The giant Bulk carrier Wakashio run aground in Mauritius on the way from China to Brasil:
Everybody asleep??
Hey, who put that island with the international airport right in front of us?
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There is an image of its route from the link below, it was going in a south west direction but has now ended up pointing in a north west direction.
Sometimes one comes up on a dark coastline at night with poor visibility. Sometimes it’s something else.
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If the intended passage plan is to pass near Point Desny, the Master should have exercised precautions like giving allowance just in case something might go wrong… Looks like this ship is being manned by fishermen…lol…
The comments under the splash article are entertaining, Mene Pedersen probably has the fairest one:
Lynching, sadly seems to be the easiest response to a Maritime incident. Blaming the Master , 2nd Officer and the ECDIS hopefully by those who are commenting is being done after their own thorough investigation. Prejudices and stigmatization should best be kept to oneself so that the investigators can get down to the root cause. Remember the unfortunate ships crew are seafarers like you once were!
Major incidents these days seem to be subjected to a lot of trial by social media, rather than waiting for all the facts.
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Maybe this is reason enough to suggest such blame is not misplaced:
"The coast guard had tried in vain to contact the ship’s captain for an hour on Saturday evening to warn that its routing looked dangerous. When finally coast guard officials got through to the master, the captain insisted the planned route was safe. A few minutes later, however, the ship radioed local authorities to say the vessel had grounded on a reef. "
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Salvage tugs and teams are on the way:
From the photograph, the bulker clearly looks to be in ballast (most likely on her way to load iron ore from Brazil). Even in a heavy ballast condition, her deepest draft would be under 10/12 meters. There must be some very strange circumstances that would compel a cape-sized bulker on that voyage to be in that location.
I think it is still stuck on the reef, the problem seems to be they haven’t been able to get any suitable tugs there quickly, there was too much swell for the VB Cartier which is a harbor tug, they have a PSV on scene called the Stanford Hawk, but what use is a tug without a winch…
It seems like the Boka Expedition is arriving from Oman tomorrow and the Boka Summit is arriving on the 8th of August from Sri Lanka according to marine traffic, are least they have winches… they’re both 200t bollard pull.
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Thanks, @spork for the update. This is easily the master’s worst nightmare. The ship is aground at a place thousand miles from nowhere. There will be very few services available to conduct an underwater inspection before even making a determination whether to pull the ship off the rocks without the danger of further flooding. Then carrying out underwater repairs to make her fit, under conditions of class, to proceed to a drydock big enough to service a cape sized bulker (at a reasonable price!).
It is funny that I still wake up in cold sweat sometimes, twenty years after leaving the industry and working in investment banking, that I got a call from the OOW informing that the ship has just hit a rock and he is trying to figure out which one. I say it is funny because, it is a nice feeling to wake up and realize that it was only a bad dream.
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Things have taken a significant turn for the worse.
There is a mistake in the gcaptain article, the Stanford Hawk is a PSV not a tug.
Smit Salvage has been contracted to respond along with local contractor CELERO. AIS ship tracking data shows two tugs, Stanford Hawk and BOKA Expedition, currently on scene.
It was aground for 11 days before it started leaking bunkers, you would have thought they would have tried to offload most of the bunkers in that time, maybe it was too shallow to get another vessel close enough, but they could just have gotten a really long fuel hose.
The Stanford Hawk PSV was standing-by near it not long after it went aground, maybe they could have discharge the bunkers to it.
Would be tricky to pump out more bunkers now if there are tanks there are tanks that haven’t ruptured yet.
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Am sad for the area affected by this boondoggle. Not sure what happened, I wasn’t there. If there was ever a case to be prosecuted, sure sounds like one.
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From Splash 24/7 today;
Have not seen anything about when she turned around over 90 degrees, from bow onto the reef to broad side on.(??)
What caused her to turn, the weather or attempt to go full astern to free her?
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The below video seems to have been recorded by a Filipino Wakashio crew member in 2012, the title aged badly…
He seems to record what looks like the OOW correcting charts on watch, not a good sign if that’s what it is.
Check out the comments below the video:
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Do you know how little looking out the window is done on a regular basis?
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Not enough apparently.
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Chart corrections are more of a navigational hazard than they are worth.
Even more so when the watch officer is alone in the wheelhouse standing watch 12 hours a day.
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