Sailings of the 'Queen of Cowichan' between Metro Vancouver and Nanaimo saw major delays on the morning of April 6, 2024, after a medical emergency forced athe vessel to return to dock in Horseshoe Bay. The 8:25 a.m. sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay on the 'Queen of Cowichan' turned around mid-voyage and returned to the mainland. As of 10:30 a.m. the vessel remained docked in Horseshoe Bay. The 'Queen of Cowichan''s next scheduled voyage was supposed to depart Nanaimo's Departure Bay terminal at 10:40 a.m. with the vessel is now operating 132 minutes late as a result of the earlier emergency.
News
SITC DANANG
Eight people remained missing following the collision between the f/v "Yuenan Aoyu 36062" with the "SITC Danag" 22 nautical miles southwest of Yinggehai town in Ledong county off the southwestern coast of South China's Hainan province, resulting in the sinking of the fishing vessel, the provincial maritime search and rescue center said on April 7. Thanks to ongoing SAR efforts aided by an underwater robots and ROVs, the location of the sunken fishing boat was determined on April 6. However, due to the rapid flow of water at the site and the presence of fishing nets around the sunken ship, divers have not been able to enter the cabin. The fishermen were searched in an area exceeding 5,700 square nautical miles.
Nhava Sheva
Middle East-India-Africa Express (MIAX) to start operations in October 2019 Hapag-Lloyd is expanding its African liner services and will offer its MIAX (Middle East-India-Africa Express) service starting in October 2019. It will include direct connections between the Arabian Gulf, India, Colombo (Sri Lanka), La Réunion, South Africa and West Africa.
Ngqura
South African state-run logistics company Transnet has suspended a number of employees for taking part in a lengthy go-slow campaign at the Ngqura Container Terminal in the Eastern Cape. The port said in a statement yesterday it had “suspended a number of employees at its Ngqura Container Terminal for engaging in an illegal industrial action.
COASTGUARD SHIPVEERA
The ICG 'Veera', while on patrol off the Andhra coast, saved all nine fishermen after their boat caught fire and sunk at sea on April 5, 2024, within six hours. The ship crew received a radio message from a nearby fishing boat about the fire raging onboard the Indian fishing boat 'Durga Bhavani' around 65 nautical miles from Visakhapatnam harbour. The Andhra registered boat had sailed from Kakinada harbour with nine crew members on board on March 26. On April 5, the boat caught fire due to explosion of an LPG cylinder on board. The fishermen jumped into the water to escape, but some suffered severe burns. The fishing boat, damaged due to explosion, sank within a few minutes. The ICGS 'Veera' proceeded at top speed, reaching the location within a few hours to provide assistance to the survivors. All nine survivors were shifted to the ship where they were provided first-aid by a medical team. Meanwhile, Coast Guard District Headquarters No. 6 in coordination with Joint Director of Fisheries Visakhapatnam arranged ambulances along with medical teams to evacuate critically injured to King George Hospital here for further treatment.
FV BREIZ
The day after the trial, at the maritime court in Le Havre, of five people, prosecuted after the sinking of the 'Breiz', which caused the death of three young sailors in January 2021, off the coast of Lion-sur-Mer, the 28 sea rescue volunteers from the SNSM station in Trouville-Deauville have decided to be unavailable. The lifeboat “Michel d’Ornano” from the Trouville-Deauville SNSM station will not go out to sea until further notice. The volunteer sea rescuers were deeply shocked by the legal developments following the tragedy of the sinking: 'What happens to one of the most experienced among us can happen to us tomorrow, we are bruised and upset. We ask ourselves many questions about the extent of the risks incurred by any volunteer normally carrying out their mission. In the absence of convincing answers to these questions, the station's volunteers have decided to be unavailable and will therefore not respond to Cross calls." In his pleading on April 5, Me Eric Najsztat, one of the lawyers of the captain of the SNSM boat who is tried for negligence and forgery in a ship's document, criticized the public prosecutor for "blackening the picture of someone who been an impeccable rescuer more than 900 times in his life.” In addition to a one-year suspended prison sentence, Le Havre prosecutor Bruno Dieudonné also requested on April 4 a two-year sailing ban against the rescuer. It is a “desire for social humiliation”, estimated Mr. Najsztat, who pleaded for acquittal.
Kiel
Maiden call by Marella Cruises in Kiel. In the early Tuesday morning (16th July) the cruise ship Marella Explorer (see also CruiseMapper) berthed in the port of Kiel with 2,000 mostly anglo-phone passengers on-board. The vessel follows an itinerary of 14 days leading it all across the Baltic Sea. It started in Newcastle on 13th July and will conclude its cruise in the same port on 27th July.
Tyne
The Port of Tyne has created a new baggage handling for Marella Cruises at its International Passenger Terminal, which is located in North Shields near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. The port has reconfigured 300 square metres of its terminal, creating space to process 1,000 bags as well as a marquee that functions as an undercover baggage handling facility. There are now also 382 additional parking spaces specifically for Marella Cruises’ guests. Marella Cruises’ customer will be able to drop off their luggage before heading straight to a dedicated car park. The baggage will be checked by security and loaded onto the ship, expediting the embarkation process.
HARMONY OF THE SEAS
Eight boat passengers were pulled from the sea after the 'San Pedro' capsized and sank on the afternoon of April 5, 2024, at 3 p.m., a few meters away from the docked 'Harmony of the Seas' on the south side of the island of Cozumel. The boat took on water and capsized, dumping its passengers into the sea. All eight were rescued by other smaller boats in the area. Port authorities were investigating the sinking of the boat. A failed bilge pump was the cause for the eventual sinking. There were no injuries reported. Report with photos: https://riviera-maya-news.com/cozumel-tourist-boat-sinks-next-to-docked-cruise-ship/2024.html?cn-reloaded=1
London
All new ships for UK waters ordered from 2025 should be designed with zero-emission capable technologies, according to ambitious plans set out today by maritime minister Nusrat Ghani to cut pollution from the country’s maritime sector. The commitment is set out in the Clean Maritime Plan published today. The government is also looking at ways to incentivise the transition to zero-emission shipping and will consult on this next year. The plan also includes a £1m competition to find innovative ways to reduce maritime emissions and is published alongside a call for evidence to reduce emissions on UK waterways and domestic vessels.
Whittier
U.S. Coast Guard crews have given up the search for a 49-year-old Cordova man who went missing after an explosion and subsequent fire on a fixed barge at Delong Dock in Whittier, Alaska, shortly after midnight on Monday. The fire spread to the pier and then to the Anagalik, a 99-foot commercial fishing vessel that was initially reported to have two people aboard at the time of the explosion. Whittier Police Department personnel have since confirmed one of those two is safely aboard a different vessel en route to Whittier. The fire has now been extinguished, but the fishing vessel and barge sank in 85 feet of water at the pier with a potential maximum of 5,500 gallons of fuel oil aboard. The fishing vessel owners have contracted Global Diving and Salvage for clean-up and salvage efforts. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak has searched for the missing person by air, and crews aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Chandeleur and Coast Guard Auxiliary 336 searched nearby waters.