She appears to have been dragging slowly westward since the previous afternoon. Looks like they had about an hour from when they started to drag in earnest until she touched. Chart depth at anchorage about 14m, ground sand/coarse sand/broken shell with some weed inshore. Winds SSE gusting over fifty knots, looks like. Wind now moderating 10 kt gusting 28. Low tide two hours after they struck at 2m above chart datum.
Three tugs, a work boat and the RNLI lifeboat standing by. High tide at Falmouth is just about now, four and a quarter metres over datum. Six days from springs, will gain another metre and a quarter.
The deputy director of the Murmansk Shipping Company, which owns the Kuzma Minin, said the ship had gotten stuck due to “unsafe shipping conditions” off the British coast.
“The ship got caught on some sort of chain that was on the bottom of the strait,” Ildar Neverov told state news agency RIA Novosti. “That is to say there were unsafe shipping conditions in the place where the ship was located. As a result, it passed some distance out of control and ran aground. The situation is under control.”
Mr Neverov said four tugs had arrived and chances were “better than good” the ship would be freed when the tide rose.
Local divers would also conduct an underwater examination of the Kuzma Minin for damage. He expected it to resume its voyage on Tuesday after receiving engine oil.
“We will move on,” he said. “No damage is visible, there aren’t any problems. We think the situation isn’t bad.”
I know just how they feel. There are “unsafe shipping conditions” all over the place, what with tides lower than drafts; floating buoys lining either sides of channels; other vessels either on same course, reciprocals or heavin-forbid a crossing course. It’s crazy out there.
They’ve got her head pointed in the right direction now, more or less.
And underway on engine.
