The "Lucky Seven" finally eased off Miramar beach, where it had been stuck for 63 days, after two tugs pulled it out about 400 meters towards the sea on Sep 18. In a synchronized operation that lasted two hours at high tide and watched by company officials, the ship finally moved off at 11.30 a.m. to be hauled near a sand bar in the river. The operation was carried oiut by the "Maria" with 60 tonnes bollard pull and the "Minakshi" with 20 tonnes bollard pull. It was difficult in rainy and stormy conditions. The winds picked up speed and the smaller tug had to hold the rope firmly while the other pulled it. The wire linking both tug even got entangled with the anchor and had to be freed. She could not moved further as the high tide was over. The range of the morning tide was 2,7 meters. The "Lucky Seven" will be shifted off the Aguada coast for repairs that may last a week. The difficult underwater repair once completed should strengthen it for the sea voyage to Jaigad, Maharashtra.

In the evening of Sep 18, 2017, at 9.45 p.m. the "Walter", 15 ts (EU-No.: 04803370), jointly with a container barge allided with a collision protection wire in the Uelzen lock of the Elbe-Side Canal at Esterholz. The ship was coming from Fallersleben and was destined to Hamburg. The 56-year old mastter lost connscience short before entering the lock so the wheelhouse was not lowered down upon entering the lock. The cabin slammed into the wire and was torn off and destroyed. The master was fatally injured. The alerted fire brigade freed him from the debris, but he died after initially having been resuscitated. Two other crew members who were on deck remained uninjured. The lock was closed for ship traffic during the night hours. The damaged tug was pulled out of the lock on Sep 19 at 9.45 a.m by another tug, and the lock could be reopened at 11 a.m. German reports with photos: www.nonstopnews.d... www.ndr.de/nachri... https://www.az-online.de/... www.feuerwehr-wie...

Nustar Energy’s oil terminal in the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius suffered damage to several tanks and other equipment due to Hurricane Irma, but all the U.S. firm’s employees are safe and no oil spills were registered, it said in a statement. NuStar’s Statia terminal has the capacity to store 13.03 million barrels of crude and products. The company also said that no restart date has yet been set, and that it will be working on Thursday to restore power at the facility. “Despite the damage and major clean-up effort, we feel like we fared very well considering the significant power of this storm,” it said. Source: Reuters

(Reuters) – Monster Hurricane Irma hammered the Caribbean island of St. Martin on Wednesday as it packed a potentially catastrophic mix of pounding winds and rain and surging surf that was expected to make landfall in Florida over the weekend. Irma could become the second powerful storm to thrash the U.S. mainland in as many weeks, but its precise trajectory remained uncertain. Hurricane Harvey killed more than 60 people and caused as much as $180 billion in damage after hitting Texas late last month. The eye of Irma, a Category 5 storm with winds of 185 miles per hour (295 km per hour), was bearing down on the Virgin Islands after passing over the half-French, half-Dutch island of St. Martin, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said. Category 5 is its highest category. Its trajectory indicated Irma, which the NHC said was the strongest Atlantic storm on record, would skirt most of the Caribbean as it moves west-northwest. Karel van Oosterom, the Netherlands ambassador to the United Nations, said Irma hit the Dutch islands of Saba and Sint Eustasius before overrunning St. Martin. gcaptain.com/hurr... https://youtu.be/dA5qYrboTUE