17 Tugboats, Dredgers, and High Tides
360 Ships Await Passage
360 ships await passage through the canal. The total would be higher but many ships gave up and went around Africa instead.
That adds 10 days to the journey and $26,000 a day in fuel costs.
Finally Free
The Ever Given was lodged sideways in the canal for 6 days, Tuesday through Sunday but the Ever Given is Finally Free.
Engineers raced throughout Monday to finish the job of freeing the Ever Given after partially refloating the ship at dawn, taking advantage of an unusually high tide to make the job easier. Tugboats helped pull the vessel out from the side of the canal where it had been stuck, before straightening its heading. It slowly began to move, with the objective of later reaching an anchor point at a lake further up the canal system.
Canal managers were giving priority to vessels carrying livestock because they were running out of animal feed, according to a person involved in the operation said. The canal was expected to be opened to other ships later in the day.
Unusually High Tide
The “unusually high tide” happens once a month when the sun and moon are aligned, both polling the tides in the same direction.
On Saturday I explained Why a Full Moon Might Help the Free the 300 Ship Blockage in the Suez Canal
Destination Great Bitter Lake
Assisted by tugboats, the Ever Given moves to the Great Bitter Lake, the widest part of the canal where it will anchor for inspections.
Great Bitter Lake is approximately the midway point of the 120-mile-long waterway.
How Long to Clear Traffic?
The daily maximum 106 ships through the canal so that would imply more than three days unless the canal authorities allow more than maximum capacity.
Given the high tides, perhaps they can do a bit better than maximum.
Not the First Ever Given Accident
Wikipedia notes: On 9 February 2019, the ship struck and heavily damaged a 25-meter-long HADAG ferry boat at Blankenese, near the harbour of Hamburg. Two minutes after the collision, a traffic ban on the Elbe river was issued due to high winds.
Insurance Battle and Blame Game
An insurance battle blame game comes next.
I expect the owners of Ever Given will take the hit but the captain blames high winds.
Blaming the wind sounds nice but the wind was expected, other ships purposely delayed because of the wind.
Some ships that did make it through with the wind had tugboat assists. The Ever Given had no helper tugs and was going at at excessive speed.
Excess speed is sometimes used to avoid grounding, but if the ship does hit the bank, the result is deeper entrenchment as happened in this case.
In my estimation, the canal authorities should have held up the Ever Given or mandated helper tugs. But the captain made the ultimate decision, and a poor one to proceed.
Container Shipping Costs Soar
Meanwhile, please note Container Shipping Costs Soar From $1500 to $9000 Due to Suez Canal Blockage.
It may take weeks, not days for shipping costs to settle.
Mish
So, you should know that in addition to the tens or hundreds of thousands of $ that ships pay to pass through the canal, they are also forced to take on an Egyptian pilot onboard for the passage at a cost of $10K for the 13 hours or so it takes to traverse the canal (note that the average daily wage in Egypt is like a few dollars a day). The pilots seem to have some dubious credentials.
I’m sure they’re all from very good families. 🙂
My wife’s cousin is a harbor pilot in Long Beach. he moved to that job after captaining a giant tanker for years. Pilots are supposed to be able to drive a ship.
I think they should widen the canal so a ship can’t get stuck on both sides. Seems like it’s just sand next to the canal. Shouldn’t be that hard.
For More Information: http://zoefact.com/assign/subject/science/computer.html
Thank you so much for sharing this informative & helpful blog with us. Find More
Whynot route through the North Sea, which supposedly offers 50% lower mileage. At worst you might have to pay a Russian ice breaker.
Russia Pitches Frosty Arctic Sea Route As Superior Alternative To Blocked Suez Canal
Saturday, Mar 27, 2021 – 01:05 PM
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-pitches-frosty-arctic-sea-route-superior-alternative-blocked-suez-canal
Now what, you ask?
Well now, stonks are free to continue to journey onward and upward!
I’m curious….which captain made the poor choice, as you say? “But the captain made the ultimate decision, and a poor one to proceed.” The Suez Canal captain or the Ever Good captain?
Both – But I refer to the former a Suez Canal Authority. They control or should the passage, not as captains of ships
Did you consider a white hack of the vessel?
No and still do not
From the Times…
While it is not yet known what caused the Ever Given to start bouncing around the waterway, once it did, it succumbed to what is known in seafaring as the bank effect. That is a phenomenon in which the stern of a ship tends to swing toward one bank while its bow is pushed away from it, said Capt. Paul Foran, a maritime consultant who as a ship’s captain navigated the Suez Canal 18 times.
Captain Foran said that whoever was giving orders most likely tried to regain control over the ship by putting on speed. But that decision would have made matters worse, robbing the crew of its usual maneuvering tools. Bow thrusters that could push the bow left or right stop working at high speeds; the faster a ship goes, the lower the pressure beneath the hull, sinking the vessel dangerously low in the water.
“The faster you go, the less control you have,” he said, “and on a ship that size, once she gets out of control like that, it gets even more difficult to bring her under control
No ship can enter the canal without an Egyptian pilot on board. Lots of finger pointing in this situation.
I could SWEAR I read or heard that they didn’t use one of the Canal captains for whatever reason. But I can’t find that resource. Would love to know one way or the other.
On to the next armageddon precipitator!
They managed it without breaking/damaging the ship, which would have consolidated things into a complete catastrophe. It’s not just a matter of applying forces … but also of calculating risks.
Six days is fairly good. A cattle ship carries 18K live cattle or 75K sheep. This live animal trade is mostly from the UK and the EU to the Middle East, according to what I heard on the radio….an the ships only carry 3 days of extra food…..so it was about to turn into a disaster.
Usually when the Suez is closed at least the Egyptians can blame Israel 😉
Don’t forget that thanks to the full moon 4,324 harnessed Egyptian werewolves were able to use their diabolical strength to pull the ship back into the channel.
I read that they gave ships with livestock on them precedence to go through when it was time.
wasnt just the wind, but wind and a sandstorm, a confluence of events but why start the blame game now before a study even happens. seems irrresponsible to start engaging in such conjecture
How a Desert Wind Blew $10 Billion of Global Trade Off Course
The giant Ever Given container ship remains wedged in the Suez Canal. We spoke to captains and analyzed marine tracking data to look at what might have gone wrong.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-27/how-a-desert-wind-in-suez-canal-blew-global-trade-off-course
Right, when there is a plane crash they don’t make a determination first, they look for the black box. I am sure there is >0 info recorded that has yet to be reviewed for bread crumbs.
Well after Sisi assumed power he began widening the canal and making a second lane, but this is not throughout and the Ever Given got stuck in an old one lane section. Sisi was gambling that Egypt would see new revenue but that never really occured. If i had to guess there will be a push to limit the largest of ships from using the canal. A few years ago these behemoths didn’t even exist.