fairway.” In fact, the actual water level was slightly greater than predicted around 9 pm when the vessel grounded. Blue is NOAA predictions and Red is observed in Annapolis.
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I am very familiar, I am sometimes aground in my slip when that happens. The Bay is long and shallow, prolonged winds from the NW blow a lot of water south that doesn’t come back until the wind dies down. Tides can easily be 2-3 feet lower than normal low tide. That was not the case with this ship, it was not all that windy the day she ran aground AND the ship did not run aground in the channel.
The local pilots are out at more often than I am, I can’t image they would even try running the channel if a “Bay Drainer” was going on and they didn’t have the clearance to do it. It would not be a surprise to anyone of them that didn’t just move here from someplace else.
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All shallow US east coast inlets, bays and sounds are susceptible to strong constant winds from the same general direction for multiple days. Non tidal changes in depths can easily exceed 3 feet. It depends on the specific location. I expect @yacht_sailor can give you more exact numbers for that particular location.
PS I doubt Norwegian fjords jutting inland would be as suseptible to this phenomenon because of their depths.
It is very noticeable in parts of the Oslo fjord, which isn’t all that deep. Especially with strong Southerlies we get noticeably elevated water levels.
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If this were caused by an extra low tide then wouldn’t the ship ground in the channel instead of missing its turn and plowing into the shoals outside the channel?
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Yes - the tide was not extra low.
Just a remark: she did’nt make the turn, fact.
Causes: unknown, at the moment.
Tide conditions - apparently - do not contribute.
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Hate to rain on @Salvatore_Mercoglian 's parade, but a main channel depth of 15.1 meters (50ft), and a ship beam of 158 ft, theres no way the Ever Forward could capsize in the channel at that location, let alone in 24ft of water as she currently sits. Water depths would have to be in the 60 ft range to even permit a ~30 degree list before hitting bottom. The ship’s mass alone would keep it upright.
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IMO - no such thing as helmsmen error - there is Capt, mate, Pilot error in not checking the rudder angle indicator after each helm order to ensure it is carried out correctly. The officers are in charge and it is their responsibility orders are carried out correctly.
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He’s saying that the officers on the bridge, the captain, pilot and watch officer in particular, have a duty to ensure that the helmsman properly carries out the order given.
An accident caused by “putting the rudder the wrong way” or not enough/too much angle looks bad for the helmsman but is even more so for the officers on there as well.
Anyone who has the conn should always be following up a helm order with a glance at the rudder angle indicator. IMO, it’s piloting 101.
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IMO – In My Opinion.
In my port ( pre-retirement ) the channel was very tight accommodating large ships with frequent strong winds and reasonably large swept paths. A wrong way helm which was not caught immediately, would invariably lead to a grounding.
In excess of 20 years and 5000 Pilotages I never experienced a rudder failure although experienced an inordinate number of wrong way helms. I lost count a long time ago. Human factors.
As a check Pilot over the years, I would instantly fail a trainee on noting that he/she was not checking the rudder angle indicator on every helm order.
It was folly to assume that a fatigued and otherwise engaged bridge team were going to pick it up and they rarely did.
The exception to this were passenger vessel bridge teams who were well drilled in closed loop communications.
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