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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Crews To Take A Load Off
 Sandra Dibble - Union-Tribune
| | Salvage workers yesterday assembled a flexible pipe that will be suspended by cable to the container ship APL Panama and connected to its fuel bunkers to transfer its viscous fuel to tanker trucks, which will transport the fuel to Ensenada for storage. (John Gibbins/Union-Tribune) |
Ensenada – Salvage crews working to float the APL Panama, an 880-foot container vessel that ran aground last month, are planning their next attempt when bimonthly high tides hit the region around Jan. 14. The first step involves lightening the vessel's load by removing more than 10,000 tons of fuel and water from the ballast, according to a salvage plan presented to Ensenada port authorities by the Crowley Maritime Corp., a worldwide salvage company based in Florida.
Yesterday, workers were assembling sections of flexible pipeline that will be stretched to the ship so that the fuel can be removed. The fuel will be placed inside rubber bladders onshore and then hauled away over land, workers said.
With high tides, a lighter load, six tugboats and two 300-ton pulleys pulling the vessel there is a "good possibility" that the APL Panama can be floated, according to the salvage company's report, said Carlos Manuel Jauregui, the Ensenada port director.
If that effort fails, the next attempt would be at the end of the month, when tides are higher again, according to the salvage plan. A barge and crane would be brought in to remove containers from the vessel, according to the plan.
Ensenada's harbor master, Capt. José Luis Ríos Hernández, said yesterday that he had completed his investigation into the incident and has forwarded his report to the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation in Mexico City. An appointed expert will go over the information and issue an opinion, Ríos said.
Ríos would not discuss his findings, saying the information remains confidential until the opinion is released. Ríos said "90 percent of maritime accidents are due to human error," but he would not say whether this was the case, nor who would have made the error.
The APL Panama ran aground at 6:12 p.m. Dec. 25, according to the ship's German owner, Mare Britannicum Schiffahrtsgesellschaft MBH & Co.
Initial reports from the port of Ensenada said the crew had apparently been trying to enter the port without a pilot, but the owners deny this. Managing director Jens Meier-Hedde said the crew had been waiting for a pilot to guide the ship into harbor when strong currents apparently pulled it toward shallow water and it ran aground.
The company has now hired a maritime public relations firm, MTI Network, to handle press inquiries. Mare Britannicum is insured by the P&I Club, said MTI spokesman Mike Hanson.
The beach alongside the vessel, just south of the port of Ensenada, was a flurry of activity yesterday. Salvage workers have set up a staging area, and a powerful helicopter, a Sikorsky Sky Crane, carried equipment from National City, where the marine contractors, R.E. Staite, have been a logistics center for the floating effort.
"For the past week we've been working two shifts, unloading cargo that's been coming in by truck from various points in the United States," said the company's president, Ray Carpenter.
The spectacle has been drawing steady crowds to the Ensenada beach, and yesterday was no exception. José Luis González carried a camera and portable printer, offering photographs of families by the vessel for 30 pesos, less than $3.
sandra.dibble@uniontrib.com. Staff photographer John Gibbins contributed to this report. |
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