Antipodean Mariner

Pilot Training

2012-01-27T17:57:00.003+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner heard an astounding assertion from a harbour pilot. The pilot was expressing his disdain at the helicopter pilot who flew him out to his ships. This was expressed by telling the helicopter pilot “that he could qualify to fly a helicopter in a couple of years, but it would take the helicopter pilot fifteen years to get his Masters Certificate to pilot a ship!”

And so the conversation turned on to what applicable ship handling skills the harbour pilot had gained correcting charts, tying up ships and keeping a bridge watch in those fifteen years?

Master and Pilot: Bloomburg/Tim Rue

The traditional path for a harbour pilot is to go to sea as a Cadet, rise through the ranks to Second Mate, obtain a Master’s ticket and then jump into a Port Authority as a trainee Pilot at about 30. The model is surprisingly robust – perhaps not so surprising given that port pilots recruit and train port pilots.

One area where maritime pilotage is woefully behind the technology curve is simulator training. Before a port pilot jumps to the Comments Page, simulators are being used extensively for in-service skills development and emergency training. But simulator training is not being used to fast-track savvy Gen Y’s and so bypassing a cadetship largely spent painting ships and making coffee (for pilots).

The aviation industry recognised and has developed accredited simulator training programmes to put high aptitude individuals in aircraft cockpits. This was in recognition that the growth in global aviation was outstripping military and private aviation’s ability to train flight crews.

The maritime industry is facing a similar crisis with changing crew demographics and the breakdown of the traditional career path. It is entirely feasible to simulator-train an individual in ship handling and deliver a productive employee is 2-3 years. There will no doubt be some stigma and aspersions cast by the old guard. But with an ageing pool of senior officers capable of, or willing to, fulfil pilotage roles something new has to be put into the mix.

Pilotage is a transferable skill - it is not a religious calling or an ancient, secret order.

The Antipodean Mariner

Vale Beijing and Subic Bay

2012-01-27T15:01:00.007+11:00

A brief wrap of news from Vale’s ChinaMax ‘Vale Beijing’ and their ore trans-shipment hub in Subic Bay.

Reliable sources have told the Antipodean Mariner that Vale Beijing’s structural failure is pointing towards a ‘mis-communication’ in the design phase by STX. The parallel body deign of the ships was the role of one team and the bow/stern area another. The modular construction of the hull blocks at the Yard lead to the longitudinal strength members in the parallel body not aligning with the corresponding strength members in the stern part. STX are apparently modifying the remaining ships under construction.

‘Vale China’ is en route to Subic Bay, Vale’s trans-shipment zone in the Philippines reporting an ETA of 222^nd February.

Ore Fabrica (ex VLCC Front Duchess) has been converted into a floating ore terminal with offset cranes, conveyors and ship loader, and has sailed from China for Subic Bay, ETA 30^th January. The Antipodean Mariner is heading to Subic Bay next week and will try to get some good oil and photos of the Ore Fabrica.

Simulation

2012-01-26T07:35:00.014+11:00

Over the course of the next week, a colleague of the Antipodean Mariner will be sitting in a darkened bridge as a group of Pilots ground, collide and generally wreck a new 88,000 DWT bulk carrier in a virtual world.

The AM's company are building two Post-Panamax bulk carriers for a short-haul trade between a mine and refinery. The trade moves about 20 million tonnes of ore a year using a mix of dedictated and standard Panamax bulk carriers. Port rules require any ship larger than Panamax dimensions (225 metre length x 32 metres beam) to have a dispensation, and hence simulation of how the new ships will handle.

Ship simulators are used to train Masters and Pilots in ship handling and emergency procedures. Simulators mow also incorporate 'multi-player missions', where the tug masters have a separate set of controls and can integrate their manoeuvres with the bridge team The bathymetry of the port, tidal currents and topography are used to create an interactive 3D model of the port. The simulators are provided with a library of standard ships -tankers, container ships and bulk carriers. The new Post-Panamax bulkers have been modelled from a library ship and tweaked with the known characteristics of sister ships. Sea trials data, turning circle radius and crash stop distances are entered and validated to make the simulator ship handles as closely as possible to the real ship.

Next week, the Port Pilots will put the ship through a programme of pre-planned manoeuvres in flood and ebb tide, laden and ballast condition and with different tug configurations to establish the operating 'envelope' within the new Post-Panamax can safely arrive and depart. The port is busy, tidal and with high berth occupancy and is always scheduling to move as many ships as possible in the high-water window.

Accurate and realistic ship simulation is a cornerstone of the asset-intensive supply chain infrastructure of ports and shipping. Maybe another post in the offing on fast-track simulator training of port pilots as an alternative to recruiting seafarers.

The Antipodean Mariner

Bulk Zambesi

2012-01-24T21:31:00.010+11:00

Bulk Zambesi is the new kid on the block in Beira, Mozambique - purpose built to trans-ship high grade coking coal produced from Vale's Moatise coal field. Mozambique is infrastructure poor and the coal deposits being developed by international miners are constrained by limited rail and port capacity.

China's steel industry will be one of the markets for Mozambican coking coal and freight will be a major component of the landed cost. To minimise freight costs, Vale plan to load Panamax and Capes at anchor off Beira using Bulk Zambesi and her sister Bulk Limpopo to shuttle from the port of Beira, where the draft is restricted.

Bulk Zambesi and Bulk Limpopo are owned and operated by Coeclerici Logistics of Italy and are on long-term charter to Vale. The vessels have cranes which discharge the coal into deck-mounted hoppers on the starboard side, which in turn feed a conveyor and long-travelling ship loader boom on the port side.

Bulk Zambesi

Outward bound from the Yard in China

Cranes load hoppers from the conventional cargo holds

At sea, coal is transferred using a travelling ship loader

Twin bow thrusters for port and ship-to-ship berthing

High-lift Becker Rudder and Controllable Pitch Prop

The Antipodean Mariner

What does a Cape cost to run?

2012-01-24T08:26:00.012+11:00

At the moment, charter rates for bulk carriers are in the toilet. Chinese New Year is always a quiet time, daily hire rates for a Pacific round voyage (China-Australia-China) are $4,709 a day and Ship Owners are choosing to anchor ships rather than trade at loss-making freight rates.

Charterers (shippers of cargo) and Owners (carriers of cargo) think in US dollars per day. Ships are essentially 'day labourers' and for comparative purposes this is how the market self-evaluates who has the upper hand and where rates are trending.

So what does it cost to operate a Capesize bulk carrier for a day? The three major cost groups are the mortgage, operating costs and insurance. Ships are typically financed on 80% of their purchase price for periods of up to 15 years. For the purposes of this posting, a modern Cape will be paying the bank about US$13,000 a day in cost of capital.

Operating costs are all the all the cost to keep the ship crewed, maintained and available to trade. Crew wages, food and stores, maintenance, spares and management fee are about US$5,500 per day.

The ship has to be insured for total loss, damage and liability - another US$1,000 a day. The Owner also has to accrue for 5-yearly drydocking - another US$500 a day to be squirrelled away for the two weeks in dock. Generators consume about 2.5 tonnes per day of bunkers of essential services, US$1,750.

So far, $21,750 a day required just to cover the idle cost and with less than $5,000 a day on offer for a coal or iron ore cargo. Before readers get too misty-eyed for the plight of the Shipowner, these same vessel saw peaks of $300,000 a day before the 2008 global recession. More an illustration of the high stakes and deep pockets needed to stake a seat at the table.

The Antipodean Mariner

RTM Cook launched

2012-01-23T12:06:00.011+11:00

PN65, now ready for launch as ‘RTM Cook’, has had her second taste of the sea and has moved to the fitting out dock. The launch was delayed by a few days due to last-minute work to one of the other vessels in the dry dock. PN66 moved to the front of the dock and the keels for PN67 and PN68 were laid.

'RTM Cook' with fenders rigged and ready for float out

'RTM Cook' with PN66 ready for float forward

Flooding the dock

Yard and Owner's Representatives witnessing the safe launch

‘RTM Cook’ is about four months away from sea trials and work will now focus on commissioning the systems installed during the dock construction. Launchings are no longer the grand affairs of ships sliding down greased slipways with flags streaming and whistles blaring. A little less than two years have elapsed from first visit to the Yard to launching of the first ship.

The Antipodean Mariner

Another Tui billboard

2012-01-23T10:54:00.002+11:00

Omega Navigation System

2012-01-22T12:33:00.011+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner was riding through Gippsland this weekend and passed the defunct Omega navigation station still towering over the Victorian rural landscape. Omega was a Cold War inspired long range navigation system which expanded the principles of Decca and Loran. It used synchronised, ultra-low frequency radio to create a globally intersecting grid of Lines of Position (LOP's) which could penetrate underwater. US nuclear submarines streamed an antenna and could refix their inertial navigation systems without surfacing and potentially revealing their position to an orbiting satellite.

Omega tower at Woodside, Victoria: photo credit Far_Tracer

New Zealand was the preferred site to give the best global LOP intersection, but Kiwi's were staunchly against nuclear proliferation and scuttled the station in Aotearoa.

Merchant ships were permitted to use Omega, but the system was only marginally better than a sunsight, with an accuracy of about four miles. Corrections had to be applied to compensate for the height of the ionosphere for the time of day, signal strength was patchy in the Southern Hemisphere and the LOP's distorted close (200 Nm) to any of the seven base stations. Later Omega receivers integrated the LOP's and corrections to give latitude and longitude.

Omega hardware at Port Albert Maritime Museum

Omega begat the Transit satellite navigation, which in turn begat GPS which is on your smart phone. The Omega navigation system was turned off in 1997, technically redundant after 26 years in operation. In Victoria, the Port Albert Maritime Museum inherited the hardware and have an audio-visual display of the system's operation.

The Antiodean Mariner

The fine art of COW'ing

2012-01-20T21:46:00.001+11:00

COW'ing - Crude Oil Washing - is something of a dying art with the phase-out of single hull tankers. It was introduced in parallel with inert gas systems to reduce the volume of unpumpable residues, or ROBs, in crude oil tankers. Crude oil is not an homogeneous liquid, containing wax and sediments which drop out of suspension at sea. Research into reducing ROB's concluded that the best solvent was the crude oil itself and that washing out the tanks during discharge was the most effective way of reducing clingage and sedimentation.

COWing can only be done in an inert tank atmosphere due the high pressures and static charge generated. Tanks are discharged in bulk until about one metre remains in each tank. If the slop tanks have carried cargo, these are discharged and then recharged with 'fresh' crude. Fixed tank washing guns and eductors are driven from a cargo pump at 10 bar or 150 psi. The washing guns spray the tanks with crude oil, the eductor strips the washings back to the slop tank in a closed cycle.

Working progressively back from forward to aft, each tank is hosed down from top to bottom for about 90 to 120 minutes per tank. On large tanks, it's sometimes necessary to reprogramme the washing guns to wash the tanktop in a final sweep. COW reduces the amount of residual wax and sediment lost if a ship has to clean (with sea water) to load the next cargo. The downside of COW is that volatile fractions, valuable in the refining process, are released into the inert gas and purged into the atmosphere.

COW'ing is a technically demanding operation to plan and execute. It has become less frequently practiced with the development of full double hull tankers and the use of pour point depressant additives, which keep the solids in suspension. Charterers of tankers trading continuously in crude oil prefer to 'load on top' of previous cargoes, accepting swings and roundabouts gains and losses rather than losing the volatiles from COW. Deck Officers have to maintain a logbook of COW discharges and tankers are required to undertake a number of COW operations each year to maintain their certification.

The Antipodean Mariner would like to hear from any serving tankermen on how often they COW, or alternatively how often Charterers instruct "No COW" during discharge.

Bridge resource management

2012-01-20T16:49:00.001+11:00

Tradewinds is reporting that Carnival has ordered an urgent audit of its safety and emergency response procedures following the loss of Costa Concordia. While the media crucifixion of the Captain continues, the Antipodean Mariner is certain that Costa's Marine Superintendent is grilling the other members of the bridge team as to their role in, and reason for their collective 'brain fart' that put the ship on her side.

All deck officers receive training in bridge resource management, which is modelled on the aviation model of cockpit resource management. Under BRM, every member of the bridge team has a voice and is expected to actively raise their concerns as to the safety of any deviation from the berth-to-berth passage plan. Assuming that Costa Concordia had two navigating officers on the bridge as well as the Master, it seems inconceivable that they would assent by their silence to the deviation towards the island and is completely contrary to the principles of BRM. Carnival Cruises would spent millions of dollars every year putting their officers through simulator training and BRM.

The hierachical command structure naturally puts junior officers at a disadvantage when the Master issues an instruction but the officers had the 'advantage' of at least being the same nationality and having the same first language. 'Kennebec Captain' is a working Master and has posted some excellent bloggings on BRM - his blog is linked to the AM's.

An interesting observation that the port stabiliser fin can be seen deployed and apparently undamaged, forward of the hull penetrated by the grounding. For this to be undamaged indicates Costa Concordia was turning to starboard away from the island, which would move the stern to port and closer to the rocks.

Carnival and Costa must be questioning the culture of their bridge teams and why no-one was effective in challenged the apparent practice of 'tourism navigation'.

Anchor handling

2012-01-20T08:33:00.001+11:00

Smit Borneo, while a complex and sophisticated salvage asset, is a dumb barge and needs an attendant fleet of towage and anchor handling tugs to position her at Astrolabe Reef. The anchor spread enables the barge to winch herself to the work site and hold position in the prevailing sea and swell. Each anchor has a tail, enabling the anchor handling tug to dislodge and relay.

This sequence of GO Canopus deploying one of Smit Borneo's anchors and buoy.

Digital confetti

2012-01-18T10:30:00.001+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner has been following the general and specialist maritime media coverage of Costa Concordia. Black boxes, AIS, smartphones and even Facebook have been used to reconstruct the last hours of the vessel with incredible accuracy and insight into the minds of the main protagonists.

The digital confetti trail which follows ships, both formal and informal, is an indellible record immune to tampering but still highly transparent. The loss of Costa Concordia dwarfes that of the Rena but shows that with enough effort, information in the public domain can be reconstructed and disseminated ahead of any formal inquiry. AM believes that informed analysis will fill any information void left by officialdom, and hopes that TAIC will issue something substantive on Rena earlier than the promised mid-year statement.

Fuel consumption

2012-01-16T23:02:00.001+11:00

Change of topic off the maritime catastrophe of the day. The Antipodean Mariner has been studying devices to reduce the fuel consumption on the Capesize vessels under construction. With heavy fuel oil north of $700 a tonne, bunker consumption on a Capesize bulk carrier is around $50,000 a day while steaming, compared with break-even operating costs of about $25,000 a day.

Capesize charter rates are much lower than this opex breakeven, presenting a 'perfect storm' scenario of low hire rates and high fuel costs. The economies of scale of large ships are astounding. A slow speed, turbocharged 2-stroke diesel main engine will move one tonne of iron ore one nautical mile on one gramme of heavy fuel. However, in the tonnages moved and quantities of bunkers consumed savings are investigated in every part of the process of turning bunkers into forward motion. It is a sad fact that the new IMO Tier 2 emissions standards requires engines to consume more fuel, and emit more CO2, than the Tier 1 standard in order to meet nitrogen and sulphur limits. The California-inspired obsession with smog controls has lead to this anomaly.

There are two main areas of focus for naval architects and engineers when aproaching bluff, high block co-efficient bulk carriers and tankers. The first is the bow area, and the reduction of the wave form. Bulbous bows are falling out of fashion - great for fine-lined container and passenger ships but not for hulls experiencing up to 13 metres difference in draft between laden and ballast condition. The straight stem bow with the hint of a bulb is returning to a shipyard near you.

The second area is flow around the propellor. A number of proprietary systems make claims of 5-9% reduction in power requirements through harnessing the forward motion of the ship to improve flow into or behind the propellor. Even 5% translates to 3.5 tonnes, or $2,500 a day in operating costs.

Unfortunately, many of the Capesize ordered and built as a consequence of the 2007 freight rates orgy have little or no thought put into fuel economy. The Japanese Yards, with Government R&D assistance, have achieved some spectacular success in recovering energy and reapplying to power the ship on daily consumptions of ships half their deadweight.

Some pictures of hot technology in the market - an Oshima Seaworthy Bow on a forest products carrier, MOL's finned propeller boss and Becker's Mewis Duct.

The Antipodean Mariner

Passenger ships and the SOLAS Convention

2012-01-15T17:58:00.001+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner is shocked at the loss of the Costa Concordia on a voyage that the vessel has completed safely on a weekly schedule.

One of the readers comments asks how she could capsize to starboard after grounding in her port side?

Passenger ships are regulated by a more stringent chapter of the SOLAS Convention, the safety code regulating shipping. Passenger ships are designed to survive damage that would sink a cargo ship by having more watertight bulkheads.

There are two naval architectural principles applied to passenger ships under SOLAS.

The first is that of the margin line, an imaginary line up to which the watertight bulkheads must extend, so that if the prescribed number of watertight compartments are flooded, water will not flow over the top of the bulkhead into the adjacent dry compartment. The margin line the margin of safety.

The second principle is that passenger ships, if they are going to sink, do so on an even keel. To achieve this, they are fitted with cross-flooding valves to equalise list.

Costa Concordia suffered huge damage as a consequence of the grounding - the rock embedded in the ship's port side is evidence of this. To have sunk means that more than the 'survivable' number of compartments were breached and the margin line was submerged. To have listed to starboard means she became unstable as she sank, which is not what she was designed to do.

No passenger ship the size of Costa Concordia has ever sunk. The Antipodean Mariner speculates that the investigation will focus on why she rolled over and what the impact of an open water sinking could have on the fleet of super-cruise ships in service. The loss of life is tragic, but thousands may have died if Costa Concordia had not rolled on to an island outcrop.

This high visibility of this casualty will result in a very public inquiry into the adequacy of the passenger ship stability provisions of SOLAS.

The Antipodean Mariner

Costa Concordia sinks after grounding

2012-01-15T11:28:00.001+11:00

From Lloyd's List today. Tradewinds reports that there was a problem with the vessel's diesel-electric propulsion system immediately before she grounded.

This will be expensive. AM

Italy cruise casualty latest: 80 still missing, 3 dead

Saturday 14 January 2012

CLOSE to 80 people are still missing and three are confirmed dead after the Italian cruiseship Costa Concordia ran aground overnight off the Italian coast.

Italian coastguard officials have told Lloyd's List that while the search and rescue operation is still underway at least 77 people are currently unaccounted for.

A total of 4231 people, including 1,023 crewmembers, were on board the 2006-built, 114,147gt Costa Cruises owned vessel when it is thought to have hit a sandbar near the island of Giglio at around 21:30 hours local time on Saturday. The six year old, Rina-classed vessel, built by Costa Crociere at a cost of €450m ($526m), is reportedly taking on water and is currently lying with an 80 degree list. Coast guard officials have confirmed that there is a 40m hole in the hull of the vessel.

"At the moment we cannot make any declaration about the causes of the accident," a coastguard official told Lloyd's List earlier this afternoon. "The prosecutor is already leading the criminal investigation and a technical inquiry, carried out by the Italian coast guard, now on the scene, is on-going". The coast guard of Livorno is leading the rescue operation.

A statement issued by Costa Cruises said it could not yet say what had caused the accident, however newswire reports citing rescued passengers suggest that the vessel hit an obstacle.

"The gradual listing of the ship made the evacuation extremely difficult," the statement said. "The position of the ship, which is worsening, is making more difficult the last part of the evacuation.

"We'd like to express our deepest gratitude to the coastguard and other emergency services, including the authorities and citizens of the island of Giglio, who did their best in saving and helping the passengers and crew."

Classification society Rina issued a statement Saturday afternoon confirming that the "Costa Concordia is certified to the highest safety standards by the Italian Administration and Rina in accordance with all applicable international conventions and regulations. All periodic surveys due during 2011 were carried out in accordance with the rule deadlines and with a positive outcome."

Rina confirmed that it was providing "full assistance to the owner and administration as they work to resolve the situation".

Costa Cruises has confirmed about 1,000 Italian passengers were onboard the vessel, as well as more than 500 Germans, about 160 French and about 1,000 crew members.

According to the vessel's statutory safety passenger certificate, Costa Concordia was built with a maximum passenger capacity of 4890 people.

The Costa Concordia was sailing across the Mediterranean Sea, starting from Civitavecchia with scheduled calls to Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.

Costa Crociere is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.

Last word from Astrolabe Reef

2012-01-15T07:00:00.001+11:00

The AM's travelling for a week and using the Android Blogger app on the Samsung Galaxy tablet. In what may be the final communique from Astrolabe Reef, a close friend of the Antipodean Mariner eloquently described his feelings as they put their stern to the Rena for the last time;

The Rena is just a hulk now, whose carcase will be picked over by salvors, divers, insurers, politicians and lawyers for years to come. She no longer has any grace, life, mystique or majesty - the love affair is over.

The AM will keep a weather eye on Astrolabe Reef but the prize of salvaging the Rena has been lost.

Vale Beijing has a crane

2012-01-13T10:59:00.007+11:00

News on the Vale Beijing, the VLOC which suffered structural failure loading her first cargo in Brazil, has been very hard to come by. This article from a Brazilian newspaper on 12th January paraphrased by AM and with the help of Google Translator;

The Port of Maranhão (CPMA) said it has completed the installation of the crane on the deck of Vale Beijing, at anchor in San Marcos Bay, 60 miles off the coast of Sao Luis.

The vessel is cracked in the ballast tank located in way Hold 6 after an incident during the loading of iron ore in December 2011 at Ponta da Madeira Port Terminal (TPPM). The crane will be used to redistribute of cargo in Hold 7 forward to Holds 3 and 5 to stabilize the ship.

The Port captaincy also reported that the tanker Sea Emperor, who successfully conducted the removal of 4,500 tons of fuel oil bunkers from Vale Beijing last week, should return to the vessel again today to take off another 2,000 tonnes, leaving the damaged vessel with enough bunkers to keep running her generators running and to maintain essential services. Cargo transfer will only start after the removal of bunkers has been completed. It is planned to complete emergency repairs to the hull in San Marcos Bay.

A bad day at the Terminal - 'Trade Daring', Ponta da Madeira, 1994

Astrolabe Reef and 'no go' zones

2012-01-13T08:53:00.006+11:00

A quiet day yesterday at Astrolabe Reef with GO Canopus 'standing by' and Koraki towing around an oil absorbent boom. New Zealand is copping another low pressure system with a gale warning for sea area Plenty.

Koraki and GO Canopus on opposite sides of Rena

Friday's isobar chart

A maritime expert has opined that New Zealand should introduce compulsory 'no go' zones to stop ship's taking short-cuts around the coast but the AM's smells a bit of self-promotion of a commercial product. Every ship's Safety Management System contains instructions to the Master and Navigating Officer on passage planning. While ships have schedules to maintain, 'no go' zones will be just another useless layer of unenforceable regulation.

AM

Wreck removal

2012-01-12T11:59:00.017+11:00

With Rena now parked (badly) on Astrolabe Reef, how do you remove 11,000 tonnes of steel, engines and containers from 30 metres under the sea? Some very cool technology been developed just for this problem which, if the NZ Government plays hard ball, may be brought to bear on the problem.

The English Channel is of the world's highest collision risk areas, as ships transit to and from the major European and British ports. When the Norwegian-owned car carrier Tricolor sank off Ramsgate in 2002, after a collision with the container ship Kariba, the wreck had to be removed from the busy shipping channel. A third ship even ran over the submerged Tricolor despite navigation warnings, a standby ship and marker buoys.

Salvors Smit International developed an industrial-sized equivalent of the cheese cutter - essentially an abrasive wire (or chain) rigged to saw the large carcase of the hull into smaller, more manageable pieces. The technique was also used on the wreck of the Vinca Gorthon when she sank in the Baltic on top of a gas pipeline and to remove the explosives-laden bow of the Russian submarine Kursk when it sank off Murmansk.

Tricolor was cut into sections and lifted out - with many of the 2,871 Volvo, Saab and BMW cars still lashed down inside the vehicle decks - before being scrapped in Zeebrugge.

Tricolor cutting rig

If Rena's wreck is to be removed from Astrolabe Reef, barges could be set up either side and the cutting wire strung underneath the hull. The winches saw the wire though the hull reducing the single structure into bite-sized chunks. A sheer-legs derrick barge would then lift the sections on to flat -top barges for transport to port and eventual scrapping.

Tricolor's engineroom and propeller being lifted out of the sea

Tricolor hull section on a barge to Zeebrugge

An expensive proposition and one which Rena's P&I Club will be fighting hard to avoid. The Swedish Club carries the financial liability for wreck removal and will be looking for the lowest cost solution - maybe removal of the accommodation block and leaving the bow high and dry on Astrolabe Reef.

When salvage gets to this point, any remaining cargo is 'collateral damage'. Here's what a Volvo looks like after the cutting wire has been through it. So, an interesting challenge with the outcome dependent on the conditions Maritime NZ puts the wreck removal in what is a remote and non-navigable location. It can be done, but at what cost.

The Antipodean Mariner

Rena wrap

2012-01-12T11:05:00.008+11:00

In the absence of any real news, the Antipodean Mariner has put together a posting of bits and pieces. The mood at Astrolabe Reef is reported as being sombre on which one source commented:-

"An apt time for introspection and reflection, like the day after a funeral, when all family and friends have departed and one is left alone with very private thoughts. A sense of relief also, both that the suffering is now over and the unwanted relatives did not hang around too long."

Flattie, your Tui billboard has been found!

Just liked this cartoon from the NZ Herald

Anonymous, the tank container forward of the accommodation was a placed there by the salvors to refuel the generators and compressors (which went down with the ship)

Transport Accident Investigation Commission has said a preliminary report of the timeline and information about the vessel will be released in February, with no recommendations until July. Surprising that it's going to take 10 months to determine the root cause of the grounding. AM believes that the Owners, Insurers and P&I Club will have worked this out before July.

It has been reported that GO Canopus has disconnected her tow line and buoyed the pennant connected to Rena's submerged stern. Some of the small craft are mopping up residual diesel with towed booms and retrieving flotsam still emanating from the wreck.

Some photos from Astrolabe Reef

Tug Koraki towing an oil recovery boom around the wreck

View from astern

The Antipodean Mariner

PN65 progress report

2012-01-11T12:42:00.007+11:00

A short progress report on PN65 and PN66, seen here in dry-dock together. Launching date is fast approaching for PN65, and she will float out on 20th January. On the 23rd January the keels will be laid for PN67 and PN68.

The photo shows PN65 on the far side of the dock with PN66 in the foreground. PN66’s complete transom and poop deck are being lifted over PN65 by the dock gantry crane. PN65’s accommodation block, completely fitted out with cabins, public spaces and wheelhouse equipment, will be lifted on before launch.

Sea trials and delivery of PN65 is scheduled for May. Four of the eight NewcastleMax series will deliver into service in 2012 and four in 2013.

Rena's final arabesque

2012-01-11T08:54:00.010+11:00

Plenty of media coverage yesterday from the air as Rena took her final bow. This sequence comes from one of the support craft and gives a graphic perspective of her final pivot and roll.

MNZ have put up a series of rendered graphics of her final position in relation to the topography of Astrolabe Reef.

From MNZ's Incident Gallery

The Antipodean Mariner

Vale Beijing update at Ponta da Madeira

2012-01-10T15:36:00.008+11:00

Some fresh news of ‘Vale Beijing’, the VLOC crippled by structural failure during her first loading at Ponta de Madeira in Brazil. The tanker ‘Sea Emperor’ is alongside and de-bunkering 5,000 tonnes of her 7,500 HFO bunkers. This appears to the AM to be a strategy to minimise bunkers and to reduce the bending stress in the hull. Bunkers are available in Gibraltar and Algeciras - just over half-way to Turkey.

Salvors Smit have rigged a temporary conveyor to enable a crane ship or barge to unload the aft No.7 Hold of ore and transfer to Holds 3 and 5, which are empty. No.6 Hold, where the failure occurred, is reported to be flooded.

‘Vale Beijing’ is reported to have two cracks in her hull under the waterline, each about 60cm in length by about 10cm in width. Temporary repairs are planned to enable her to sail to Turkey for dry-docking and permanent repairs.

With 45 followers now of this Blog - mainly from the Rena first person posts - the AM needs to be more than a 'one trick pony'. Hope there is enough to keep you all interested in my maritime world.

Vale Beijing and Sea Emperor at anchor, Sao Luis

Grab ready for the arrival of the crane ship

Transferring bunkers to Sea Emperor

Shot from the bridge of the conveyor for the cargo transfer to Holds 3 and 5

The Antipodean Mariner

Rena has sunk

2012-01-10T08:42:00.008+11:00

Rena has sunk at Astrolabe Reef this morning. Only visible part of the stern is the port bridge wing.

The eyewitness account is that she appeared to be slowly settling by the stern. Very quickly, No.7 hatch began to fill and she sank below the waves. Her position is described as listed to starboard with about a 30 metre stern trim. It's understood that the front part of the stern section is still awash. MNZ may have some overflight photographs soon.

This shot taken this morning at dawn, just before she sank.

Overflight photo from MNZ this morning, showing the water level in No.7 Hold

Photo from Stuff NZ of Astrolabe Reef this morning

Hi-res aerial photos from salvage consultants LOC and Maritime NZ here.

Debris field as the aft hold goes under - MNZ/LOC

Going under - Maritime NZ/LOC

And one final photo from MNZ's gallery

This wraps up the morning's news. Maritime NZ are updating their website regularly and there are some great hi-res shots from Astrolabe Reef being posted at their incident gallery

Farewell Rena, it's been a great ride while it lasted. More from Astrolabe Reef later. Some news and photos received from Brasil on 'Vale Beijing' to be posted.

TTFN, The Antipodean Mariner

Rena salvors reboard

2012-01-09T13:18:00.005+11:00

This afternoon's update from Astrolabe Reef. Singapore remains standing by, no containers reported overboard in the last 24 hours. Salvors are reboarding the bow by helicopter to assess its condition. GO Canopus is hanging off Rena's stern on the towing bridle. Northerly 35 knots is forecast for next Friday and Saturday which may finish Rena off is she isn't already below the waves by then.

After the activity of the past month, heavy lift crane barges and salvaging containers it's now just a waiting game.

No pot of gold at the end of this rainbow

Salvor prepare to board by chopper

Nice perspective shot with GO Canopus in the background

AM

Rena update Monday 9th January

2012-01-09T08:52:00.005+11:00

Nothing to add on Rena's status that isn't in the media except some new photos of the aftermath of this weekend's gale. The Antipodean Mariner has two great quotes from Astrolabe Reef;

"Such was the compressive force of the swell, we saw a multitude of both 20 foot and 40 foot containers being forced out through the top of open hatchways. Some went straight overboard and remained intact, to float away to the North north-west. The not so fortunate ones were split open on deck, spewing their contents everywhere."

"We could see the accommodation, rolling and pitching independently of the bow section, as if like a wild animal, struggling to free itself from a hunters snare or gin trap."

Rena's shorn-off bow showing the remains of the port underdeck longitudinal girders and the port hatch coaming of the stern awash. On the starboard side is a dislodged hatch pontoon.

GO Canopus remains on station and attached to Rena's stern while Singapore performs recon duties tracking flotsam

As a mariner, it's sad to witness the death of a ship - even from afar.

Rena sea level view

2012-01-08T11:48:00.002+11:00

Two more photos from sea level which complement the aerial photos and show the force of the storm on the stranded Rena. The forward part of the stern is 8-10 metres below the line of the fully stranded bow.

AM

Rena MNZ overflight photos

2012-01-08T09:39:00.004+11:00

Maritime NZ have released these photos this morning. The AM speculates that Rena is floating on the buoyancy in her engine room and maybe No.7 Hold. The forward part is completely flooded.

Holds forward of the accommodation flooded , hatch pontoons washed away

Stern separated and misaligned with the bow

New article in the New Zealand Herald here

AM

Rena sitrep

2012-01-08T07:00:00.001+11:00

News from Astrolabe Reef this morning is that Rena has survived the night but is lively - listed 23 degrees to starboard, rolling in the heavy North-easterly swell and 5 degrees 'bow down' on the reef.

Containers and timber in the water are drifting out in to the Bay of Plenty in the 40 knot South south-easterly gale. One the AM's sources predicts Rena will be free of the Astrolabe Reef sometime mid-Sunday.

AM

Rena before the storm

2012-01-07T15:36:00.000+11:00

Mid-afternoon Saturday, and the salvage site has been 'boxed up' in preparation for the bad weather forecast to cross the North Island of New Zealand. Swell is now about 2.5 metres, forecast at peak at 4 metres at midday on Sunday but not the 7 metres reported earlier.

GO Canopus is connected with her towing bridle to Rena's stern and is providing a static tow.

Interesting to the AM is that Rena is 'open to the sea' - hatch pontoons at Holds 7, Centre, 6 Centre, 6 Port and 5 Port are off and she has no watertight integrity save for the engineroom. Preparation for a possible scutling?

Antipodean Mariner

Rena photo post

2012-01-07T07:50:00.000+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner's colleagues at Astrolabe Reef are hard at work preparing the Rena for the weekend's forecast bad weather. The salvage tug is hooked up to Smit Borneo and preparing to tow her to shelter once GO Canopus retrieves her remaining anchors today.

GO Canopus will then hook up to the towing bridle on Rena's stern and spend an uncomfortable couple of days on static tow duty as Astrolabe Reef cops a South-easterly, backing to North-easterly gale.

Good news is that containers discharged from the 'high' port side of Rena are dry, indicating that the water in No.6 Hold may be leakage from the hatch covers is the preceding heavy weather.

Surreal shot of 'Sun Princess' entering Tauranga past the wreck site

One of the 'wet' containers being discharged from No.6 Hold

Discharging No.7 Hold

The 'problem child' hatch cover on No.7

The taxi rank

AM thanks readers for the messages of support for the sources at Astrolabe Reef making this blog possible and assures everyone that a great photographic and chronological record of the salvage is being accumulated for contribution to New Zealand's maritime history.

Antipodean Mariner

Merry Christmas from Immigration NZ

2012-01-06T16:55:00.000+11:00

One for the non-Kiwi readers of this blog. What did Immigration NZ think the wives were going to bring into New Zealand - a hacksaw and a file? A lousy bureaucratic decision in the season of goodwill.

Rena wives refused NZ entry

Stuff NZ 15:09 06/01/2012

The wives of the two Filipino men charged over the Rena grounding were refused New Zealand visitor's visas just days before Christmas.

The captain and the navigation officer of the stricken ship have been kept at secret locations, thousands of kilometres away from their families, since the Rena struck Tauranga's Astrolabe Reef Taranga three months ago.

Coastmere, the owners of the Rena, planned to bring the men's wives to New Zealand during the holidays - but their visas were declined by Immigration NZ, Philippine Embassy consul Giovanni Palec said.

"The second officer was expecting it to go through, but they received this unfortunate news. We found out just before Christmas. They informed us that their wives weren't coming. They probably have to submit more document requirements to the New Zealand embassy in Manila," he said.

Immigration NZ this afternoon confirmed the visas were turned down, but could not comment further about the case without a privacy waiver.

Branch manager operations support Michael Carley said as a general rule a visitor's visa would not automatically be granted to the spouse of a person facing court action, simply for the purpose of visiting that person.

"Every visa application is considered on its individual merits in terms of whether the applicant meets policy requirements, including the bona fides of the visitor. Where there are humanitarian reasons we will consider these as part of the assessment of the application," he said.

Despite being away from their wives and children, Palec said the men were not alone during the holidays as Filipino families invited them to Christmas dinners.

"Members of the Filipino community in the areas they are staying in have been kind to them as well as other nationals and Kiwis. "They haven't had any problems and appreciated the hospitality being extended to them."

The captain and the navigation officer were arrested a week following the Rena grounding, charged under the Maritime Transport Act for "operating a vessel in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk". The charges carries a maximum penalty of up to 12 months in prison or a fine up to $10,000. The men were also charged under the Resources Management Act for the "discharge of harmful substances from ships or offshore installations", which carries a maximum penalty of a $300,000, or two years' imprisonment, and $10,000 for every day the offending continues.

Last month, the captain faced four fresh charges, and the navigation officer faced three more after it emerged that they had allegedly altered the ship's documents in the wake of the grounding. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment. The pair were remanded on bail without plea and were granted continued name suppression. They would reappear in court on February 29.

AM

Battening down the hatches

2012-01-06T09:12:00.000+11:00

Today's news from Astrolabe Reef is that preparations are underway for this weekend's forecast blow. Smit Borneo is expected to pick up her anchors and be moved to shelter on Saturday.

Smit Borneo discharging No.7 Hold

After the discharge of the No.7 Hold abaft of the accommodation, Smit Borneo was unable to replace the hatch cover. The combined movement of the barge and Rena made it tough work to position the lid on the listing hatch coaming and so it was last reported sitting on the deck of the barge.

As posted yesterday, work has started on No.6 Hold forward of the accommodation. There was a surprise for the crews on the support craft when a 40' container was discharged with a 'tide mark' and water pouring out from around the door seals. No.6 Hold is partially flooded, and with open No.7 Hold the Antipodean Mariner speculates that Rena's watertight integrity is now compromised ahead of the predicted 7 metre swells.

Sources report that the salvors have pre-designated locations assigned in case Rena breaks free from Astrolabe Reef this weekend. Providing all goes well with the repositioning of Smit Borneo, the AHTS GO Canopus will spend the weekend attached to Rena's stern with a towing bridle.

The forward section, with the forecastle head collapsed on top of the bulbous bow, is probably a lost cause and is unlikely to ever float again. Again speculation on the AM's part that with the damage and difficulty of positioning Smit Borneo in the shallowest water where Rena grounded, the salvers will concentrate their resources on the afloat stern.

The Antipodean Mariner

Lloyd's List: Telling lies about cargo can cost lives

2012-01-05T15:25:00.000+11:00

The article below is by Michael Grey, a columnist for Lloyd's List. The Antipodean Mariner has always respected Michael Grey's bluntness - his column on the loss of the Vinalines Queen is as good as you'll ever read.

Wet nickel ore in a ship's hold

Telling lies about cargo can cost lives

Liquefaction of hazardous cargo has claimed four ships in the past year

Michael Grey

Lloyd's List, Thursday 5 January 2012

WE KNOW the hazards and the very real risks that certain cargoes can be fatal. The hazardous phenomenon has been recognised, analysed and codified, along with the precautions that really do need to be taken.

But there are still people prepared to risk the lives of others, to play the percentage game. Perhaps it is a game of Russian Roulette to these people, who hope earnestly that the chamber is empty when the trigger is squeezed. Perhaps they just don’t care.

There have always been seafarers who take dangerous bulk cargoes to sea, or people who insist that they do so because the cargo has to get to the steel mills somehow, and if your ship won’t carry it somebody else’s jolly well will.

“Men must work and women must weep, and there’s little to earn and many to keep, though the harbour bar be moaning,” wrote Charles Kingsley.

But Mr Kingsley’s poem The Three Fishers was written in Victorian times, when loss of life at sea was taken for granted. This is the 21st century, when you don’t really expect 56,000 dwt, five-year-old bulkers to roll over and drown their crews.

And yet Vinalines Queen , which lost all but one member of its crew on Christmas Day, was the fourth modern ship to be lost due to cargo liquefaction in just over a year. The last mail I received before Christmas brought greetings cards along with a timely safety alert from the Standard P&I Club about cargo liquefaction, and an explanation of the phenomenon.

Cargo liquefaction is not new, but it seems to have become a latter-day plague, the recent casualties claiming 44 lives. Bulk carrier association Intercargo has made a huge effort to publicise the problem.

Now, the Standard Club has launched a drive to publicise the problem, explaining its causes and the precautions needed to ensure the safety of ships, crew and cargo.
Too many people around the world are prepared to lie like flatfish about a cargo if it is expedient to do so to get it on board ship and away.

Just as there are reptiles ashore who are quite willing to change the name of calcium hypochlorite to something innocuous to bamboozle carriers, so there are people prepared to misdeclare hazardous dry bulks such as iron ore fines and nickel ore as Group C cargoes under the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes Code. But these are Group A cargoes that can liquefy.

The Standard Club names Indonesia, China, the Philippines, India, Brazil, Ukraine and Venezuela as countries prepared to take a cavalier attitude to IMSBC declarations. Keen geographers might note that in most of these countries, when it rains, it pours down in stair rods.

Then again, apart from places where cargo interests are prepared to indulge a certain laxity in cargo declarations, the same loading ports and others can host people prepared to go to any lengths to persuade a doubtful master that his prime role is to do what he is told by the charterers, load the cargo and take it obediently to sea.

It takes a shipmaster of genuine authority, one who has experience and strength of character — not to mention full support from the owners and managers — to resist bullying and blandishments, threats of ‘blacking’ or to end his employment, and to refuse to load dubious cargo.

Does this happen? Damn right it does: you only have to speak to owners, managers and masters in this business who can give you chapter and verse.
The Standard Club advice is practical and to the point. It includes a list of frequently asked questions about the rights of the carrier and the responsibilities of the shipper under the IMSBC Code, along with those of the master, whose absolute right to say “no” the code upholds.

In these cases, the master needs friends in the shape of the club correspondent and an experienced surveyor acting for the owner, not the shipper. It makes clear that where there is doubt, water content of cargo should be ascertained by an independent laboratory and not by some crude ‘can’ test to determine whether cargo is safe to load.

All this is absolutely clear, but the reality may well be a ship fixed to take a cargo out of some rain-sodden ore port operated by the cargo owner who has dug the stuff out of a nearby hill.

Local facilities may be limited and the master can face immense pressure to comply with stevedoring bigwigs brandishing bits of paper in unfamiliar languages.

To an inexperienced shipmaster, unsure of his position, that situation can be overwhelming. It is the jungle, and that is where the law originates. But the real law ought to be on the side of the ship in such cases and, as the Standard Club’s advice makes clear, it is. There are proper procedures, and those procedures are there to be used.

This is 2012 and seafarers’ lives must not be sold cheaply.

Rena salvage moves to under-deck stow

2012-01-05T11:18:00.000+11:00

Today's news from Astrolabe Reef is that the weather is benign. With the after decks now clear and No.7 Hold aft of the accommodation completely discharged, Smit Borneo has moved forward to start on No.6 Hold under-deck stow.

For this phase, the hatch pontoons have to be removed to access the container stow. The hatch pontoons are just watertight blanks, and are not self-powered like the hatch covers on a bulk carrier. Normally, the hatch pontoons are 'stacked' on adjacent hatches by the shore container crane. As maintaining Rena's watertight intergity is paramount, the AM speculates that the Salvors will keep the pontoons at site.

Container ships don't use twistlocks in the underdeck stow, so there won't be any photos of multiple container stacks being withdrawn from the cell guides. It will be box-by-box now, mostly heavy, fully laden containers.

Nice panoramic shot of Astrolabe Reef with Mt Maunganui in the background

Great perspective shot after last week's storm, showing a new view of the bow and stern mis-alignment.

The Antipodean Mariner

Rena change of salvage strategy?

2012-01-04T09:11:00.000+11:00

With the effective separation of Rena's bow and stern, the salvors have shifted their focus to discharging the hold aft of the accommodation. If the 'new' bow area is firmly aground, the salvors will probably want it to stay that way, lighten up the stern and gain valuable buoyancy.

According to Lloyd's List Intelligence, Rena has seven holds, six forward of the accommodation/engine room and one aft above the after peak tank and steering flat.

The Antipodean Mariner isn't privy to any confidential information, but speculates that Holds 1, 2, 3 and 4 are flooded from the visible damage in way of the starboard hatch cover at Bay 8. If this speculation is correct, the aft end retains buoyancy in Holds 5, 6, the engine room and after peak tank.

Subject to weather, the AM believes the salvors will work 'aft to forward', pinning the already damaged and flooded No.4 hold and double bottoms on Astrolabe Reef. When enough of the full containers have been discharged, and there is a clear weather window, the salvors will make No.4 Hold temporarily watertight and attempt a refloating.

The AM heard a great quote recently - All you need to be a Blogger is an opinion and a good spell checker. This summary predicted from the comfort of the Antipodean Mariner's keyboard 1,500 nautical miles away from Astrolabe Reef.

AM

Berge Everest at Dalian

2012-01-03T14:19:00.001+11:00

Some photos of the 'Berge Everest' berthing in Dalian, China - the first of Vale's ChinaMax fleet to deliver a cargo to its intended destination. From Dalian, she is heading back to Singapore - presumably for bunkers - then Brazil for the next cargo.

News on her less fortunate cousin 'Vale Beijing', which remains at anchor of Sao Luis. Bad weather has so far prevented the ship from being debunkered. Lloyd's List reports that three ballast pumps are working at full capacity to match the inflow of water in from the hull failure. STX Pan Ocean are looking for a large dry-dock in Portugal or Turkey for repairs. Temporary repairs may be attempted in Brazil. No news on whether the cargo will remain in her for the voyage to dry-dock.

AM

Rena - Port of Refuge

2012-01-02T21:02:00.000+11:00

Looking in the not too distant future, it may be necessary for Svitzer to find a location to redeliver the remains of the Rena back to her Owners (Costamare). Redelivery of the hulk is another process step in the insurance claim which requires the salved property to be handed back to her Owners (Costamare) and Insurers (The Swedish Club). On the basis of Rena being declared a 'constructive total loss', the Swedish Club will own the remains of the ship.

Docmortand commented:- "Highly risk averse maritime neighbours?" I guess I don't know the area - can you elaborate a little on that? It's not important, just curiosity.

Assuming that the aft end of the Rena can be refloated, the maritime term of 'port of refuge' becomes relevant. Coastal states are obligated to provide 'ports of refuge' to ships in distress, akin to the principles of the Good Samaritan providing shelter. However, coastal states are often wary of ships becoming abandoned in their ports or sinking and blocking navigation channels.

Hypothetically, a voyage to a scrapyard in say India would require the tug and tow to pass through the coastal waters of Australia. With the most sheltered route passing through the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait, Australia may not permit the convoy to pass through these sensitive waters. When the tanker 'Prestige' suffered structural failure off the coast of Spain in 2003, the Spanish Government refused to let the damaged ship approach the coastline and even sent out a warship to make the point.

So even if Coastal States are required to offer 'ports of refuge' to ships in distress, they can impose conditions so onerous that it is often commercially expedient to scuttle the ship in deep water. A recent example was the stranding, salvage and eventual scuttling of the tanker 'Phoenix' off Cape Town , under tow to India for scrapping. The Owners of the low value ship disappeared, leaving the South African Government to foot the entire bill.

Some new photos of Rena today from various sources at Astrolabe Reef.

Rena's hull showing the mis-alignment between bow and stern.

One of the salvors inspecting the port side. Visible is the inner side structure between the shell plating and longitudinal cargo hold bulkhead.

Smit Borneo moves back into position to start discharging containers on the bow section.

The Antipodean Mariner

Tui Billboard

2012-01-02T12:26:00.000+11:00

For the non-Kiwi's following this website, Tui billboards are a New Zealand icon.

The formula is a short, pithy, irony or sarcasm-laden statement on the political, cultural or social issue of the moment followed by the ubiquitous 'yeah right'.

AM

Rena's starboard side

2012-01-02T07:49:00.000+11:00

Rena's starboard sides shows a different face to the gaping fracture on her port side. The starboard sheerstrake, where the vertical shell plating connects to the deck is almost completely submerged.

The damage from a 'sail-by' sequence shows the hatch covers lost or being dislodged from below by the containers in the hold. This could either be as a consequence of the natural buoyancy of the containers in the flooded hold or the container stack being set up by damage to the ship's double bottom on the reef.

The starboard hatch pontoon on Bay 5 is missing, Bay 8 pontoon set up

Closeup of the set up Bay 8 hatch pontoon.

Comments to the blog have questioned whether Rena can be salvaged. If the aft part can be successfully lightened and refloated, the Antipodean Mariner speculates that no Port Company in New Zealand would risk having their channel (or a berth) blocked by the hulk and will refuse to permit entry.

If the hulk can be made safe for towing to China or the Indian sub-continent for demolition, at a scrap price of about $450 per tonne and maybe 10,000 tonnes of steel in the aft end there is maybe $4.0-$4.5M on offer. However, this has been factored against the cost and risk of a 30+ day tow past highly risk averse maritime neighbours. The AM's punt is that Rena's remains, if refloated, will be towed out past the Continental Shelf and scuttled.

The Antipodean Mariner

Rena's condition worsens - hull fractures

2012-01-01T12:52:00.001+11:00

News from Astrolabe Reef today is that the Rena's condition has significantly worsened in the north easterlies driving in to the Bay of Plenty. The hull has fractured in way of No.2 and No.3 hold and the after section has dropped about 2 metres in relation to the bow. Sources also report that the list of the aft end has reduced, maybe as a result of the bow and stern 'disconnecting' and the stern settling in the reef.

Port side of Rena with the enlarged fracture

Close-up inspection of the hull fracture by the RIB Sea Three

Plenty of activity as Pacific Pearl and Black Pearl conduct diving surveys of the southern side of the Rena. Tugs Koraki, Wainui, Edwin G and Maui 1 are doing search and recovery for new debris released from the fractured hull. RIB's Sea Three and Tauranga water taxi are shuttling personnel between Rena, GO Canopus and Singapore.

More to follow!

The Antipodean Mariner

Loss of the Vinalines Queen

2011-12-29T18:54:00.001+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner is saddened by the reported loss of the modern Supramax 'Vinalines Queen', missing off the Philippines with a full cargo of nickel ore.

2005-built Supramax bulk carrier 'Vinalines Queen'

Her Master reported an 18 degree list before contact was lost with the ship and her crew of 23. Nickel ore is a nasty cargo, essentially mud with traces of nickel which is mined and exported from Indonesia using very basic 'off the beach' barging. Nickel ore is nasty because the fine particle properties make it highly susceptible to liquefaction, loss of stability and the capsize of the laden vessel.

Wet nickel ore in a ship's hold

If the loss of Vinalines Queen is confirmed to be due to cargo liquefaction, the loss of the ship and her crew was entirely preventable. In 2011, the IMSBC Code on Bulk Cargoes dealing with transportable moisture content became enforceable under the SOLAS Convention. The Code's application requires Shippers to test and declare the properties and moisture content of the cargo. Under the ISMBC Code, verification of the vessel's safety is to be confirmed by the tripartite agreement of the Port State of the exporting country, Port State of the receiving country and Flag State of the vessel.

Since the implementation of the Code, reports regularly surfaced of Shippers placing nickel cargoes in the market for shipment with clauses like "NO P&I SURVEYORS". "No P&I Surveyors" in Broker speak means no independent verification of the cargo and its suitability for shipment by P&I Club surveyors. The Antipodean Mariner has been told of local Police, on the pay of nickel exporters, confiscating cargo samples and running P&I Surveyors out of town.

That 'Vinalines Queen' loaded a cargo of nickel ore in Indonesia leading to her loss with all hands is evidence of the failure of the IMSBC Code. Despite the Code being enacted to make shipping safer, corrupt or weak regulators render it impotent and seafarers die. Here's the human face of the loss of the Vinalines Queen

Vinalines Queen Crew List

Another example of the Swiss Cheese safety model at work. No surprise that the maritime administrations of Indonesia, Vietnam and China are complicit in this preventable maritime tragedy.

The Antipodean Mariner

Post-script: One crewman survived and has been picked up by a passing ship after 5 days in the water. 22 crew remain missing and the vessel capsized in 5,000 metres of water.

Roll call at Astrolabe Reef

2011-12-28T20:49:00.001+11:00

The crane barge 'Smit Borneo' garners most of the headlines, as she strips the Rena's decks of containers. But there is a cast of supporting craft out at Astrolabe Reef acting as maritime "roadies" for the main act.

GO Canopus, Dynamically Positioned AHTS laying anchors for Smit Borneo

Bunker barge Awanuia, removing bunkers and lubes

Waka Kume, pull-back tug for Awanuia to keep her clear of Rena's stern

Tug Katea and Sea-Tow 60, shuttling containers to Tauranga

Sea-Tow's tug Koraki

Tug Maui 1

Landing barge Subritsky

Tug Wainui towing barge Pohonui, which carried the worst of the decomposing reefer containers

Tug Petra G

Tug Pacific Pearl, her RIB Black Pearl astern and RIB Genesis

Today's report from the site is that the weather is deteriorating at Astrolabe Reef as the tail end of ex-Tropical Cyclone Fina crosses the North Island. Anchor relaying are the orders of the day.

The Antipodean Mariner

Structural failure in a Panamax

2011-12-28T09:30:00.001+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner has been reviewing a report on structural failure on a Panamax bulk carrier. The ship in question is nothing special, one of many standard bulk carriers built in the mid-1990's at a reputable Japanese Yard. She has traded without problems until now and had just completed Special Survey which entailed a lot of close-up attention of the hull structure by her Managers and Class.

The problem came to the crews' attention when she arrived at a terminal to load. Water was seen gushing from a crack in the hull where a ballast tank and cargo hold bulkhead joined the shell plating. The area of the shell plating was cropped out and replaced, and the welded seam sent away for metallurgical analysis.

Analysis of the weld found a flaw in the welded seam which had been undetected for over 15 years. An asymmetric weld profile on the two sides of the hold bulkhead, combined with impurities in the weld, had lead to a crack propagating into the shell plating and the cracking of the hull.

Worse was to come when the vessel's hull cracked in adjacent frames on the next laden leg of the same voyage. More repairs were done and the ship sits awaiting the outcome of the inevitable legal dispute between the Owners and Charterers.

The moral of this posting is that despite computer aided design, fatigue analysis and close-up inspections, inherent defects can take years to manifest themselves. It was fortunate for the crew that this defect didn't lead to a catastrophic failure in the single hull bulk carrier.

The Antipodean Mariner

Up in smoke

2011-12-26T21:17:00.000+11:00

One of the Antipodean Mariner's contributors was at the right place at the right time with a camera to catch this mini-disaster unfold. Swire's 'Kwangi' was loading pulp in the port of Tauranga when one of the forklifts had small problem that became a large problem. The photos tell the rest of the story...

No-one hurt, scratch one forklift.

AM

Christmas at Astrolabe Reef

2011-12-25T08:19:00.000+11:00

Work goes on at Astrolabe Reef over Chritsmas without a break. Salvage sites are 'dry' sites so no Christmas cheer while the boats and barge are working. A nice sequence from the salvage, as Rena's decks are cleared of empty containers to Smit Borneo. The technique used is for the barge to tie up to the Rena and the wires to the anchor pattern tensioned to keep her in position just a few metres from the hull.

Anchor spread for Smit Borneo on the northern side of Rena

The container stackes connected with twistlocks are disassembled on the deck of Smit Borneo and then transferred to the smaller barges to be towed in to Tauranga.

Nice shot of Singapore standing by. She is primarly equiped for ocean towage and is not nimble enough to foot it up close to the Rena.

One of the AM's contributers observed that Nature abhors a vacuum. The waters around the Rena are teeming with fish and (smarter) birds.

Watch ex-Tropical Cyclone Fina as it moves eastwards towards the North Island.

Merry Christmas to everyone out at Astrolabe Reef and to the Readers.

The Antipodean Mariner

What's wrong with the AP exclusive on the Rena

2011-12-23T10:10:00.000+11:00

The NZ media has been saturated with an Associated Press ‘exclusive’ about Rena’s detention by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, and the general evils of any ship flying a ‘flag of convenience’. The premise drawn in the ‘exclusive’ is that the detention of the Rena was a precursor to her grounding on Astrolabe Reef.

The Antipodean Mariner holds no stock with this theory – it has the journalistic ‘depth’ of a paddling pool and doesn’t consider all of the factors leading to the accident (see Swiss Cheese, 8/12/11).

No apologies or excuses are made for the defects found in the AMSA inspection. They are all credible evidence as to how the vessel was being operated and maintained. However, the container securing pins and bilge alarm did not cause the ship to run aground. The evidence is that the ship deviated from her planned route and grounded on Astrolabe Reef. In an aviation accident investigation, this would be called a Controlled Flight in to Terrain. This phrase was coined to describe where a perfectly good aircraft is flown into terrain due to the flight crew being unaware of the hazard in their flight path.

Based on the evidence to date, ‘Controlled flight in to terrain’ is a near-perfect correlation with the Rena’s fate. The Transport Accident Investigation Authority is charged with the conducting investigation and will use aviation techniques to examine all the factors including what commercial imperatives were placed on the Master an crew by MSC.

Not the Rena - 'MSC Napoli'

A beat up by Union-appointed ITF Inspectors and academics is lazy journalism and only serves to put the focus on the pixelated outlines of the hapless Master and Second Officer. Here’s a tip for the journo’s following this Blog – take a look at how many MSC owned and chartered ships get scrapped on beaches in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Antipodean Mariner counts 73 MSC-prefixed containers ships scrapped since 2009. Take a look at how many MSC container ships are involved in serious casualties. MSC’s business model is to run old ships at the end of their commercial life. Rena, at 21 years, fits that model perfectly. Plenty of material out there for the Google jockeys.

The Antipodean Mariner

Tradewinds: Vale VLOCs a "loss-leader"

2011-12-23T08:47:00.000+11:00

If you ever needed proof that a Shipbroker could sell refrigerators to Eskimo's, read on. I'm sure Vale's Board of Directors are congratulating themselves now on cunning plan brilliantly executed.

AM

Vale VLOCs a "loss-leader" (Tradewinds)

Losses Brazilian mining giant Vale may suffer from selling its 19 very large ore carriers (VLOCs) might be a small price to pay to gain access for the behemoths to Chinese ports, according to ICAP Shipping’s James Leake.

The broker’s research managing director says Vale may have come in for unfair criticism from many commentators for its move into industrial shipping.

Attention has focused “purely on the shipping dimension and citing the likely thumping discount of current market values to original purchase prices,” says Leake.

But, he says the ”contrarian” view suggests that even in a worst-case scenario any loss would be “covered by the profit from the sale of iron ore from only one or two shipments in these vessels, even at current depressed ore prices.”

Added Leake:”Ultimately, this may be a small price to pay for the political capital that could be achieved by transfer of ownership to Chinese interests, with the endgame being the acceptance of these behemoths in Chinese ports.

“Vale, after all, is in the iron ore business first and foremost—this could prove to be the most extravagant loss-leading strategy of all time.”

Leake says the announcement that Vale plans to sell off its VLOCs with long-term charters back comes as no surprise.

Those vessels already delivered have not received approval to enter China’s ports.Also, one of the newbuildings, the 400,00-dwt Vale Beijing (built 2011), developed cracks in the hull while being loaded at Ponta da Madeira, northern Brazil.

Vale placed orders in 2008 for 12 of the so-called Valemax vessels for construction by Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries in China, plus seven more in 2009 at Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.

A further 16 similar-size vessels have been ordered in China and South Korea for other companies for long-term charter to Vale.All are set to enter service by 2013.

By Geoff Garfield in London

Published: 11:02 GMT, 22 Dec 11 updated: 11:04 GMT, 22 Dec 11

Rena - New charges laid against Master and 2/O

2011-12-21T16:12:00.000+11:00

Photo: LOC and Maritime NZ

Story today from the Bay of Plenty's SunLive. The Master and Second Officer have been charged with 'flogging the log'...

New charges laid against Rena pair

Posted at 9:59am Wednesday 21st Dec, 2011 By Letitia Atkinson

The two sailors facing charges related to the grounding of the Rena on the Astrolabe Reef are each facing new charges related to obstructing/perverting the course of justice. The captain and Navigation officer in court on November 2. Their interim name suppression is continuing. The 236m container ship’s captain and navigation officer appeared in the Tauranga District Court this morning where the new charges were laid.

The charges are under sections 117(e) and 66 of the Crimes Act and are for allegedly altering ship documents subsequent to the Rena’s grounding on October 5. The captain, or master, faces four new charges and the navigation officer three charges, with each charge carrying a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment. Further details about why the new charges were laid were not revealed in court as the Crown requires a time extension to allow new documents to be filed.

The men are also charged under the Maritime Transport Act 1994 for operating a vessel in a manner likely to cause danger and under the Resource Management Act 1991 for discharging a contaminant. The RMA charge is under section 338 (1B) and (15B) relates to the ‘discharge of harmful substances from ships or offshore installations’.

It carries a maximum penalty of a fine of $300,000, or two years imprisonment and $10,000 for every day the offending continues.

They also both face one charge each under section 65 of the MTA ‘for operating a vessel in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk’. These charges carry a maximum penalty of $10,000 or a maximum term of imprisonment of 12 months.

Judge Christopher Harding has extended their interim name suppression. The pair was remanded on bail and is due to reappear in court on February 29.

In this new age of Voyage Data Recorders and AIS position records, it's pretty hard to alter the electronic 'bread crumb trail' after the event.

AM

Vale Beijing salvage plan

2011-12-21T10:14:00.000+11:00

With the assistance of Google Translator, the Antipodean Mariner has been able to pull together a summary as at 20th December;

STX Pan Ocean have appointed Smit as salvors, and their first priority is to debunker the ship at anchor of the bulk of her fuel oil, leaving sufficient to maintain essential services. The debunkering plan requires ratification by the Brazilian Institite of the Environment and Natural Resources. A floating crane is to be brought to Sao Luis to redistribute cargo from the damaged No.7 Hold to Holds 3 and 5.

Vale Beijing (above) is being towed off the berth to anchorage - the iron ore residues on her deck from the ship loader indicate that Holds 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7 are loaded. She was reported to have had 260,000 tonnes loaded, with 20,000 tonnes in No.7 Hold at the time of the structural failure. It is believed that she will go to Rotterdam for dry-docking and permanent repairs. Unknown whether she can make the voyage under her own power with the structural damage adjacent to the engineroom bulkhead and accommodation.

AM

Vale Beijing Condition of Class

2011-12-19T11:17:00.000+11:00

There has not been much new information on the 'Vale Beijing' , with the exception last week of the Chinese Shipowners Association playing the 'oily penguin' card and claiming that the ships are unsafe and an environmental hazard. Not a great vote of confidence by the Chinese Shipowners Association in the Chinese shipbuilding industry considering that 20 of the Vale fleet are built in Chinese yards.

Some new information which may have inadvertently been picked up by web crawler are the details of the Condition of Class imposed by DNV on Vale Beijing. A Condition of Class is a defect notice which describes the problem and what needs to be done to repair or rectify and in what timeframe. This is no longer on DNV's public website, indicating it may been removed from public view. The shorthand has explanatory notes square-bracketed:-

DNV Class Records for Vale Beijing
[Condition of Class Status] Overdue
CC 1 [Condition of Class No.1]
[Date and Office imposing the CoC] 2011-12-05, Rio de Janeiro
[Date of Expiry of the Condition of Class] 2011-12-10

#7 Port & Starboard Side WBT All six heavily buckled / fractured web frames, deformed / cracked side shell plating and distorted / cracked longitudinal stiffeners to be repaired / renewed. An action and repair plan is to be submitted / agreed including proposed sailing / towing condition, repair location (berth and/or anchorage) and loading condition before leaving São Marcos Bay, Ponta da Madeira Anchorage Area 6. Vessel to be assisted by tugs at anchorage area.

Photo of an unrelated VLOC under construction, showing the oval web frames (buff colour) either side of the cargo hold (grey colour)

Web frames are the oval steel structures between the ship's outer hull and cargo hold. On a VLOC like Vale Beijing, each web frame will be about 25 metres in height and about 15 metres wide (or deep). The CoC reports that the six web frames either side of No.7 Cargo Hold are heavily buckled along with the longitudinal stiffeners. This has lead to the our hull cracking and reports of water in the cargo hold mixed with the 20,000 tonnes of cargo reported as loaded in that hold.

The cached record of the DNV Condition of Class can be found here. Vale Beijing remains at anchor at Ponta de Madeira.

The Antipodean Mariner

Road Trip

2011-12-15T22:24:00.000+11:00

No shipping content at all in this posting.

The Antipodean Mariner realised a long-held goal this year to do a motorcycle 'road trip'. In the AM's case, 4,653 km through western Victoria and New South Wales to Queensland on two wheels. The weapon of choice for the trip was the '92 BMW K1100LT tourer, fully loaded with tent and sleeping bag. The AM's family flew to the holiday destination giving a window of nine days to cross three states to (and from) the sun and beaches.

The broad plan was to avoid the coast and take the Newell Highway from Victoria, skirting around Brisbane to destination Maroochydore.

What made the trip really memorable was the solitude. Nine days on the road solo. Some days, the AM only spoke to a handful of people. Petrol station cashiers, cafe counter staff, the caravan park custodian. Whole days spent in the saddle in communion with the rural Australia.

Highights were the scenery and wildlike - slowing (or avoiding) emus, wombats, kangaroos, snakes and lizards. Low point was standing under a shop awning in pouring rain in Junee NSW eating a fried chicken skewer.

The Beemer was perfectly matched to the task. Not sure yet when or where the sequel will be, Australia still has a lot to explore.

The Antipodean Mariner

Beira Mozambique

2011-12-15T09:18:00.000+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner’s network is reporting progress at the new coal terminal in Beira. Berth 8 is a co-development by resource companies but will be operated by the Government port company CFM and stevedores Cornelder. Based on the site of a defunct minerals exporting berth, all traces of the old terminal have been erased and replaced with a modern, but basic, coal handling infrastructure.

When completed, the terminal will comprise a rail wagon unloading siding, yard stacker, two quadrant ship loaders and a single berth for up to SupraMax (55,000 DWT) bulk carriers.

The terminal is expected to be completed by February 2012 and will have a designed annual throughput of about 6 million tonnes of high grade coking coal for steel making. At this point, it is believed that the railway line linking the mines to the port will be the capacity constraint, and not the terminal.

Quadrant Shiploader South

Yard stacker which will build the stockpiles

Looking down the belt feeding the Stacker

Coeclierici's 'Bulk Zambesi' trans-shipper

Coal will be exported from Beira using two widely differing methods. Bulk carriers of up to 55,000 DWT will be able to load about 40,000 tonnes of coal at Berth 8, limited only by the draft at the berth and channel. Italian trans-shipment specialists Coeclierici have built two specialised trans-shippers which will load about 30,000 tonnes of coal at Berth 8, sail out from Beira and load Panamax and Capesize bulk carriers at anchorage off Beira.

The first trans-shipper, Bulk Zambesi is at Beira awaiting her first cargo with sister-ship Bulk Limpopo under construction in China. Both have been contracted to Vale for their coal exports.

The Antipodean Mariner

Berge Everest to discharge in the Philippines

2011-12-14T13:30:00.000+11:00

Update 29th December: Berge Everest has sailed to and berthed at Dalian, China on 28th December. Seems the time wa right and the impass has been broken. AM

==========

There has been speculation in the shipping media that one of the 'small' Vale ore carriers, Berge Everest (388,000 DWT), may be heading to China to 'test the waters' for acceptance of a fully loaded VLOC.

'Berge Everest was built in Bohai Shipyard for Berge Bulk and chartered to Vale for the Brasil - China ore trade.

Berge Everest loaded her first cargo in Brasil in early November and headed east. The vessel has changed her AIS destination from Singapore to Villanueva, a JFE Steel Corporation sinter plant in the Philippines. Villanieva has an ore berth with 21.5 metres draft and which is able to accommodate the Berge Everest.

Looks like the time isn't right just yet.

AM

Integrated Bridge

2011-12-13T16:12:00.001+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner has spent the last ten months (with the support of the Hong Kong Plan Approval team) reviewing and commenting on the hundreds pages of drawings and technical information requiring approval for the Capesize newbuilding project.

One of the most rewarding as a mariner has been specifying the Integrated Bridge Console for PN65 series. Most bulk carriers are delivered into service with the traditional bridge layout (port to starboard) of electrics, navigation lights, alarm panel, auto-pilot, engine control and radars. Ergonomically lousy and requiring the Officer off the Watch to walk (sometimes run) between the various consoles. The last thing needed when things are turning to s@#t in heavy traffic or in a port approach.

The ergonomic console selected for the series is the L3 NACOS Platinum integrated bridge console. The focal point for control of the ship is the starboard conning station. From this position, the OOW has main engine, autopilot, overlaid ECDIS (digital chart), radar, telephone and VHF radio all within arms reach. A second ECDIS/radar unit is stationed to port of the helm position for the Master or Pilot.

These photos are from a sister ship at the Yard which is nearing completion.

Integrated Console looking to starboard

Starboard conning position

The AM's ships are going to have the Bridge Navigating Watch Alarm System (a deadman alarm) integrated into the radar and ECDIS and with motion sensors so that the hapless OOW doesn't spend four hours pushing the alarm reset button.

The one reversion to traditional hardship is that the two cockpit-style bridge chairs have been deleted - same as for the AM's vessels. The Owners of this ship obviously have the same concerns about comatose watchkeepers in a pair of huge, comfy chair in front of the console.

AM

Capesize PN65 is a complete hull

2011-12-12T16:25:00.000+11:00

Another really quick post on the progress of PN65 and PN66. PN65 is a complete vessel for the first time with the fitting of her bulbous bow.

Block for a sister ship is lifted over PN65

PN65 block comprising side shell, stool piece and bulkhead slotted in to No./No.2 Hold

Ready for lowering

Almost there

In position, ready for welding

Bulbous bow is lowered in to position and PN65 is a complete hull

PN65's Forecastle in the Paint Shop (upside down)

Sister-ship PN66 next to PN65 (Looking in to the Engine Room). Another identical Cape is in the dock ahead.

Photos courtesy of the Site Supervision Team

Tha Antipodean Mariner

Smit Borneo

2011-12-12T08:43:00.000+11:00

Short posting with a couple of aerial shots of the crane barge 'Smit Borneo' being prepared for deployment at the wreck site.

Smit Borneo in the Port of Tauranga

Smit Borneo and Rena

Photos are attributed to Nick Haslam, from salvage specialists London Offshore Consulting and published in the daily Maritime News Clippings. This daily email is a brilliant free read if you're a shipping geek like the Antipodean Mariner

Current AIS picture shows 'Smit Borneo' alongside Rena with the tugs Maui 1, Koraki and Wainui in attendance. 'Singapore is sheltering behind Motiti Island with the SeaTow fleet.

AM

Easy Loading Notation

2011-12-09T12:58:00.000+11:00

Vale Beijing is classed with Classification Society Det Norske Veritas (DNV). DNV’s role is to act as the effective industry regulator in checking the structural integrity and construction standards. Using advanced finite-element analysis computer modelling, DNV compares the design against its own structural rules to determine what Class Notation will be assigned to the vessel.

DNV model of a bulk carrier's hull

Class Notation is a shorthand summary of the features incorporated into the design and construction of the vessel. Vale Beijing’s notation is;

1A1 Ore Carrier ESP ES(O) E0 BWM-E(s) IB-3 COAT-PSPC(B) BIS EL-2 TMON NAUTICUS (Newbuilding)

The notation EL (Easy Loading) is a new one developed for large bulk carriers. EL-1 means that each cargo hold must be loaded in two pours of about 50% of the total capacity. This is the current ‘norm’ in the bulk trades, and is done to minimise the bending and shear force stress in the ship’s structure as cargo is poured in and ballast water is pumped out.

EL-2 notation means that the full capacity of the cargo hold can be loaded in a single pour. This reduces the amount of unproductive time at the terminal shifting the ship loader between hatches. In the case of Vale Beijing, that’s 45,000 tonnes of iron ore in each of her 9 hatches at a loading rate of up to 16,000 tonnes per hour.

The Antipodean Mariner doesn’t have the technical knowledge to second guess the structural calculations and algorithms on which DNV assessed the hull girder. The observation is made that this class of vessel are the largest bulk carriers ever built, and Bulk carriers suffer far higher hull stresses than VLCC tankers of a similar sizes due to heavy iron ore being poured into a single hold rather than being spread across multiple tanks. STX and DNV will be poring over the design calculations to ascertain how a brand new ship suffered such a catastrophic structural failure during her first loading.

Follow the link to footage from a local Brazilian TV channel showing Vale Beijing being towed ‘dead ship’ to anchorage in Sao Luis.

The Antipodean Mariner will continue to follow this story and keep the blog updated with any developments.

PS: News from Bloomberg that Vale Beijing has cracking in her hull, ballast tanks and cargo hold - indication to the Antipodean Mariner that the problem is structural failure rather than a fault in a welded seam.

AM

Swiss Cheese

2011-12-09T08:15:00.000+11:00

The investigation into the grounding of the Rena will primarily concentrate on the decisions made on the bridge in the last hours before her grounding on Astrolabe Reef.

However, the Antipodean Mariner expects that the investigation will cast the net wider than just the bridge team and ask what commercial pressures were being placed on the Master and crew.

Every company’s safety management system will contain the motherhood statement that safety is never to be compromised by commercial considerations, but in the real world a Master always has the commercial considerations front and centre in his decision-making process. Container ships like the Rena are always under pressure to maintain schedule for the onward feeder connections at the global container hub ports.

The Antipodean Mariner won’t speculate on schedule pressure at this point, but puts forward the ‘Swiss Cheese’ safety model familiar to most seafarers.

The Swiss Cheese model is applicable to all structured safety management systems and assumes that no accident occurs due to a single, isolated system failure. Accidents occur due when ‘holes’ in the multiple lines of systems, equipment and procedural defences line up.

For an investigation of the Rena casualty to be meaningful, all the factors leading to the decision to turn the auto-pilot dial to 'Port' have to be considered. Did the Rena sail from Napier, leaving cargo behind, to make the tide and berthing slot in Tauranga? What did the Harbour Control advise the ship in respect to her prospects for making the tidal window to enter Tauranga? What would have been the impact of missing the tide on Rena’s onward schedule?

Irrespective of the decision taken on the bridge, the Antipodean Mariner hopes that the decisions of others not aboard the Rena on the morning of October 5th are determined and appropriately weighted to avoid the simple ‘scapegoating’ of a the individuals presently bailed in Tauranga.

The Antipodean Mariner

Rena salvage archive

2011-12-08T20:50:00.000+11:00

The National Library of NZ has posted a request on the blog...

"Hi there, The National Library of New Zealand would like to archive a copy of your blog for the Library's collections. We've been reading your commentary on RENA with much interest."

The Antipodean Mariner has replied to the National Library of NZ with a yes, but has one further 'ask' for the librarians of Wellington.

As you guys are down there in Wellington and kind of close to Maritime NZ, do you think you could give them a call and ask them really nicely to talk to Svitzer who will in turn talk to the Operators of the 'GO Canopus' and ease up on the non-disclosure clause? The Antipodean Mariner's man at Astrolabe Reef still has some great insights and photos of the salvage to share with the followers of this blog.

www.worldmaritimenews.com

Thanks in advance,

AM

Rena container salvage update

2011-12-07T15:12:00.000+11:00

Following is some really "yummy" photos of the Rena (the ones you don't get to see on TV or newspaper) which have been passed to the Antipodean Mariner. The commentary is from the salvor on the barge.

"The containers on the stern were the first to be taken off after the oil had been removed. Refrigerated containers were particularly dangerous as the meat had decomposed so badly, methane gas virtually exploded the containers, and all the carcases, meat and stuff inside, dropped onto the decks of the barges. It is considered a "bio-hazard" and is very, very smelly. You can smell it three miles away. some containers we put on have maggots dripping out the doors. How they got in there, who knows..

We have a big barge, ST-60 anchored to the stern of the ship. The crushed containers mostly have to be taken out in bits, and the rotten insides, sometimes end up on the aft of the ship where the stink and problem of removing it all start.

When the weather is really good, we can lift five stacks a time. Our best is 17 in one day, and the worst 1.

When the container crushes (like the above which is only a third it's original 40' size) rotten meat litters the work area. At the hull touch on the reef, the ship has a complete split right around and is only just hanging on by small bits.

Once have filled the barge, we set sail for home. Recently we've started to tandem tow, which gives us about 2 1/2 hours to the docks in Tauranga. The tidal flow is quite challenging at a flow rate of up too 4kts. We can only work in a limited window for exits but mostly inbound trips. We need a pilot on each in and out. If we don't tandem, it takes us about 4 hours.

Cheese, pies, filled rolls and milk often are found floating past in the diesel."

The crane barge 'Smit Borneo' has arrived at the Port of Tauranga, and with her larger and more stable platform will become 'home' to the Salvors for the foreseable future.

'Smit Borneo' entering Tauranga under tow by 'Svitzer Singapore'

The Antipodean Mariner

Vale Beijing - who owns the problem?

2011-12-07T08:38:00.000+11:00

'Vale Beijing is reported to have been succesfully shifted off the Ponta de Madeira ore berth to anchorage. The link to the Reuter story (below) has a photo gallery of the ship on the berth and judging by her deep laden condition there is a lot more than the 200,000 tonne of iron ore reported yesterday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-vale-shipping-idUSTRE7B512120111206

Vale Beijing at Ponta de Madeira Terminal: Reuters

'Vale Beijing' under tow to anchorage at Ponta de Madeira: Reuters

Highlights of the story are that the vessel could not use her engines during the move for fear of worstening the structural damage, and that divers are examining the underater hull indicating that the cracking may not be confined to the ballast tanks and cargo holds.

The theme of this posting is who owns the problem. 'Vale Beijing' is owned and operated by Korean shipping line STX Pan Ocean, and at this point they will be bearing the financial pain of the ship being off-hire and the cost of repairs. These in turn may be recoverable from the ship's Builders, STX Offshore, through the 12 month 'new ship' warranty and her insurers.

Vale is suffering major damage to its brand and reputation due to the decision to put their name on the fleet of ValeMax ore carriers. Having your brand on such a visible asset is normally a marketers dream - until something goes wrong. The grounding of the 'Exxon Valdez' was the reason Exxon divested itself from ship owning, even though it remains the world's largest oil shipper.

The Antipodean Mariner predicts that this incident, along with the wrestle for control of the iron ore supply chain, will cause Vale to quietly debrand these assets. Four of the 'smaller' 388,000 DWT ore carriers built by Berge Bulk and chartered to Vale do not carry the Vale name, and this may prove to be the way forward.

The Antipodean Mariner

'Vale Beijing' cracking at Brazilian terminal

2011-12-06T08:58:00.000+11:00

New is circulating that 'Vale Beijing', one of the new ValeMax VLOCs, has suffered cracking while loading at the Brazilian port fo Pant de Madeira. The crack is apparently in the No.7 Hold and water is flooding into the hold from an adjacent ballast tank. The ship was scheduled to load 384,000 tonnes of iron ore but loading was stopped when she had about 200,000 tonnes loaded and with about 20,000 tonnes in the No.7 Hold.

Sources have advised the Antipodean Mariner that the ship will be moved off the loading berth and her bunkers are going to be pumped off to reduce the risk of pollution. Ponta de Madeira is a loading terminal and there are no facilities to discharge the ore aboard 'Vale Beijing'.

'Vale Beijing' was built at STX Jinhae Shipyard Korea, owned by STX Pan Ocean and time-chartered to Vale. The vessel is on her maiden voyage and Ponta de Madeira is her first cargo loading.

The Antipodean Mariner

Clean bottom

2011-12-05T17:24:00.000+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner was trying to think of a witty, double-entendre for this posting but this was the best he could come up with.

Ships during their trading life have statutory periods during which they have to dry-dock for inspection and painting of the underwater hull. A dry-docking and paint job costs about $500,000 every five years for a newish ship not including time off-hire in the dock. Evironmental regulations have banned anti-fouling coatings that release heavy metals (tin and lead) into the marine environment. Towards the end of the normal, five year docking cycle speed slows and fuel consumption increases as barnacles and slime get established on the hull. The amount of growth experienced depends where the ship is operating the and how ‘friendly’ the environment is to the crustaceans.

One of the Antipodean Mariner’s ships was experiencing a dramatic increase in fuel consumption and speed loss after trading for an extended period in the tropics. A cargo was secured for a voyage into the cooler waters of the North Pacific and a bottom clean scheduled for the voyage home.

The technique used is to anchor the ship in clear water and clean the marine growth off with rotary scrubbing brushes. A team of divers can do the whole underwater hull and propeller in a couple of days for a fraction of the cost of dry-docking.

The photos show the divers cleaning around the ship’s stern, with the economy flow-fin in the foreground and propeller visible in the background.

Before and after the hull cleaning.

Before:

After:

Job done and she’s on her way to load her next cargo. Speed has increased by two knots and fuel consumption reduced by six tonnes a day.

The Antipodean Mariner

Ore Wars - Vale vs. China

2011-12-05T11:02:00.000+11:00

More shots are being fired in the increasingly bitter dispute between Vale and China’s ship-owing interests (read the Chinese Government). Vale is irrevocably committed to their now-380,000 DWT ore carriers under construction in China and South Korea. To circumvent the ban on their ships unloading at Chinese ports, Vale is setting up transhipment hubs in Malaysia (a land-backed ore terminal) and Subic Bay (a floating transhipment vessel) to break down the large into smaller shipments which can enter China ‘under the radar’.

Conceptual model of Vale's Subic 280,000 DWT Transhipper

Sadly, it is a futile exercise for both parties as China needs Vale’s iron ore for its steel industry.
The following article is courtesy of Lloyd’s List.

The Antipodean Mariner

Lloyds List: China shipowners take off the gloves in Vale scrap

China Shipowners Association takes aim at Philippines and Malaysian transhipment centres

Tom Leander

Friday 2 December 2011

THE China Shipowners’ Association has taken aim at Brazilian iron ore giant Vale’s plans for transhipment hubs in the Philippines and Malaysia in the most stinging public rebuke yet against the miner, writes Tom Leander in Hong Kong.

CSA vice-executive chairman Zhang Shouguo also condemned Vale’s plan to float 400,000 dwt ships to bring down its transport costs into China as a matter of “monopoly and unfair competition”.

“Vale’s current task of top priority is to immediately stop its ambitious fleet expansion plan and especially cease the construction of 400,000 dwt very large ore carriers and other types of bulkers,” Mr Zhang said.

Earlier this year, Mr Zhang condemned global mining companies in general for seeking to control the price of transport, which he decried as monopolistic and unfair to Chinese shipowners, but did not mention Vale. The current statements go a step further. They signal that the gloves are off against the world’s largest iron producer in the dispute over its so-called Valemax vessels.

Four of the these vessels have been delivered, the most recent being the long-awaited dispatch of Vale China , the first 400,000 DWT vessel to be built in a Chinese yard. Vale’s plan has become so sensitive that Rongsheng Heavy Industries , which built the vessel, downgraded the size of Vale China and an order of 11 additional Valemax ships to be built in Rongsheng to 380,000 dwt.

Vale has yet to receive permission from local authorities to allow the Valemax vessels to enter China’s ports fully loaded. The inability to bring the Valemax vessels directly to China has prompted Vale to establish transhipment centres of iron ore in Malaysia and now Subic Bay in the Philippines. In September, Vale and the Philippines Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority signed a memorandum of agreement to build a transhipment hub by deploying a floating terminal to be located at the deepwater harbour near the Bataan peninsula. From the hub Vale plans to deliver its iron ore via feeder vessels to China, as well as South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Mr Zhang attacked the facility — and the one in Malaysia — as “violating the principle of optimising resource deployment”. He added, that “at present the existing fleet in the market is completely able to satisfy the iron ore shipping demand” and decried the “waste of resource” that the plan would bring about.

He also called into question Vale’s ability to run a fleet properly. “It is difficult for them to run ships as good as professional shipping companies and thus tend to arouse safety and environmental risks.”

But he reserved the strongest words about the plan, in his view, of Vale’s bid to control the economic equation of iron ore transport. “Vale holds the cargo itself,” Mr Zhang said, “and intends to control shipping tonnage. It is a matter of monopoly and unfair competition which not only harms the shipping interest of mainland China, but also that of South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.”

Vale has been quiet in response to the resistance from the CSA. It was reported that in September the company had approached shipowners about possible charters of the 400,000 dwt bulkers, or even sale and leaseback arrangements.

A Vale official told Lloyd’s List earlier this week: “We are declining to make any comment regarding this project.”

Rena grounding investigation

2011-12-02T14:21:00.000+11:00

As the salvage operation progresses, questions are being asked as to when the Transport Accident Investigation Commission will release the preliminary report on the reasons for the Rena running aground on Astrolabe Reef. TAIC’s website confirm that the vessel has a ‘black box’ data recorder and that the contents has been successfully downloaded.
(http://www.taic.org.nz/)

The fact that the Master and Second Officer have been charged over the grounding is no surprise to the professional mariners following the site. The midnight to 04:00 watch is the Second Officer’s customary watch, and the Captain is responsible for the ship, even when he is asleep.

The Antipodean Mariner has no special inside information on what happened on Rena’s bridge on the morning of October 5th, but offers the following hypothetical based on the ship’s AIS track and his own experience.

The Second Officer would have taken over the watch (control of the ship) at midnight from the Third Officer, confirmed the ship’s position and visually checked for any traffic around the ship. All ships have to have a passage plan which has the ship’s planned track and waypoints where the course will be changed. The passage plan is prepared by the Second Office and signed off by the Captain.

At midnight, Rena was tracking across the Bay of Plenty, north of White Island on a westerly course. After passing White Island, the Rena altered course to port to 263 degrees, which would have seen her passing clear of Astrolabe Reef by about two nautical miles and entering the area where the Port of Tauranga Pilot would board the ship. However, from about 01:20 in the morning, something happened which caused the Second Officer initiated a series a series of small course alterations to port which placed her on a more direct heading to meet the Pilot but also passed over Astrolabe Reef.

Astrolabe Reef is a well charted obstacle but unmarked by any beacons and it’s unlikely that the reef‘s break would appear on the radar display. Rena is a relatively old ship (built in 1990) and it is also unlikely that she would be fitted with an electronic chart display (ECDIS). It’s likely that the Second Officer would have had to consolidate the information available to him from the radar, compass bearings and GPS onto a paper chart.

The Antipodean Mariner speculates that cumulative effects of deviating from the Passage Plan, the failure to identify Astrolabe Reef as a navigation hazard, the series of small course alterations to port, potential time lag to transfer the position to the paper chart, relatively large area of apparently open water to port of the ship and preparations to arrive at the Port of Tauranga appear to have overwhelmed the Second Officer to the point that he lost ‘situational awareness’. The Antipodean Mariner is pretty sure that the person most surprised by the sudden deceleration of the Rena was the Second Officer closely followed by the Captain.

Information on the ship’s track is available in the public domain and readers can see the position, course and speed of the vessel up to the instant of grounding by following the link to Marinetraffic.com. This data is continuously broadcast by the ship’s Automatic Identification System (AIS).

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=9&oldmmsi=636014911&olddate=10/4/2011%201:21:00%20PM

Keep an eye on TAIC's website as their role is to independently investigate marine, aviation and rail accidents for their root cause and without apportioning blame.

The Antipodean Mariner
2nd December 2011

Rena cargo owners could be hit with massive bill

2011-11-30T20:31:00.000+11:00

Schadenfreude is defined as pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. The Antipodean Mariner derives no pleasure from the misfortune that the owners of the cargo aboard the Rena now find themselves, but it is satisfying to have correctly predicted the General Average claim in this Blog ( Rena General Average, 15th November 2011).

In the span of a single TV story, the Salvors have been toppled from their pedestal as the saviours of little penguins to the pariah status of tow truck drivers of the sea. It's always a problem when the media creates and then destroys heroes, but the Salvors always knew what they were on the Rena to do even if the Press didn't.

The Salvors are there working day in, day out on the stinking, maggot infested, oil-soaked listing deck of the Rena to make money. Their livelihood depends on maritime casualties occuring and the Salvors being ready, willing and able to salvage property for just reward.

Tha Antipodean Mariner
30th November 2011

TVNZ - Rena cargo owners could be hit with massive bill

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/rena-cargo-owners-could-hit-massive-bill-4583115

The owners of cargo on board the Rena may have to pay huge sums of money just to get it back.

ONE News has learned they could be charged as much as 80% of the value of their possessions on the ship, which would be the highest charge in history to return shipwrecked goods.
The Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef off the Tauranga coast on October 5 and it has been understood the vessel's owners would foot the bill for the salvage operation.

Rena cargo owners could be hit with massive bill

The owners of cargo on board the Rena may have to pay huge sums of money just to get it back.

ONE News has learned they could be charged as much as 80% of the value of their possessions on the ship, which would be the highest charge in history to return shipwrecked goods.
The Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef off the Tauranga coast on October 5 and it has been understood the vessel's owners would foot the bill for the salvage operation.

But ONE News can now reveal that anyone with cargo in containers on board is likely to have to stump up.

Craig Fellows' household contents are stuck on the Rena and he may have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to get it back.

"You've paid a lot of money to get your goods from one point to another and then you get charged with almost the same again...that's just criminal," Fellows said.

Salvage crews working for Svitzer have retrieved 165 of the nearly 1300 containers stuck on the shipwreck and under maritime law the company has a right to claim whatever it salvages. It can then return the property to the original owners if they guarantee to pay a percentage of its value.

ONE News has learned from a number of sources that Svitzer plans to charge property owners 80 per cent which is said to be the highest rate ever charged on goods salvaged from a vessel. So far, the highest charge is 60% for cargo retrieved from the infamous Napoli shipwreck off the UK coast five years ago.

Svitzer would not directly answer questions about the 80% rate.

Mediterranean Shipping Company, which chartered the Rena, will also have to pay to retrieve its empty containers and while it declined to comment on camera it told ONE News "the rate is too high".

Maritime lawyer Philip Rzepecky said the rate is high. "It's almost the total value of the cargo, but it means that these salvors think that the degree of difficulty was extreme," he said.

Seagulls circle food products removed from Rena at the Truman Lane container processing site: Maritime NZ

If the claim goes to arbitration in London, Svitzer could end up charging less but an insurance insider told ONE News it may only drop by around 5%.

Svitzer is understood to be talking with the ship's owners and the negotiations are expected to wrap up this week.

REUTERS: China ports not ready to receive Vale's mega ships

2011-11-30T15:56:00.000+11:00

Another piece in the complex puzzle that is China. Reuters has reported that China’s ports are not ready for Vale’s (now) 380,000 DWT ore carriers. Debunking this myth is the fact that the ore carrier ‘Berge Stahl’ (364,000 DWT) has called at the Chinese ore ports of Dalian, Majishan and Qingdao seven times since 2006 (from Lloyds Intelligence Network). No-one in China appears to be giving a definitive ‘No’. However, to Vale’s detriment, no one is saying ’Yes’ either.

The Antipodean Mariner

REUTERS 28th November 2011

China’s National Development and Reform Commission says China ports not ready to receive Vale's mega ships

SHANGHAI Nov 28 (Reuters) - Chinese ports are not yet ready to receive Vale's mega iron ore carriers due to a few "small issues" in handling the world's largest dry bulk vessels, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission said on Monday.

Vale, the world's largest iron ore producer, is spending billions of dollars to build an unprecedented fleet of very large ore carriers (VLOCs) to transport the steel-making ingredient to China and other major consumers.

The Brazilian mining firm has received at least three of the huge ships this year, sending them to Italy and Oman as it awaits the lifting of travel restrictions to its biggest market, China.
"Chinese ports are not entirely ready for accepting Vale's carriers due to some facilities and technical issues," said Luo Ping, head of the transportation planning division at the NDRC's Institution of Comprehensive Transportation.

Among the issues still unresolved is how the VLOCs will be safely guided into the ports.
Vale can also submit applications for each mega ship to local maritime authorities, who will then decide on whether the ports can receive them or not, Luo said on the sidelines of an industry conference.

Vale plans to operate as many as 35 VLOCs before the end of 2013, as it ramps up iron ore production to 469 million tonnes by 2015 from 308 million last year.

China, which buys around two thirds of seaborne iron ore cargoes to feed the world's largest steel industry, will add 390 million tonnes of large-scale iron ore port capacity and build an extra 440 deepwater berths by 2015, the NDRC official said.

Reporting by Ruby Lian, Writing by Randy Fabi; Editing by Miral Fahmy

Vale goes on a (Dead)weight Loss programme

2011-11-28T17:07:00.000+11:00

Vale's 400,00 DWT ChinaMax ore carriers remain a fertile area for shipping journo's. The first Chinese-built vessel 'Vale China' was delivered from Rhongsheng on Friday 25th November, less 20,000 DWT from her Tonnage Certificate. Maybe the 'Made in China' label will open the door for her. Two stories reported today in Lloyds List;

The Antipodean Mariner

Lloyds List, Monday 28 November 2011

Vale VLOCs cut down to size (Tom Leander)

Vale China slims down by 20,000 dwt along with remaining VLOCs on order at Rongsheng Heavy Industries

NOW you see it, now you don’t.

China Rongsheng Heavy Industries announced on Friday that it had delivered the 380,000 dwt Vale China , the third very large ore carrier to be handed over to Brazil’s iron ore giant Vale, and the first to be built in a Chinese yard.

Originally, the vessel was said to have a capacity of 400,000 dwt.

What has happened to the missing 20,000 dwt? It turns out that it is still there. China Rongsheng said in a release: “The 380,000 dwt VLOC is the largest bulk carrier built by the Chinese shipbuilding industry in terms of dwt as well as the world’s largest bulk carrier with a capacity up to 400,000 dwt.”

A spokesperson for China Rongsheng’s public relations representative in Hong Kong said that the firm received instructions to change all references for the Rongsheng-built VLOCs to 380,000 dwt from 400,000 dwt. The November 25 press release on Vale China downgrades all 12 of the VLOCs to be built at Rongsheng for Vale, in a deal worth $1.6bn and inked in 2008, to 380,000 dwt from 400,000 dwt.

Underlying this juggling of deadweight tonnage is the controversy that has wracked Vale’s massive China order: will the ships be allowed to enter China’s ports? A source close to Rongsheng said that the figure of 380,000 dwt was a concession to government officials who objected to the massive 400,000 dwt number.

The change signals that Vale is willing to ship its iron ore into China’s ports in ships that are not filled to capacity.

This, of course, will cost Vale. In October, China customs data showed the country imported 12.1m tonnes of ore from Brazil at an average price of $193.10 per tonne. As a benchmark, that would suggest a 20,000-tonne drop in cargo would translate to Vale losing out on about $3.9m per shipment.

The entire order has been caught up in a political fracas that has imperilled Vale’s plan to reduce its transport costs by launching a fleet of the world’s largest dry bulk ships.

In July, the China Shipowners’ Association spoke out in protest against global miners attempting to dominate the maritime transport market for iron ore, a reference plainly aimed at Vale.
Vale has yet to receive approval to transport iron in ships of full 400,000 dwt capacity into Chinese ports. Earlier this year, the 402,347 dwt Vale Brasil was the first Vale VLOC to be delivered from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering , and vessel positioning data of its maiden voyage from Brazil to China tracked the ship making a U-turn in the southern Indian Ocean and being diverted to Italy, reportedly due to the ban.

The order for Vale China has undergone delays. The vessel was first named in July, with delivery slated for September.

One broker, reacting to the deadweight downgrade-in-name, said: “I can’t see that either the shipyard or class society would have objection to such a re-measuring if it was requested by the owner, since the only additional cost would be paperwork and presumably putting the Plimsoll line a bit further down the hull.”

He added: “Whether this will do the trick in allowing these vessels to call there is open to question.”

Vale China is the fourth VLOC to be delivered to Vale. The other three, Vale Brasil, Vale Rio de Janeiro and Vale Italia were built at DSME. Vale Brasil is about to complete its second voyage to Oman this year, Vale Rio De Janeiro has discharged its first cargo in Taranto, Italy last week and Vale Italia is expected to be received for its first loading at Ponta da Madeira on December 3, according to vessel tracking data.

Third backtrack for Brazilian miner (Liz McCarthy)

Shapeshifting is not Vale’s first U-turn

EVEN though the description of Vale’s very large ore carriers delivered from Rongsheng Heavy Industries has changed to 380,000 dwt, from 400,000 dwt, to tempt China into accepting the ships into its ports, will this marketing U-turn really work?

The Brazilian mining giant has already had to backtrack once or twice earlier this year.
In May, its former chief executive Roger Agnelli changed the name of these huge bulkers from chinamaxes to valemaxes.

In May 2011 Mr Agnelli was booted out and Murilo Ferreira took over the company; since then he has been quiet about the valemax gamble.

Ordered in July 2008, following a record peak in capesize freight rates the month before of $109 per tonne of iron ore on a Brazil to China voyage, the investment in building its own fleet was to control transport costs.It now only costs $27 per tonne to ship iron ore on capesizes on this route.

Then in June 2011, the maiden voyage of the first delivered VLOC, Vale Brasil , was rerouted when on course for China and instead discharged in Italy, a move which Vale said was “purely based on commercial demand”.

The two VLOCs in service that have completed commercial voyages have only discharged in Taranto, Italy, and Sohar, Oman.

However, Vale’s third-quarter results show that Europe only accounted for 20% of iron ore and pellet sales, the Middle East 1.4% and China a much more significant 45%.
With these huge ships hitting the water and its sales to other destinations not able to absorb them, there are plenty of theories bouncing around the marketplace about the fate of these Vale ships.

We wait with anticipation to see what happens next.

The Gallery of Transport Loss - 'Rena' feature

2011-11-28T10:17:00.000+11:00

The blog of US customs brokers Countryman and McDaniel (The Gallery of Transport Loss) has also been following the Rena salvage and have some nice shots from the Salvors and Maritime NZ.

http://www.cargolaw.com/2011nightmare_mv_rena.html#Nov-23

Worth a look for this incident and some great features from the aviation, shipping and transport industry.

The Antipodean Mariner
28th November 2011

Vale’s CHINAMAX strategy founders

2011-11-27T20:52:00.000+11:00

Another article reproduced courtesy of Bloomberg News. By way of a background briefing, shipping rates peaked in 2008 as China’s demand for resources outstripped the capacity of the world’s fleet to carry them. At the market peak for iron ore, Brazil’s Vale was paying over $80 per tonne in freight and ship owners were earning $300,000 a day on ships that cost about $25,000 a day to operate.

The freight market was a legalised casino and Vale was losing its shirt on every hand.

Their response was to create a fleet of 35 ultra-large ore carriers capable of carrying almost 400,000 tonnes of iron ore from Brazil to China. The economies of scale of these ships would reduce Brazil’s geographic disadvantage compared with the Australian iron ore miners.

Technically, these ships break all the records. However, Vale’s play was dependent on China building the port infrastructure necessary to unload these leviathans. China is playing its ace card now – the ships are not permitted to enter Chinese ports. Vale’s ultra-large ships are a technical masterpiece but politically represent an unacceptable shift of strategic control in China’s raw material supply chain.

Vale is endeavouring to mitigate the situation with hub terminals in Malaysia and the Philippines, where the iron ore will be transferred into smaller (180,000 DWT) ships. However the cost of rehandling and shipping 400,000 tonnes of iron ore eats into the fundamental economics of the strategy.

With the exception of the Chinese shipbuilders (Rhongsheng and Bohai), Vale has attempted to executed this freight strategy without a long term Chinese partner. With nothing to lose, China can block these ships indefinitely and with no discernable impact on its 500 million tonne iron ore supply chain.

The Antipodean Mariner hopes readers enjoy this well researched and insightful article from Bloomberg.

Bloomberg: China Shunning Biggest Ore Ships Shows $2.3 Billion Vale Mistake: Freight

The Vale (VALE) Brasil, the biggest commodity ship ever built, was designed to carry iron ore to China from South America. After six months in operation, it hasn’t done that once.
China’s refusal to accept the Brasil has derailed Vale SA (VALE3)’s push to control shipments to its biggest customer by building up a fleet of 35 ships, each almost as large as the Bank of America Tower in New York. Rio de Janeiro-based Vale, the world’s biggest iron ore miner, ships about 45 percent of sales to China, the largest consumer of the steelmaking ingredient.

Vale’s plan, which includes buying 19 vessels for $2.3 billion, has spurred opposition from Chinese shipowners who say it will worsen overcapacity, slumping cargo rates and industry-wide losses. Steelmakers are also likely against it as the ships would give Vale more control over pricing and delivery, said Chang Tao, a China Merchants Securities Co. analyst.

“Nobody in China wants Vale’s fleet to come,” he said. “Not shipping lines, not shipowners, not steelmakers.”

The miner may struggle to find alternative uses for all ships as no other markets are as big, he said. Vale also likely can’t cancel vessel orders or quit leasing contracts without paying “very heavy penalties,” said Ralph Leszczynski, the Beijing-based head of research at shipbroker Banchero Costa & Co.

“I’m pretty sure that Vale themselves have by now realized that they made a big mistake,” he said. “I find it really incredible that they committed so much money in this project without first getting written assurances from the Chinese side that they would be able to use the ships.”

Daewoo, Rongsheng

Vale’s press-relations office in Rio de Janeiro declined to comment. The miner is buying vessels from China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Holdings Ltd. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (042660). It will also lease eight from STX Pan Ocean Co. under a $5.8 billion 25-year deal, according to 2009 statements from the Seoul-based shipping line.
Vale’s then-chief executive officer Roger Agnelli oversaw agreements for the 400,000 deadweight-ton vessels to reduce a reliance on outside shipping lines and risks from changes in freight costs. The Baltic Dry Index, a benchmark for global commodity-shipping rates, fluctuated more than 40 percent on an annual basis every year except one from 2001 to 2010.

130 Million Tons

The Vale vessels are about twice as big as the Capesize ships that are now generally used to ferry commodities from Brazil to China. The miner plans to send about 130 million tons of iron ore on the route both this year and next.

The company is also investing $1.37 billion to set up a distribution centre in Malaysia that will be able to handle the very large ore carriers. Transferring cargo there to smaller vessels for shipment to China would likely increase freight costs, eroding at least some of the gains from the larger vessels’ size and fuel efficiency, said China Merchants’ Chang.

Vale has held talks with Chinese shipping lines about selling or leasing the about 360-meter-long vessels, Teddy Tang, the chief financial officer of its China operations, said in September. No deals had been reached.

The China Shipowners Association, whose members hold about 80 percent of the nation’s shipping capacity, has advised lines not to take the vessels, said Executive Vice Chairman Zhang Shouguo.

“The most important thing for Vale is to stop building,” said Zhang, a former deputy director in the transport ministry’s shipping division. “The additional capacity will exacerbate the already bad freight market.”

The China Iron & Steel Association has no position on suppliers’ shipping operations as long as they aren’t used to manipulate iron-ore prices, said General Secretary Zhang Changfu.

Rongsheng Heavy

The ‘Vale Brasil’ was this week in the Arabian Sea headed for Oman, according to data on the Bloomberg terminal. The ship was handed over to Vale by Daewoo Shipbuilding in May. The Seoul-based shipyard has also delivered two other similar-sized vessels, as it works through orders for seven worth a total of $748 million. More deliveries will follow next year and work is progressing as planned, the shipbuilder said by e-mail.

Vale also ordered 12 of the very large ore carriers from Rongsheng Heavy for $1.6 billion in 2008. The Shanghai-based shipbuilder expects to deliver the first this month, said Chief Executive Officer Chen Qiang. The handover is about two months late because of certification issues, he said. The company has begun building the other 11 on-order ships, with Vale paying in installments as work progresses, he said.

“I am not worried about any possibility of Vale cancelling orders,” Chen said. “They need the ships to carry iron ore, and the vessels are greener and more advanced.”

Management Shakeup

Vale CEO Murilo Ferreira, who took on the job in May, this week named a new logistics head, Humberto Freitas, as part of a management reshuffle. The previous operations head, Eduardo Bartolomeo, will run the company’s fertilizers and coal unit.

Ferreira’s new regime may also herald a change in the approach to shipping, which could be announced at an investor day next week, said Rafael Weber, a Porto Alegre, Brazil-based Geracao Futuro Corretora analyst.

“They can’t fight with their main customer,” he said. “The company may decide against going ahead with it to avoid discord with the Chinese government.”

China’s Transport Minister Li Shenglin said earlier this month that the government will strengthen control of vessel deliveries and “guide the orderly arrival” of new ships amid tumbling rates and losses for shipping lines. China Cosco Holdings Co., the nation’s largest sea-cargo carrier, lost 4.8 billion yuan ($755 million) in the first nine months.

China Ports

The 'Vale Brasil' was diverted on its maiden voyage in June from its original destination of Dalian, China to Italy after a request from a European customer and because “draft services” at the Chinese port weren’t ready, Ferreira said in July. The ships will “undoubtedly” go to China when needed, he said.

The ports of Dalian, Qingdao and Majishan near Shanghai are able to handle Brasil-sized vessels, Vale said in June. Qingdao, northeast China, hasn’t opened its facility because of “restrictions,” Li Yuzhai, a spokesman for Qingdao Port (Group) Co., said yesterday.

Calls to Majishan port yesterday went unanswered. Dalian Port PDA Co. (2880)’s press office referred enquiries to the company’s iron-ore handling unit. Calls there weren’t answered. A call to the ministry of transport wasn’t answered.

STX Pan Ocean has begun operating one of its eight VLOCs for Vale. The vessel is awaiting loading in Brazil, the shipping line said by e-mail yesterday. No changes to its agreement with Vale are expected, it said. The shipping line’s vessels are being built by affiliate STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. (067250)

BW Group, Oman

BW Group will also operate four vessels for Vale, the miner said in 2007. One, the Berge Everest, was due to be delivered in September by Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co., according to a statement on the website of BW affiliate Berge Bulk.

Rongsheng Heavy is also building four VLOCs for Oman Shipping Co., which will be leased to Vale and used to haul commodities to the sultanate. The vessels are all due to be delivered in the second half of 2012, the shipping line said by e-mail yesterday.

Still, Vale needs to use ships on China routes to fully utilize the fleet, and the country’s opposition to the vessels is unlikely to weaken, said Huang Wenlong, a Hong Kong-based analyst with BOC International Holdings Ltd.

“Once Vale moves its own iron ore, its control on the supply of iron ore extends into shipping, further diminishing Chinese steelmakers’ bargaining power,” he said. “That is a situation China doesn’t want to see.”

Jasmine Wang and Helen Yuan with assistance from Juan Pablo Spinetto in Rio De Janeiro, Kyunghee Park in Singapore, Michelle Wiese Bockmann in London and Tamara Walid in Dubai.

Editors: Neil Denslow, Vipin V. Nair.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jasmine Wang in Hong Kong at jwang513@bloomberg.net; Helen Yuan in Shanghai at hyuan@bloomberg.net

PN65 takes to the sea

2011-11-26T19:29:00.000+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner's Company is building a series of eight 205,000 DWT Capesize bulk carriers in a South East Asian shipyard, the first of which will be enter service in May 2012. They are called Capesize because they can only sail around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope and are too large to use the Suez and Panama Canals.

Construction of the first Capesize bulk carrier, Hull PN65, has continued steadily and in late October she took to the sea for the first time. The construction technique is for the workshop pre-fabricated hull blocks to be assembled in a large dry dock. The dock has capacity for two complete ships and two partial ships. As one pair of ships is completed, they are floated out of the dry dock and the two partially completed ships are floated forward into their place. The keel blocks are laid for the next two ships, and the process repeats.

PN65’s turn came on the 25th of October. The hull was made watertight with temporary bulkheads and the dock flooded for the tandem float out. Changes to the lifting blocks in the dock floor require the dock to be pumped out, and so PN65 was moved out to the fitting out quay for a couple of days until being returned to the dry dock. After pumping out, construction recommences on the forward section of the hull. The Main Engine, a MAN B&W 6S 70ME-C slow speed 2-stroke diesel will be shipped from the Manufacturers in Korea in November and installed before the accommodation block is lifted on fully fitted out with bridge, cabins, offices and public rooms.

The Antipodean Mariner
26th November 2011

Rena's media machine - reply

2011-11-25T10:33:00.000+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner always enjoys getting comments about the blog. After the posting on Rena’s media machine, Joe’s Mate commented;

‘Have to take time out of the day to mention that I believe Maritime NZ has been a fabulous resource to those of us that want to know what’s really happening down under.This is a textbook example of "transparency" if you ask me and from the "bottom of the world" no less.’

The Antipodean Mariner’s observation was that Maritime NZ has a media strategy and selectively reports the good news to the punters in New Zealand (and around the world). MNZ didn’t report that the ‘Awanuia’ collided with the Rena, forcing her back in to port for two days to repair damage to the bow, nor did MNZ report the fire that broke out on the after deck of the Rena from cutting through the container lashings.

The Antipodean Mariner’s man at Astrolabe Reef was an uncontrolled source of information. Enforcement of the non-disclosure clause in his contract ensured MNZ’s media strategy was not contradicted or challenged.

The Antipodean Mariner
25th November 2011

Following the Rena dollar

2011-11-24T21:51:00.000+11:00

The Bay of Plenty is experiencing a ‘blow’, Sea Tow 60 has returned to the shelter of the port of Tauranga and ‘GO Canopus’ is back in position with her towing bridle hooked up to Rena’s stern standing by for the worst eventuality.

Toady posting ‘follows the dollar’ as Rena slowly disintegrates on Astrolabe Reef. For followers unfamiliar with the area, I have reproduced this graphic of the reef (circled in red) in relation to Motiti Island from the Vorb.org.nz. Though the reef is unmarked by a beacon or buoy, it is accurately charted in the approaches to the port of Tauranga.

http://www.vorb.org.nz/

So who’s hanging in the wind and for how much? Rena is beneficially owned by Costamare Shipping, a Greek family-controlled business who own and operate container ships. Rena was time-chartered to Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), which means that the ship was hired with crew to be deployed where MSC required her. MSC, with Denmark’s Maersk Line, are the two largest container lines in the world. MSC own and operate their own ships, but hire in other container ships to cope with growth or new routes in their trade network.

MSC will have paid hire in advance to Costamare for Rena and provided the fuel in her bunker tanks – just over $1 million worth when she ran aground. MSC markets and sells container shipping services globally, using their own and chartered container ships like Rena. MSC sells the service and collects money (freight) form the companies sending or receiving cargo carried on their network.

Costamare have declared ‘General Average’ on the ship and cargo – a concept explained in an earlier posting. MSC will have some, but not all, of the freight collected on the containers shipped aboard Rena. For the containers (full and empty) removed by the Salvors and taken to Tauranga, MSC will have to quarantine them until the General Average claim progresses. Practically, the owners of the cargo have to post a bond or bank guarantee as security if the General Average is successful.

So who owes who?

Costamare have declared Rena to be a ‘Constructive Total Loss’, maritime speak for a write off, and will be claiming on the vessel’s Insurers for the value of the ship and the cost of the salvage. They will have to repay any mortgage on the ship with the proceeds of the insurance claim. Costamare will also owe MSC pre-paid hire and for the fuel.

MSC have some of the freight but are also liable for the loss of the cargo in their care. Another maritime convention limits their liability as a carrier to a nominal (low) amount, and the owners of the cargo will be claiming on their own insurance policies. They may also have to contribute to the General Average claim – hence the bond put up by the individual cargo owners.

Maritime NZ has about 1,300 tonnes of emulsified fuel oil, diesel, hydraulic oil and lubricants all mixed together in Tauranga and aboard the bunker barge Awanuia. The Antipodean Mariner has no idea how this, or the rotting contents of the refrigerated containers, will be divided up!

To wrap this posting up, there are going to be hundreds of individual claims, from the owners of the cargo to the Rena’s crew for the loss of their personal possession in cabins on the ship. No one is likely to come out ahead of the game with the possible exception of the Rena’s owners, Costamare. Ships are insured for an indemnity value, or agreed value and if Rena’s insurers pay out, it will be for the insured and not market value. Like they say, every cloud has a silver lining.

The Antipodean Mariner
24th November 2011

ABS warns against green ship design

2011-11-23T11:28:00.000+11:00

A switch away from the Rena today while the Antipodean Mariner compiles some new information worthy of posting. This article has been reproduced in full from Lloyds List, as it touches on some rare tension between the usually harmonious IACS Class relationships.

While Class Societies are promoted as ‘not for profit’ societies, they are in fact competing for the Ship Owners’ dollar for fees. Globally, shipbuilding is in as poor a financial state as ship owning and Class has filled the research and development void with conceptual designs to reduce operating costs (fuel consumption,structure, ballasting methods).

The principle raised by the American Bureau of Shipping is that R&D creates a conflict of interest with Class's core service of industry self-regulation. Can a Class Society develop a new design and critically assess its in-service safety and performance?

One for the serious 'propeller-head' followers of the blog.

US class society says trend creates conflict of interest in area of ‘ethical quicksand’

Craig Eason, Lloyds List Tuesday 22 November 2011

THE head of US-based class society ABS Christopher Wiernicki has strongly criticised other societies that have begun to offer environmental ship design services, saying the trend creates a fundamental conflict of interest with their role as independent providers of safety approval and certification.

He said the move was deeply troubling and went to the heart of the underlying principle for classification, and added he was surprised to have heard no other voices questioning the growing intrusion of class into an area of ethical quicksand.

A number of classification societies, including Oslo-based Det Norske Veritas and Hamburg-based Germanischer Lloyd, offer a distinct environmental consultancy service. Both organisations have revealed vessel ideas that they think are the way forward for the industry.

“The bottom line is that, since the objectives of the designer and the class society are so fundamentally different, having class societies promote themselves as designers is dangerous,” said Wiernicki. “It undermines the basic fabric of the industry, it destroys the credibility of class as an independent third party, it has the potential to lead to poor designs that could impact the credibility of the whole industry and it upsets the essential checks and balances between commercial pressures and effective safety and environmental risk management.”

DNV president and deputy chief executive Tor Svensen told Lloyd’s List that the concepts that DNV have revealed in recent years are just that, and not designs. Earlier in the year the Norwegian class society revealed at a big press launch its Triality concept — a gas-powered ballast-free large oil tanker. Last year it revealed the Quantum, a dual-fuelled container vessel.

DNV's ECORE Very Large Ore Carrier, fueled by LNG and with no seawater ballast.

Germanischer Lloyd also revealed the ‘Best’ aframax tanker design, the result of work with a Greek university, when it put forward its thoughts on how tankers in the future could be compliant with the mandatory energy efficiency design index.

Mr Svensen insisted the DNV Quantum and Triality concepts would never be built in the form in which they were revealed to the industry. Owners would have to have the ideas within the concepts designed into their future vessels, he said. He also added that DNV knew where to draw the line between this kind of work and its role in safety classification.

When GL was approached for a response regarding Mr Wiernicki’s comments, the German class society also said the work it has pushed out to the industry for appraisal were design concepts which had no relevance for the approval process of drawings.

In an email to Lloyd’s List GL spokesman Olaf Mager wrote: “Design concepts are basically studies to evaluate what could be done in order to offer a better solution to our clients. The maintenance of such a research and development department is required by European legislation in order to be recognised by European flag states.”

GL has its own separate legal entity, Futureship, that offers the consultancy service, with its own management, staff, and systems. Dr Mager said there are walls in place towards all other entities of the GL Group. Futureship does not design vessels or create designs, nor does it produce any class drawings or similar documents.

“The fact that GL is investing in such a business is fully consistent with our long standing commitment to preventing pollution of the environment,” wrote Dr Mager. “We regard the increasing number of clients in shipping and shipbuilding working with Futureship as another good indicator that the maritime industry appreciates GL’s proactive stance towards key issues of an environmental-conscious shipping community.”

Mr Wiernicki said he was acutely aware of the differences between the design and certification disciplines and the dangers of crossing the line between them.

“When classification societies begin developing and promoting their own designs, the essential independence of class is compromised. If ABS were to promote an in-house design for an energy-efficient tanker, how could we retain our integrity if we were then to approve that same design for construction?”

With the EEDI adopted for new vessel construction earlier this year, he acknowledged that the industry was moving into a period of innovative thinking with respect to basic ship design.
But this change should not have the unintended consequence of allowing class societies to become ship designers in an attempt to increase their market share. Classification’s independent reputation with underwriters, bankers, flag and port states would be fatally compromised if it designed the ships it also classed, he said.

“The EEDI will be the design scorecard of the future. Yet the current focus on energy-efficient designs and the prospect of tough market conditions is pushing class societies to move into the design space to either gain a commercial advantage or protect their existing position.”
Wiernicki said discussions internally at ABS as well as with clients and shipyards left him unable to reconcile the concept of class acting as a ship designer which then reviews and approves the same design. He went on to state that class societies needed to choose between being class societies and designers — they cannot be both.

“I will go even further and say that they should not and cannot be allowed to, because wearing both these critical hats undermines the basic safety integrity of our entire industry. This is not a class issue; this is an industry issue,” he said.

Mr Svensen agreed that class should not be involved in ship design, and said whenever it had been offering advice, in its consultancy role, it would never approve the vessel’s designs afterwards.

He cited cases in the past where a class society worked on the designs, drawings and analysis during the conversion of a very large crude carrier to a very large ore carrier. Such conversions require complete class approval as if the vessel is a newbuilding. The same class society then approved the conversion plans, he said. He said DNV would never do that. He also pointed to onboard technology. Class should never get involved in technology development, he said.
DNV sits with a lot of competence within the staff, according to Mr Svensen, and he believed there was a role that class societies should be playing in the industry.

“I understand the concern of the future role of class,” he said. “But gone are the days of class being just a governing body saying yes or no. The expectations of us are different.”
But he insisted the consultancy work would never take a front seat, and that it was beneficial to do both.

ABS, GL and DNV are members of the International Association of Class Societies. Mr Svensen said it had no rules on how class societies should keep their consultancy work and class role separate.

The Antipodean Mariner
23rd November 2011

Rena's media machine

2011-11-22T11:59:00.000+11:00

A copy of Mike Wackett's editorial in shipping e-zine Containerisation International Online (15th November 2011) has been passed to the Antipodean Mariner, which praises Maritime New Zealand for its handling of the media during the salvage operation (http://www.ci-online.co.uk/)

Quotations in part from the online article state;

"Moreover, it has been so refreshing to experience the open and frankness of MNZ; regardless of issues with liability for the clean-up cost, they have pushed on with their job of protecting their beautiful coastline"

"Indeed, those responsible for MNZ's PR machine deserve congratulations; its 100 or so status updates should be a lesson to other media-shy companies how to communicate, and why it is in everybody's interests to do so: the problem won't go away it is always better to be transparent."

I'll leave readers who followed this blog's first person account of the salvage up until its untimely silencing to draw their own conclusions.

The Antipodean Mariner
22nd November 2011

Rena salvage pictures

2011-11-20T21:28:00.000+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner has been in South East Asia this past week and postings have been a big sparse despite news and photos received. Quick posting tonight of some of the best photos. Rena's trademark collapsed container stack has now been removed, and the salvors are starting to remove some of the full reefer (refrigerated) containers with their putrifying contents.

It has been reported that the site looks like Scapa Flow with the English fleet in port. Vessel count includes the tugs Katea, Koraki, Maui 1, Pacific Pearl and Petra G , Wainui (towing the barge Pohonui which is the the designated rotten food barge. The Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIB's) Sea 3, Genesis and Black Pearl with the Canopus, Seatow 60 and Rena totaled 13 vessels at the wreck site.

Riggers attached with lifelines prepare the toppled container stack for discharge

Rena's port side showing the extent of the damage to her hull at No.2 Hatch

Looking along the port side, the mis-alignment between the forward and after sections of the hull are more apparent

Hive of activity around the hulk of the Rena.

The Antipodean Mariner
20th November 2011

Rena Salvage - No Cure, No Pay

2011-11-18T09:03:00.000+11:00

In the public’s mind, Salvors are probably thought of some sort of poor cousin to pirates. You know what I mean, families of opportunistic farmers, peasants and fishermen steeling through the Cornish night to wreck and plunder the bounty of castaway sailing ships. No, actually there were called Wreckers.

Salvors operate in a world of high stakes, ”all or nothing” bets of successfully reclaiming some tangible value from maritime catastrophes. Prominent on the first page of the Lloyds Open Form agreement are the words “No Cure, No Pay”. If nothing of value is salvaged, the Salvor gets nothing - irrespective of how much outlaid in time and money.

When the images of penguins and seals covered in heavy fuel oil galvanised world opinion against oil pollution (there, mentioned a penguin), regulators were faced with a vexing problem. How could Salvors be sufficiently incentivised to apply their significant resources to preventing oil pollution when faced with ‘No cure, No pay’? The significant evolution of salvage ‘custom as practice’ has been that the Salvors can make a claim on the pollution compensation funds for ‘salvaging’ the environment (see the Convention Liability posting) as separate from the salvaging property (the vessel and cargo).

Environment now always takes first preference to ship and cargo – often frustrating the Salvor’s first instinct to try to get the ship ‘off the beach’ quickly and intact. Rena’s salvors will have been contracted with these two prioritised objectives – to minimise oil pollution by removing as much fuel, lubricating and hydraulic oil as possible and to salvage the ship and cargo.

The first task, now successfully completed, has been evident by the actions of the Salvors, the bunker barge ‘Awanuia’ and ‘GO Canopus’. The systematic pumping out of the heavy fuel oil in the Rena’s bunker tanks, fuel and lubricating oil from the Engine Room and hydraulics from the mooring equipment and steering gear have significantly reduced the future impact in the Bay of Plenty’s coastline when Rena inevitable breaks in two (or three) in the next good northerly blow. While the media loves being able to tell the public that all oil has been removed, the laws of physics means there are unpumpable or urecoverable residues for nature to bio-degrade later. The Salvors now have the basis for a claim on the oil pollution compensation funds, and will have an army of accountants documenting what they believe is a fair and reasonable amount for their skill, risk and expertise (including the appalling conditions in which they had to work.

The salvage award will be submitted for settlement from the compensation fund. These claims tend to be settled pretty quickly – no one wants to get offside with the Salvors if the prize has been the preservation of wildlife, pristine beaches and coastline.

Back to the high stakes table, and the focus now on salvaging all or part of Rena and her cargo. As reported in the media, work has started on unloading containers while the weather is benign.

A great photo has been received of the salvors removing empties two at a time to the deck of ST-60 and then to GO Canopus. Container ships like carry the 'empties' - containers being returned or repositioned in the trade to be filled with cargo - behind the bridge and accommodation because they are light and and be stacked high without affecting foward visibility. The salvors are cutting the twist locks, which lock the container stack with an oxy-acetylene cutter and landing the containers for the short final voyage to Tauranga.

There is the real possibility that the part of the Rena still afloat could break free – either at visible fracture at the No.2 hatch or forward of the accommodation. If Rena breaks at No.2 hatch, the Antipodean Mariner speculates that there may be sufficient residual stability for Rena to remain afloat and (near) upright. However, if Rena breaks forward to the accommodation the hull shape in this part of the ship is what is called ‘fine’ – narrow and shaped to permit water to flow cleanly into her large, single propeller.

Again speculation, but the inherently stable flat side and flat bottom of the hull will no longer be attached to the fine and heavy (that’s where the main engine is) accommodation and engine room.

The salvors will have naval architects working on this problem and estimating their chances of success under ‘No cure, No pay’.

The Antipodean Mariner
18th November 2011

Rena salvage - ST-60 incident

2011-11-16T14:48:00.000+11:00

With the increase in activity at the site, as the salvage operation moves from oil recovery to discharge of the Rena’s containers, the Antipodean Mariner has cultivated new sources. Blogging will continue of the activities at Astrolabe Reef from the decks of the various craft now clustered around the inert hulk.

There was an incident on the barge ST-60 yesterday which made the media through more traditional sources. A personnel transfer basket (known on the salvage industry as a Billy Pugh) with three salvors aboard had to be dumped into the ocean after it developed an uncontrollable swing in the low swell.

The tops of the crane jibs are estimated to be moving in an arc of up to three metres in the gentle swells off Astrolabe Reef. The cranes temporarily fitted to the ST-60 are designed for a direct vertical static lift from a stable land-based platform and not the dynamic motion experienced on the barge.

Although their load rating may have been reduced, one observed fears that they will not cope with the task. The crane’s hook (or a forty foot container) developing an uncontrollable pendulum swing and striking the fragile latticework of the crane jib will have catastrophic consequences.

The crane barge ‘Smit Borneo’, which is on the way to Tauranga from Singapore, is purpose built for heavy lifting in a seaway and looks infinitely better equipped to handle the conditions. Hopefully, ST-60 can continue to support the salvage operation by receiving and shuttling the containers in to the Port of Tauranga.

This posting is not to taken as a criticism of the salvage operation but a reminder of the dangers faced every day by the Salvors using the resources they have in a dynamic environment.

The Antipodean Mariner
16th November 2011

Rena General Average

2011-11-16T02:13:00.000+11:00

When Rena grounded on Astrolabe Reef in the early hours of 5th October, a complex legal process was set into motion which will likely last a decade or more. All around the world, lawyers, insurers, salvors and surveyors will have reached for an A4 lever arch file and written ‘Rena File No.1” on the spine. Many hundreds more A4 files will be filled in the months and years to come.

One of the truly ancient principles which will likely be applied to the Rena’s salvage is General Average. General Average is another maritime peculiarity dating back to early Greek times. Even now, every voyage by a cargo ship is termed a ‘maritime adventure’ to which the ship’s Owner, Cargo owners, Master and Crew are deemed participants.

When heavily laden sailing craft were plying the Mediterranean, storms and running aground were an accepted peril of the maritime adventure. In the teeth of a storm, it was common practice for the Captains to jettison part of the cargo thereby lightening the vessel so as to make it safely to port (less a few amphora of wine). When choosing which cargo to jettison, Captains and crews were often not too picky - self-preservation ruled.

Provided the vessel made it to port, the hapless cargo’s owner would be informed of the loss of their precious goods. One party had borne the loss of their goods in order to ensure the successful delivery of the other cargo and the preservation of the ship. The Greeks put their mind to this inequity of one party suffering loss for the collective benefit of the other participants to the maritime adventure.

The principle debated, and now enshrined in maritime commerce, was that the losses of one should be compensated by the collective beneficiaries of the successful voyage. There are a few rules though to maintain fair play in the unscrupulous, rough-and-tumble of shipping.

A General Average claim must, among other things, be voluntary, timely, reasonable and successful. When the Owners of the Rena were alerted to the vessel’s grounding, one of the first thoughts would have been ‘Can we declare General Average?’

After all, if their actions successfully save the majority of the containers but result in the loss of their ship on Astrolabe Reef, then aren’t they entitled to be compensated under the principles of General Average? A powerful incentive when you consider the combined value of the ship and 1,300 containers at the time of the grounding.

Crane Barge Smit Borneo under tow to the Rena salvage site from Singapore:
Kees Drent, Shipping News Clippings 13/11/11

If General Average is declared, every container successfully unloaded to the barge ST-60 will strengthen the Rena’s Owners case that their actions met the test of being voluntary, timely, reasonable and successful. Just imagine you are passenger in a taxi which T-bones another car and the taxi driver demands you contribute to the repair bill! General Average in a nutshell.

Interesting if the ‘cut and thrust’ of maritime commerce, law and salvage lights your fire. No mention yet of a dolphin, penguin or cormorant in this Blog, which I will leave to my reader from the Ministry of the Environment (you know who you are).

The Antipodean Mariner
15th November 2011

RENA salvage and Convention Liability

2011-11-13T07:14:00.000+11:00

Thanks again to the readers who have commented since the 'NZ Herald' picked up on the story;

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rena-oil-spill/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503203&objectid=10765493

Time now to 'heave to and weather the storm'. One of the burning questions being debated in New Zealand is why is the nation going to have to pick up a large proportion the cost of the clean up? The ship is owned by a substantive Shipowner, Costamare, who have issued a statement apologising for the accident and the Authorities are not having to trawl through a web of Liberian and Panamanian shelf companies to identify the beneficial Owner. The answer lies in commercial principles on which merchant shipping has operated since the Greek and Roman times.

The two basic principles in play are the mutual insurance of maritime catastrophes and limitation of liability. Starting with mutual insurance, the 'Rena' is insured with the Swedish Club. How, you may ask, can a Club be an insurance company? The name Club indicates that the insurer is a Protection and Indemnity Club - or P&I Club for short. P&I Clubs are not-for-profits and have existed for centuries because of the inherently risky nature of shipping. Members of the Club collectively self-insure the 'uninsurable' risks of their combined fleets. Every Shipowner who is a member of the Swedish Club will be contributing to, and has collective liability for, the cost of the Rena's salvage and oil spill clean-up.

So with this open-ended liability now resting with the Swedish P&I Club, how do they avoid the hypothetical catastrophe of one of their mutually insured ships colliding with the 'Queen Mary' and then both vessels sinking in the middle of New York Harbour? Every member of the Club would face financial ruin. This is where the second principle kicks in - liability is limited in proportion to the size and earnings capability of the ship.

It's a bit like Finland's legal system where your speeding fine is a calculated by how much you earn - an expensive exercise for the CEO of Nokia who was fined 116,000 Euro for riding his Harley Davidson 25km over the speed limit in 2002.

Rena's liability is limited, based on her Gross Tonnage. The term has been 'metricated' as the original term was a Tun, or a wine barrel. A ships tunnage was a measurement of how many
barrels could be fitted in the cargo holds and as a proxy for how much money the Owner could earn from her on a voyage. Gross Tonnage is used in all aspects of commercial shipping to calculate fees, charges, levies and taxes. 'Rena' will have paid a tonnage-based oil pollution levy to Maritime NZ (also known as conservancy dues) on arriving in New Zealand on her final, fateful voyage. This is ratified by the Governments of maritime nations through the concisely named 'International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage', or CLC Convention for short.

Put together, 'Rena' carries insurance which is capped by her ability to earn money (freight) for her Owner. The Swedish Club will pay for the clean-up up to the limits of the CLC Convention.

This summary is simplified to explain the principles on which maritime commerce operates. The Swedish Club has confirmed that up to US$1.4 Billion is available for oil pollution clean-up. There is still the legal bun-fight ahead about salvage, wreck removal and cargo (so eloquently described by our man on Astrolabe Reef).

Next positing, I'll try to explain the principle of General Average.

The Antipodean Mariner
13th November 2011

Make Rena wreck a reef

2011-11-11T22:03:00.000+11:00

Courtesy of Tradewinds' (11/11/2011):-

With an end to the oil pollution threat from the wrecked Costamare containership Rena in sight the question of what to do with what remains of the ship is becoming an issue in New Zealand.
The authorities have issued a wreck removal notice requiring the shipowner to dispose of the 3,032-teu Rena (built 1990) which will potentially produce a very costly claim for the Swedish Club which has both the hull and the protection and indemnity cover on the vessel.
The bunker removal operation underway at the Astrolabe Reef.But a full scale wreck removal may not be required. The idea of moving the wreck off the Bay of Plenty’s Astrolabe Reef and sinking all or part of the ship in deeper water is being mooted in New Zealand.

A divers' association believes the sunken wreck could become an underwater attraction with other voices suggesting an artificial reef would boost the maritime environment and sea life.
If the Rena became a reef it would be good news for the Swedish Club and for the claims record of Costamare.

But the owner and the club are also facing a threat from a campaign so far backed by 5,000 New Zealanders to make Costamare and its insurer pick up the entire bill for the Rena casualty, clean-up and salvage – a bill that might run to as much as $100m.

New Zealanders are also learning about maritime limitation and the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims (LLMC) which appears relevant to the Rena loss.
For the Rena, a ship of 38,000 gross tons, the LLMC limitation amount is about SDR 6m ($9.5m) or NZD 12m with lawyers suggesting that it would be hard under New Zealand law to break limitation.

It looks as if the limitation issue may become a political hot potato with Costamare and the Swedish Club under pressure to go a good way beyond payment of the minimum amount.
There is also discussion of the possibility of a criminal prosecution over the grounding of Rena.
So there is both good and bad news for Costamare and the Swedish Club, but maybe also an environment where there could be room for deals over the LLMC limit, wreck removal and a prosecution.

Meanwhile Maritime New Zealand says good progress is being made in removing the bunkers of the Rena although there are hundreds of tonnes of oil to remove. The flow rate of the pump over to a tank barge is only three or four tones an hour with weather and sea conditions having the potential to delay operations.

Source: Jim Mulrenan, Tradewinds Singapore
http://www.tradewindsnews.com/casualties/646824/make-rena-wreck-a-reef-plea?lots=site

Rena salvage - gagged!

2011-11-11T09:20:00.000+11:00

The Antipodean Mariner's man on the spot has unfortunately been 'gagged', though at this point still with his job on 'GO Canopus'. This will be his final report from Astrolabe Reef, though I will continue to post updates of progress on the salvage gleaned from the public domain.

Hello all,
As per my last report, I have given an undertaking to transmit no further live updates of the salvage operation at Astrolabe Reef. My literary days have been curtailed, although for posterity, I will continue to keep an electronic log of my daily observations.

Thank you all for your kind comments and supportive emails.

I may use them in an endeavour to show appropriate personnel that mariners and New Zealanders from all walks of life, anywhere in the world, are genuinely interested in the salvage operation and want it to succeed without further incident. And that they appreciate on the spot, "real life" updates, rather than minimalist, sanitised sound bite versions put forward by the mainstream media.

Of course, I will have to curtail my opinions and stick purely to descriptive observations.
Au revoir and safe sailing everyone.

Signing off from Astrolabe reef for the last time.

If you enjoyed the last week's posts, feel free to comment as he's able to read the blog from 'GO Canopus'.

K - thanks from me for an entertaining three weeks of daily updates from this once in a lifetime opportunity.

RENA salvage - Storm threatens!

2011-11-10T10:26:00.000+11:00

A storm is brewing off Astrolabe Reef despite ongoing good weather for the Salvors. The Antipodean Mariner's man on the scene has fallen afoul of the non-disclosure clause in his employment contract, and the objections of the one of the Regulatory Agencies to his "call it as I see it" gonzo journalism style. The latest update has been editied to avoid offence (real or perceived) to those in the un-named Agency.

Hello all,
Welcome to my new readers in Russia, the Channel Islands and the [deleted regulatory agency] .

It was another lovely day out here at Astrolabe reef. The WSW wind continued to blow the sheen well out to sea. The weather gods certainly have been good to the salvors as of late. Long may it continue.

I think I witnessed Darwinism first hand today. As per earlier reports, there are multiple schools of fish shoaling around the reef. Sea birds are now also returning to the scene, making the most of the rich pickings. Proof that nature abhors a vacuum of course, but more notable was that both fish and birds were upwind and up weather of the Rena and the sheen.

Could it be that the smart birds know to keep away from the oil and the dumb ones die?
There was sheen in the water in the vicinty of where the maggots wash overboard, yet neither fish nor bird were there. Of course it could it be something much simpler, like current & weather, or noise from our thrusters? Whatever the reason, it was certainly very noticeable.

I have this evening been reminded of a non disclosure clause in my employment contract, which will preclude me from sending any further updates from the salvage site. I will endeavour to reach a compromise which will allow me to continue, as I know for many of you, this is the only news you get on the subject. However, if not, this may well be my 2nd last report.

Signing off from Astrolabe reef.

RENA Salvage - 8th November log

2011-11-09T09:08:00.000+11:00

It was another beautiful morning here at Astrolabe reef. The waxing, near full moon, set over the bow of the Rena, followed by a lovely sunrise just south of White Island; which we can see on a clear morning, still smouldering in the distance. What small oil sheen there was visible, continued to be blown to the East, well out to sea.

For the previous 24 hours, we have remained in close quarters on the port side of the Rena, with our oil transfer hose still connected to her bunkering manifold. Our DP system is operating very well, although we do lose DGPS diff signals occassionally, as the satellites disappear behind the accomodation block of the Rena. Our Cyscan laser range finder works very well at this close range and shows our reflector target mounted on the stern of the Rena, to be 44 metres away.

We now have a total of 22,000 litres of lubricating oil on board, stored in 2 of our ISO tank containers. It is slightly emulsified, due to contamination with both sea water and diesel, so is not reusable in its current state. It may be able to be rerefined or somehow recycled, but that is beyond my scope of knowledge. It is not continuous pumping to us, rather small parcel discharges, as the salvors drain all of the smaller lube & hydraulic oil storage tanks from within the engine room. There are occassions here when we feel like mushrooms, but generally we are kept pretty well in the operational loop.

Discharge of HFO & lube oil to the Awanuia has remained at a trickle. It will probably remain so, until completion of the hot tapping arrangements to the remaining fuel tank on the starboard side. Spare a thought for the personnel on the Awanuia. They are moored 30 metres down wind of the stern of the Rena. Every moment on deck they would be exposed to the stench emanating from the rotting contents of the freezer containers. I would assume that their air condition system is set to recycle.

There has been a slight but significant change, in the status of the major crack on the port side of the hull of the Rena, in the vicinity of number 2 hold. It is probably not noticeable to the casual observer, but there is further compression buckling of the hull apparent at the water line at low tide, coupled with a visual, transverse and vertical sheer misalignment of the forward and aft sections of the hull. Likewise the compression buckling in the hull, apparent in the vicinity of number 1 hold is also becoming greater. To clarify, when the Rena settled in her present position, her heading was 278 degrees. Her forward section remains on that heading, whereas her aft section might now be heading 279 degrees. Close observation of an aerial photo might reveal the aft section to be slightly offset to the South. To the non mariners, think of her as slightly bent to the left, like a banana. It appears that the incessant harmonic motions of wind, tide, tidal stream (tide induced current), waves and swell, appear to have finally severed the spine of the Rena. The Dutch salvage rep on board (the proud owner of my $20), confirmed that there is now a 60 cm movement in all directions, between the forward and aft sections.

The weather is due to turn to the South East at 25 knots on Thursday evening. It is the first time it has come from that direction in the 2 1/2 weeks we have been here on location. It will be interesting to observe the outcome. The Southeasterly weather would be just off our starboard bow, and put us on the "weather side" of the Rena, in a "blow on" position. Meaning, if we had an engine failure, we would be blown on to the Rena. She is more benign than a live gas riser, but it would still ruin our day. I expect that the call will be made within the next 24 hours, whether we remain connected to the discharge hose, or suspend operations and stand off. It is the Captain's ultimate decision, whether to stay in position, or stand off at a safe distance. I suspect that we will disconnect the hose by Thursday afternoon.

There was a new player in field today, in the form of a Sea-Tow tug and barge.

ST-60 (courtesy of 'Gladstone Observer')

The barge had two, long jib crawler cranes on board. They stooged around for a couple of hours, raising and lowering their fragile looking latticework jibs, looking all the while like long necked herons going through a mating ritual before proceeding back into port.

That is all from Astrolabe Reef today

RENA salvage - 7th November log

2011-11-08T09:46:00.000+11:00

It was a lovely fine day at Astrolabe reef today, with gentle to moderate WSW winds sending the oil sheen well out to sea. The sheen is becoming thinner and much less noticeable now. Either because the ruptured fuel tank on the starboard side is now empty, or there is minimal wave action to cause turbulence in that ruptured tank. Whatever the reason, it is good news.

We were called in this morning to the port side of the Rena, adjacent to her bunker manifold (The pipework where she usually loads fuel) just forward of the accommodation. We came in close, stern first, to receive a messenger rope from them, which we connected to our 4" floating hose. This hose was then hauled up the side of the Rena using a small hand winch, then connected to the bunker manifold. We have remained in this location throughout the day and into the night and have received a grand total of 8.7 cubic metres of lube oil into one of our deck tanks. At this rate we will have to go back into port to refuel and take provisions, long before our cargo tanks are full.

The Awanuia is still connected at the stern of the Rena, so she is about 40 metres off our port bow. It would make one very impressive aerial photo, with 4 vessels and numerous rigid inflatable work boats, all in such close proximity. Divers were also again in operation today, on both the port and starboard sides, continuing their hull survey and hot tapping preparations.
Following on from my report yeserday, I googled "hot tapping" and came up with the following sites:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_tapping
or
http://pipeweldaust.com.au/hotTapping.html

In addition to the dive operations and routine chopper flights, there was a chopper and water taxi full of "non salvage" junketeers, weilding numerous cameras. Not sure if they were press or Maritime NZ, but you can be sure that they did not spend too much time in the vicinity of the rotting freezer containers. Poor Mrs Mac deserves better than this.

It was very choppy when the water taxi was alongside the Rena, attempting to disembark his 4 passengers. Watching from the bridge, we were sure that at least one of them would end up in the drink. It was easy to see that they were not mariners and totally unused to boarding by pilot ladder. It didn't help that it was low tide also, which meant quite a reach to get to the bottom rung on the ladder. After lots of stuffing around, they eventually all boarded safely.

We have been advised that the container salvage reps were also on board and that they quoted a rate of removal of three containers per day and estimated that it would take a year to unload.

WTF! - that rate makes even the Brisbane wharfies look good.

Mother Nature will have it emptied for them long before a year is out. A summer cyclone will have it unloaded in less than 24 hours. I would be appalled if Maritime NZ signed up for that deal, as the crane barge due down to undertake the removal operation will be astronomically expensive. Think of them as tow truck drivers, then you will understand. The issue with unloading containers from within the holds, is that they are held in place by vertical, slotted cell guides, which enables an efficient and secure method of stowing the containers for transit by sea.
However, any containership mate will tell you, that the vessel has to be within 2 degrees of vertical, while loading or unloading the containers. Otherwise the containers jam in the cell guides, as the tolerances are so fine. So combine a 22 degree list, with the carnage in the holds caused by 17 knots of inertial impact with terra firma and you have a right royal clusterf@#k to try to unload.

It will certainly be a challenge, as is everything about this project so far. Consulting "Thomas Stowage" might not help in this instance.

That is all from Astrolabe Reef today.

m/v RENA salvage - First Person Log

2011-11-07T10:45:00.000+11:00

In the early hours of October 5th, the container ship 'Rena' went aground at full sea speed on Astrolabe Reef, north-east of the port of Tauranga, New Zealand. AIS data suggests that the Officer of the Watch altered the vessel's course to make directly for the Pilot Station. Unfortunately for him (and the ship) there was a well charted reef between him and the Pilot!

A shipmate of the Antipodean Mariner has been 'picked up off the beach' for the salvage operation, and has kindly agreed for his first person log to be posted here. The log starts with the mobilisation of the dynamically-positioned AHTS 'Go Canopus' to support the salvage...

I am due to join the vessel ‘GO Canopus’ on Saturday [22nd October] as part of the salvage operation for the containership RENA. I am intending to put out an informal brief daily update so that you can understand firsthand what is going on.

22nd October
Hi all.
It is the end of a very busy day.
The NZ crew joined the GO Canopus in Tauranga today (22nd) after a few hours of safety inductions. We are due to sail tonight, after loading 16 empty 20 foot ISO tank containers on the back deck.
We will replace the small fuel barge that is currently moored at the stern of the RENA as she has to return to her normal role of delivering fuel to ships in port.
The RENA is aground on a Westerly heading. We will set up using dynamic positioning, 10 metres off her port 1/4 (at her stern on the port side) and the salvors will pump the fuel from the RENA to the ISO containers on our deck.
When all 16 tanks are full, then we will return to port and swap out the full tank containers for some empty ones, then repeat the operation until no more fuel can be pumped from her.
When you see it all on the evening news, then it become clear to you.
It should be a quicker operation than utilising the small tanker, as the transfer hose will be much shorter, therefore less friction from the cold oil, hopefully giving a better transfer rate. Not allowed to take or transmit photos sorry - one of the contractual clauses.

23rd October
We eventually left Tauranga about 22:00 last night after a very long day.
We spent today undertaking DP (Dynamic Positioning) trials, emergency muster and preparing the deck equipment for receiving first oil from the Rena. The salvors meanwhile are rigging some bigger discharge hoses on board the Rena, to allow a faster discharge rate to us, than to the Awanuia.

The ‘GO Canopus’ is a 64 meters long supply boat, 10,700 shaft horse power, utilising 2 bow thrusters, one stern thruster and 2 main engines for position keeping. The DP operating system is CONVERTEAM, which is new to me. A bit like using a Mac for the first time after using Windows.
We will be setting up towards the stern of the Rena, as that is the only area where there is clear deep water to enable us to manoeuvre.
A news helicopter buzzed us this morning, filming as it went. It seemed very odd looking down at helicopter from the bridge wing.
Weather is lovely and calm and ideal for our first day out. Ideally it will be the same when we commence fuel transfer operations.
The 16 tank containers on board each have capacity of 24,000 litres when 100% full, so theoretically we could take 360 tonnes of fuel off her each time out here. It would thus take 4 return trips out here to drain her fuel, although there will be a considerable quantity of un-pumpable oil remaining on board thereafter. Hopefully she will hold together long enough to enable us to complete the task. The weather gods have been very kind so far. They are not always so.
As a mariner, it is not a nice feeling looking at a fully laden ship listing heavily and aground. Like looking at dead whale I guess.
While getting the oil off the Rena before she breaks in two is the priority, removal of the containers is also being planned, however that is a separate operation to ours. It will be a serious challenge for them to remove some of the containers at the stern which now appear to be almost horizontal. The twist locks holding them together were never designed for that type of force and will be impossible to unlock in that position.

A crane barge has been sourced to commence unloading them, but because of the limited amount of clear water depth around the Rena, it is unlikely that unloading of fuel and containers can be undertaken simultaneously.
We managed to get good enough TV signal to watch the Rugby World Cup final. Everyone was happy about that.

24th October
It has been a beautiful day out here in the sunny Bay of Plenty, so I don't have much news to add.
The salvors have decided to make the most of the good weather, so are continuing their fuel transfer operations to the Awanuia, rather than risk any delay or interruption in transferring the operation to us. It also allows them extra time to set up additional transfer hoses, to allow a better rate of transfer to us, when we get alongside.
There is also a possibility that we may shoot back into port on Tuesday to load some fresh water for the Rena salvage personnel, to use as cooling water for their oil transfer pumps, compressors and generators.
Once the weather deteriorates in a day or so, then the Awanuia will depart the scene and we will assume the receiving role from the Rena.
There were three helicopters in the air and a total of nine vessels out here today, so it was a busy little patch of water.
There must be many businesses in Tauranga doing very well out of this incident, but obviously not all.
The day was spend familiarising ourselves with the planned operation, checking equipment and documenting the risk assessment for the planned operation. Must get the paperwork completed correctly.

25th October
Hello everyone from sunny Tauranga.
It was another lovely sunny & clear day in the Bay of Plenty today. So clear in fact that we could quite clearly see the active volcanic activity of white island, over 30 miles away. I was very surprised as to how much smoke was belching out from there.
This afternoon we went alongside the port 1/4 of the Rena, 10 metres from her and discharged some fresh water to the salvors. I think that they are using it as cooling water for their hydraulic systems and they have used all that was available on the Rena.
Our stern was level with the aft (rear) end of her accommodation. I was on the stern of the GO Canopus calling the distances to go as we approached stern first. The shallow water around her was easily discernable by the opaque blue colour change. She is certainly well and truly aground and will not be coming off the reef of her own accord.
I can't visualise how a crane barge will be able to gain access to remove any containers forward of the Rena's accommodation. Perhaps Mother Nature will solve the problem in the next big blow and remove them all.
The small tanker Awanuia was close alongside us. Her stint out here at the Rena might be coming to an end soon, but she has done very well. She has tug boat at her stern, providing static tow, to keep tension on the mooring lines and so prevent her bow from hitting the stern of the Rena.
There was an obvious oil slick emanating from her today and two smaller vessels had deployed a floating oil boom to try and contain it. Farting against thunder I suspect, however they have to try. I guess they have some type of skimmer or surface vacuum to recover the contained oil, but they were not close enough to us for me to see that in operation.
After discharging water we then proceeded back to Tauranga to load some more and get some more hoses and equipment for the salvage operation.
We will probably be departing back to the Rena, either tonight or tomorrow morning.

26th October
We spend the night in the port of Tauranga, berthed at the old Union Company Roll on Roll off berth. We loaded more fresh water for the Rena, along with more transfer hose (with floatation collars attached) and some more tow rope for the harbour tug that is doing the static tow on the Awanuia. Obviously their towing bridle is becoming a little chafed after providing a constant towing force for two weeks. Harbour tugs and their equipment are not designed for such continual use.
There were also three of the smaller oil spill support vessels back in port to load the surface skimmers and other oil recovery equipment. These aluminium hulled boats were designed and built for the mussel farming industry from Coromandel. They are very practical and good looking work boats which have a big clear deck area, a small Hiab crane and small overside gantry davits. At first glance their dimensions do seem out of proportion, but they are perfect work platforms to store and deploy floating oil booms, oil skimmers and to store 1000 litre bulk drums of recovered oil sludge. It will be a long and arduous process for them though and no doubt not the most pleasant at times.
We showed some of their personnel around the GO Canopus and they were most appreciative of seeing another side to the project. We are all on the same team after all and a little good will goes along way. Who knows, they may sling a meal of fresh fish over our rail one morning. That would be nice.
We left Tauranga this afternoon and are now back on location at the Rena and will be delivering the rope to the tug and water to the Rena. We have a two tonne crane on our port side amidships, that has a 15 metre boom. It is ideal for transferring small cargo parcels to other vessels.
The water we are delivering to Rena is to be used for water injection into the oil discharge line, to reduce the viscosity and improve the flow rate through the discharge hose. Much the same principle as the gas lift injection we utilised to enhance flow rates and well performance, while I as on the Crystal Ocean.
Of course this water injection also increases the volume of emulsified oil that needs to be stored on board.
We have also been advised that some of the salvors will soon be living aboard us overnight. I guess a hot meal, shower and tv on here would now seem a luxury to those that have been staying overnight on the dead ship Rena. They will be transferred daily between us and the Rena, via a rigid inflatable work boat that is operating in field.
I would hate to guess what the daily cost is for all of this. Personnel, hotel bills, helicopters, support boats and shipping charter costs are not cheap, so the NZ taxpayer will end up footing a phenomenal bill for it all, possibly in the vicinity of half a million dollars per day. No doubt that will all come out during the upcoming electioneering and grandstanding.
That is all from the sunny Bay of Plenty

27th October
It was a lovely start to the day this morning. A pod of three Orca whales were seen close by, just cruising around, obviously content, well fed and unaffected by the drama unfolding around them. We could tell by the size of their fins that there was one mature one, one baby and the third a juvenile. There seems to be an abundance of fish in the water as well, so don't believe everything that you read in the press about an environmental disaster. The aquatic locals seem to be thriving, although bird life is rather sparse. Shows that fish are smarter than birds. We were scheduled to be alongside the Rena at 09:00 to discharge more fresh water to them. However this was cancelled for reasons unknown to us.
So we transferred no water, nor loaded any oil. Our oil transfer hose and pump is all rigged up on deck ready to go. Just waiting for the word.
There appeared to be some issues with pumping of oil from the Rena to the Awanuia today, as the hourly transfer rate was reduced to a mere trickle. So far the Awanuia has received 822 cubic metres of HFO (heavy fuel oil), so they are over half way through the operation. However the remaining HFO and diesel will take longer to remove, as it is in smaller tanks in the engine room, with more difficult access and a longer more torturous route for it to be pumped. I suspect that the rate of transfer will thus decline, meaning there will still be several weeks more of transferring oil, before a start is made on removing any containers.
All on the bridge have now become familiar and confident with operating the "Converteam" DP system. After 12 years of using a Kongsberg SDP 21 system, even I have come to terms with the vagaries of this one.
An electrician, 2nd cook and a steward joined today, in anticipation of the eight extra salvors joining us over the next couple of days. While our accommodation is not flash, it has to be better than sleeping on the open deck on the Rena.
Contrary to press reports, Rena has not yet broken up. However the major crack on her port side in the vicinity of Number 2 hatch has become noticeably bigger with more shiny buckled steel being exposed. This crack now extends to below the waterline. Like a piece of fencing wire that is constantly bent back and forwards, it will eventually break.
Whether the stern sinks immediately or remains afloat depends on both the Engine-room and aft container hatch retaining their watertight integrity. At the moment she is buoyant aft, as both spaces are still intact and are over deep water. That she is still buoyant aft, is exacerbating the cracking in the hull at the forward end, as the stern rises and falls imperceptibly with each passing swell, weakening the steel structure with every movement.
Electronic sensors have been placed on board to monitor this movement, but I am not privy to the results.
The weather is deteriorating slightly from the previous few days, with the swell become more noticeable; hence it is but a matter of time until she breaks in two. No doubt it will be a most dramatic occurrence. Hopefully it will occur in daylight on my watch, so that I can be a first hand witness. A once in a lifetime occurrence.
It will no doubt make a mess though, with containers and oil strewn asunder. Watch this space.

28th October
It was Groundhog Day today, with more "standby to standby" stuff from the Rena.
We moved in to 100 metres from her port quarter and sat there until 09:30 when they told us that we were not required for the moment.
There was some drama off the port of Tauranga though, as another containership "Schelde Trader" hit the bricks. Not sure of the circumstances, however there is no major damage that I am aware of.
It has certainly not been a good month for containership operators running into the port of Tauranga.
Contrary to what has been promulgated in the press and from the politicians, we have yet to receive a single drop of oil from the Rena. They are continuing the pumping operations to the Awanuia, which currently has just over 1,000 cubic metres of HFO on board. Her charter has been extended through until at least Monday. They are still pumping from the settling and daily service tanks in the engine room and should be finished them by tomorrow. It must be diesel they are pumping from those tanks, as the transfer rate jumped to 18 cubic metres per hour. A vast improvement on the 4 cubic metres per hour they had been achieving with the HFO transfer.
Once the engine room tanks have been drained, then the salvors will move on to the starboard side tanks. That will be very challenging, as although the tanks are intact, they are underwater. My understanding is that they will attempt to form a watertight cofferdam in the under deck trunking, which runs the length of the ship. The cofferdam will probably be sealed with an inflatable bladder, prior to the water being pumped out, to allow personnel to access the lids to the remaining fuel tanks.
It would be a real bugger of a risk assessment and JSA, prior to undertaking that job wouldn't it!?
The tug "Waka Kume" which is providing the static tow on the Awanuia, is running very low on fresh water. She is a harbour tug, which has been out here since before we arrived on the scene. She is not designed for significant periods at sea. She will come alongside us tomorrow so that we can top up her fresh water tanks. We will no doubt throw them some fresh fruit and other stores to keep them content, as this period at sea on constant towing duties must be very tedious and mind sapping. They certainly would not be used to it for such a long period.
Until now the weather gods have been extraordinarily benign to the salvors, environment and people of the Bay of Plenty. However we are keeping a close eye on a low that appears to be developing off the Queensland coast, near Lord Howe Island. Worst case scenario is that it could throw some nasty North Easterlies into the Bay of Plenty in 3 or 4 days time. That could be the final straw that breaks the Rena camel’s back.....literally.
We are currently experiencing steady north easterlies 15 - 18 knots, with the forecast, more of the same. These conditions exacerbate the movement of the stern of the Rena and makes it too rough for the small oil recovery vessels to operate. So I expect significant oil to be washed up on the beaches of Papamoa and Mt Maunganui over the next 72 hours, albeit lighter than the initial heavy spill.

30th October
Well after the groundhog days of recent times, today was anything but.
After many days of "stand down we don't require you", today was "stop what you're doing, get your arse into town, unload those tank containers and get yourself ready for towing".
Those of you with experience in the offshore industry will no doubt understand exactly what kind of a day it has been. Thank goodness for the neuron zinging caffeine injection from my industrial strength black coffee. Yep, nothing has changed there.
We started the day in close to the Rena, on her starboard 1/4, in preparation to transfer one end of the 6" hose to her and the other end to the Awanuia. The salvage personnel were not quite ready for us, so we relocated to the port side of the Awanuia, to transfer some fresh water to them. We had been pumping fresh water to them for about 20 minutes, when we got the call to stop everything and proceed into port, to clear our deck in preparation for towing.
Finally somebody on the beach had connected the dots to realise that the weakened Rena would not survive the forecast weather and it might just be prudent to rig and connect a towing bridle from the stern of the Rena. Jim the weatherman could have told them that.
48 hours behind the 8 ball, but better late than never I guess.
After our turbo port visit, we arrived back on location at 20:00 and had our tow wire connected to the stern of the Rena at 23:00.
The troops did very, very well and put in a huge amount of OT without a grizzle. Had a good initial toolbox meeting, followed by several stop, step back 5 x 5 chats. Very professional and the salvage master on board was most impressed, particularly in light of us having had just 10 hours notice and no one having used our towing gear before.
Of course it would have been nice to do it all on a nice sunny day in calm weather.
Not so of course, as those of you in the offshore industry know only too well.
Weather had started to deteriorate by the evening. 20+ knot winds on the port beam, rain and salt spray across the aft deck and the noisy thrashing of the stern thruster, screaming its protest at being asked to perform above 80% for a prolonged period. All this being overseen by the omnipresent foreboding spectre of the dark stern of a dying queen, crowned with that gravity defying cantilever of suspended containers; barely 10 metres from our stern roller. Most surreal.
I had thought that my days of getting covered in grease and shit and dragging wires, ropes and tools around the deck of a supply boat, were long past me.
Alas not so.
I must be a sadistic bugger though, as I have to confess to a certain sense of enjoyment and satisfaction in getting stuck into a job like this. It sure beats the hell out of being welded to a computer for 12 hours.
We are now the proud owner of 40,000 tonnes of scrap steel, rotting meat patties and cow hides. Any takers?
She is currently 400 metres astern of us, and faintly illuminated by our search light. The tow is made up of chain links, 2 wire pennants and 292 metres of 76 mm diameter wire, paid off our main tow winch.
She is still on a Westerly heading, while we are off her starboard 1/4, with our nose pointed into a 20 knot North-easterly.
We are not intending to pull her off the reef, just maintain a static tow, trying to hold her stern where it is. If the stern sinks immediately she breaks up, we will still remain connected to her, but be quite safe, as our tow wire is much longer than the water is deep. If an emergency arises, we can always gas axe the towing wire.
The sixty four million dollar question (2 actually), is when will she break in two and will the stern remain afloat.
That would be a good sweepstake at work, instead of the Melbourne cup.
My guess is 03:00 Wednesday morning when the weather peaks. I would prefer it to be in daylight of course, to be able to witness this once in a lifetime spectacle and to describe it to you.
The stern section will capsize almost immediately, but possibly float for several hours thereafter, before sinking. We will endeavour to tow her to a nearby shoal patch, should the opportunity arise.
By this time tomorrow, we will all be the wiser. Unfortunately however, the magnificent picturesque environment of the Bay of Plenty, will most likely be the poorer.
Until tomorrow then.

1st November
As I start to write this at 21:00, Rena is still in 1 piece. I have $20 on with one of the salvage team that she will be broken up by morning.
The old man knocked me off at 10:00 this morning. It had been a while since I had seen my bunk.
I slept all day and had a can of coke and a chocolate biscuit for breakfast, when I awoke at 20:00. The breakfast food of champions ;-) Desperately needed the sugar hit after the efforts of yesterday. I'll save the super-strong caffeine infusion for when I go on watch at midnight.
Then back to the mundane, had to do my laundry, as I was down to my last pair of socks and undies. Time for a linen change too.
We are still punching in to the North easter. Dancing around a fair bit, but it is not too uncomfortable. Just a gentle zephyr really, compared with some of the storms we weathered in Bass Strait on the Crystal Ocean. Mind you, we didn't have 40,000 tonnes of scrap steel hanging off our stern then.
The salvage master has given instructions that we steadily bring up the power, so that by midnight we are exerting 50 tonnes of bollard pull on the tow wire.
The GO Canopus is a twin screw 11,000 horse power anchor handling tug, rated at 110 tonnes of bollard pull, so we will be operating at about 50% power. The tow winch is on a brake, so we don't measure the force from that, but from 2 sources of data output on the DP console on the bridge.
The main engines are configured into the DP system and their thrust force output is displayed in tonnes on the computer screen. When each propeller is pushing out 25 tonnes of force, viola, 50 tonnes bollard pull.
In addition, the Converteam DP system, displays current as a tonnes force measurement, rather than in knots like the Kongsberg system.
The reading is not true current, but a summation of all of the unknown forces acting on the vessel. The system does not know that we have 40,000 tonnes of steel on our arse, that is firmly welded to New Zealand. It has engine input data, showing that we are exerting an awful lot of force and should be moving over the ground at a commensurate speed.
It calculates that if we are not doing that speed, then we must be stemming a current of a force equal to the engine output (minus the wind speed force input).
So for the 50 tonnes thrust force the main engine output shows, the Converteam "Kongsberg current" should display a similar figure.
I hope that is not too technical for some of you. If so, just think of it as "white man’s magic" – that’s easier. We were buzzed by a chopper at about 09:30 this morning as I was down aft checking the tow wire. It zoomed in very low and loud. Not sure if it was Maritime NZ checking up on us, the salvors or news hounds, but it did appear to have a decent camera mounted on it.
The salvage master advised us this morning, that yesterday prior to them abandoning the Rena, another large crack had appeared on the starboard side of the hull, immediately forward of the accommodation. This is in the vicinity of the starboard side fuel tank, where the remaining 350 cubic metres of HFO is stored. Sunrise could reveal one hell of a mess, even if she has remained relatively intact. No doubt the morning air will be abuzz with choppers observing the overnight carnage. He also said that she was very noisy on board, with the incessant screeching of protesting steel and grinding containers.
I had always thought that a wreck would be ghostly quiet somehow. I know that the dying screeches of any animal are never the most pleasant and I guess that Rena is no different. Protesting that she is still alive, while trying to ignore the mortal wounds she has suffered.
I must be getting soft, as I seem to have a sad affinity for her. It's never nice to watch anything die and a once proud ship is no different. The photograph of the Wahine lying on her side in Wellington harbour springs to mind.
Enough of the melancholy. I'll send you an update come first light.
You'll get the news from me before you get it from Petra, Rachel or Lee [on TVNZ News].

Update:
Good morning all,
In the dim nautical twilight, 500 metres away, the silhouette of the Rena is becoming apparent, as the weather eases to a 20 knot northerly.
The gyroscopic indicator sensors on board her and relayed to us, are indicating that she is still resting at 22 degrees, albeit the stern is bouncing around a bit, both in pitch and roll.
So I am $20 out of pocket, as she is still afloat and still in one piece. Ces't la vie.
Obviously full daylight will reveal the true extent of loss, in both containers and heavy fuel oil.
No doubt the air will then abuzz with choppers, like blowflies around a week old sheep carcass.
Will update you later in the morning

The morning fog finally cleared at 09:30, revealing no obvious significant addition damage, nor much container loss. There was a faint oil trail leading south towards Motiti Island however.
The 3 metre swells are rolling down her starboard deck, up to the hatch coamings and high tide is due at 13:12.
Only time will tell.

2nd November
After the drama and effort of the previous two days (& nights), today was rather an anti climax.
The Rena rose majestically defiant out of the dense morning fog at about 0930. The sea will inevitably claim its prize, but not today.
Prior to that, there were times we completely lost sight of her at 500 metres range. As suspected, the air soon filled with choppers and fixed wing, like rubber-neckers at a motorway pile up.

We also had two helo personnel winch transfers from our aft deck, as the salvage team members, returned to the Rena to reassess her condition. They will only resume oil transfer operations, when they are reassured that it is safe for their personnel to enter the spaces with difficult access.
I am not sure where the 5 metre overnight swell prediction originated from though, as the met-ocean forecasts we received always promulgated 30 knot winds and 2.5 metre swells. Perhaps officialdom was trying to pad out the figures to prime the NZ public for the morning disaster. Very lapse of the press to not latch onto such a blatant porky.
The Dutch salvage rep gleefully accepted my $20 when he came to the bridge, although he magnanimously give me until 18:00, just in case the heavy North-eastery swell managed to complete, what the 35 knot winds couldn't. It was most impressive to watch the grey 3 metre swells, rolling forward down the main deck, smashing themselves against the coamings of the ships hatches. At high tide, the entire starboard side sheer strake appeared to be well underwater; however appearances were deceiving, as the sensors on board the Rena showed her list unchanged at 22 degrees.

The ‘GO Canopus’ has performed very well as a tow vessel, with main engines, thrusters and DP system all coping. However we are wallowing around something awful, due to the swell coming from the North east and the wind now from the North-west. We are splitting the forces and are on a northerly heading to make the most efficient use of the thrusters to balance the tow forces, currently set at about 15 tonnes. I don't think anyone is sleeping very well, if at all and shaving is certainly out of the question.
There is another small blow forecast for Friday, however, being a Westerly, it is offshore, hence will not affect us as much. Thereafter it is light Westerlies, so it should give the salvors ample opportunity to resume their operations, should the Rena still be structurally sound enough to do so.
They have said that she really stinks out on deck now, with rotting blood and meat juice oozing from the dozens of fridge and freezer containers, hat once held prime export beef, mutton, fish and dairy products. A true cross section of NZ's export products now represented by nothing more than an offensive smell, a health hazard with a high probability of enhancing an injury by slipping. They have had to rig tarpaulins over some of their work sites, to keep the rotting ooze from dripping on them.
Not the most pleasant work site one could imagine and a labour department health inspector would have a field day. I suspect that the salvors would make them as welcome as Yasser Arafat in downtown Tel Aviv.
That’s all from Astrolabe reef today.

3rd November
Well I can't say the day was boring.
I started my day at midnight, continuing with the static tow on the Rena. The wind eased throughout the morning and continued to back round to the WNW.
Just before 10:00 we received instructions from the salvage master to cease the static tow, recover our tow wire, then proceed into Tauranga and reload the 16 ISO tank containers and oil transfer hoses.
We recovered the wire and were disconnected by noon.
While close in to the stern of the Rena for disconnection, we noticed a significant trail of oil streaming away to the South East. The North West wind had saved the Mt Maunganui and Papamoa beaches this time, however it will most likely end up in the vicinity of Whakatane.
The oil was not the same thick glutinous HFO that had washed up several weeks ago, but significantly lighter in consistency, more like a thin light fuel oil (LFO) or marine diesel.
The good news is that this lighter oil should evaporate and break up naturally in the prevailing weather conditions, so should not cause the same level of environmental damage to either beaches or shite hawks.
The prevailing weather is forecast to come from the west for the next week or so, so hopefully the pristine white beaches of the bay will survive relatively unscathed.
On the short voyage into town I had to ballast the after peaks, to bring the stern lower in the water. I had forgotten what it is like to grovel around in the engine room and steering flat of a supply boat. They are designed for hobbits and dwarves. Thank goodness for hard hats and grade 7 peltor ear muffs.
Perhaps if the idiot who designed it, was forced to work in the engine-room for a year, he would have a greater appreciation of the ergonomic requirements of the engine-room spaces. I empathise with those who work below.
The port visit was great. I managed a shave and some quality sleep. Such are the simple pleasures of life on a supply boat.
We are now back on location, fully loaded with tanks and transfer hoses, waiting for the morning and further instructions from the salvage master. The Awanuia and tug Waka Kume are also in field, after a 2 day respite in port. I am not sure who will have priority in the morning, but no doubt there is a plan.
Spare a thought for the salvage team. Apparently the stench of rotting flesh is now all pervasive on board the Rena, with many of them retching continually in certain work areas. The blowflies have also now found this sensory paradise, so on top of the smell and the slip hazard, the poor buggers on board now have to put up with these hairy bombers landing on them and the incessant drone of their gorging and breeding in an orgy of unrestrained gluttony.
Not a very nice place to work at all and certainly not for the squeamish. Apparently a case of fly spray was amongst the salvage gear recently choppered out.
That’s all from Astrolabe reef today

4th November
It was yet another hectic day at Astrolabe reef.
We stood off the Rena overnight to await the weather to ease. Took the opportunity to do some DP checks to determine additional DGPS signal blind spots.. It is a real bugger losing a diff signal when one is undertaking a critical operation on a certain heading. Always best to be aware of what ships heading to not be on, prior to undertaking the close quarters task.
We waited until the tanker Awanuia was reconnected at the stern of the Rena, then moved in very close to the starboard 1/4 of the Rena, to await the arrival on board of the salvage master. It was too rough for him to transfer by boat, so he was winched down from the squirrel helicopter, arriving like James Bond, to save the world. After a thorough tool box talk with all involved, we moved in closer, to begin to transfer the 6" hose to the stern of the Rena. I was on the aft deck, calling the closing distances to the bridge. We stopped at 6 metres from the corner roller on her poop deck.
From there I had a great view of the destruction wrought on her deck cargo and caught several whiffs of the smell that the salvors had been referring to. One of the split containers closest to me and immediately above to poop deck, had once been an operational 40 foot freezer container, in which frozen "Mrs Macs" meat pies had been dutifully stowed for export. The salvors will forever and a day refer to them as "Mrs Macs maggot packs", as the entire 40 footer is now alive with crawlies.
Prior to working on the poop, the salvors had to run a fire pump, to hose the deck down and wash the mass of maggots overboard.
The fish are getting very fat and thriving out here. I have never seen so many schools of fish shoaling. Obviously they have benefitted from the glut of food, lack of aerial predators and the exclusion zone preventing fishing.. Other than the large lump of scrap steel atop, acting as a very efficient radar reflector, the marine life around the reef appears to be showing no adverse symptoms, rather, it is thriving.
After successfully transferring one end of the hose to the Rena, we then moved out thirty metres and transferred the other end to the Awanuia, with the assistance of a small Naiad work boat and a thirty metre poly prop messenger.
The entire operation went very smoothly, without incident.
We were then dismissed from her starboard 1/4 and proceeded to her port side, level with the front of her accommodation, where her fuel bunkering point is located. This is the point where the 4" oil transfer line to the GO Canopus is to be connected.
The plan went south soon after, when one of the salvors on the Rena, allocated for this task, slipped and was injured. No points for guessing what he slipped on.
Our oil tanks thus remain empty.
There was a notable trail of caramel coloured oil originating from the forward end of the starboard side of the Rena today. The westerly wind continues to blow it out to sea, well away from the beaches and islands. It is currently bowing 30 knots from the West, so Mother Nature is doing her best to assist in this clean up. The wind and wave action are doing a marvellous job in breaking it all up. These conditions are forecast to continue for another few days.
That is all from Astrolabe reef today.

5th November
The wind was our friend today. It blew continually between 20 & 30 knots from the West to South West, pushing the ongoing caramel trail of oil to the East and well out to sea. The oil is still seeping from the crack in her hull on the starboard side, in the vicinity of number 2 hold.
A white squirrel chopper buzzed us soon after day break, then headed East, following the trail into the distance.
This crack in the hull on the Rena’s starboard side has now reached across the deck and has sheared the hatch coaming at no 2 hold, so it will only be a section of the double bottoms and the lattice work of containers within the hold, that are holding her together.
Several of the non marine salvage crew on board here, said that the grinding noise at number 2 hold has become significantly louder and that they could feel the rocking motion of the Rena, more so than before. So the blow of last week certainly took its toll. They have an mpeg video of their inspection, which I have yet to see.
A must see viewing for tomorrow.
Other than sending the oil trail eastwards, the wind hampered the salvage operation, by causing postponement of both helicopter & small boat operations this morning.
All but one small boat operations that is. We noticed a grey inflatable, belting its way flat out into the Westerly chop, often disappearing amidst a plume of self generated spray. Commented "what kind of fool is out here doing that?"
Scrutiny with binoculars revealed black masked men wearing grey helmets.
It was the grey funnel line, practising to save the Rena from unscrupulous treasure hunters and over eager fishermen. They rendezvoused with the HMNZS Hawea soon thereafter.
It certainly was not the ideal weather to be playing "cut lunch commando" and I am sure that they were all most relieved to get back on board to have a hot bowl of soup. There would have been hell to pay if that little exercise had gone bad. Starting with "what the hell were you thinking, launching the boat in those conditions?"
Rest easy NZ, the grey funnel line have our backs covered, come rain or shine ;-) The conditions put paid to us closing up to the Rena to transfer our hose to receive oil. Hopefully tomorrow.
The Awanuia is currently receiving lube oil from the Rena. The transfer rate is far from impressive, but every drop counts and lube oil does not dissipate in the wind and waves in the same manner that fuel oil does.
The Rena has recently become lit up at night, with the accommodation and deck lights now turned on, to assist the night shift salvors. They have hot wired one of their generators into the ships main distribution board, allowing them to utilise some of the Rena’s electrical equipment. The most important of these are the small fuel oil and lube oil transfer pumps in the engine-room, which allow them to transfer and consolidate oil from the settling and daily service tanks in the engine-room, as the pipe work there is still intact.
It is one of these (probably the sludge, or fuel oil transfer pump) that will be used to pump oil to us, via the ships manifold on the port side.
My apologies if the above explanation is a bit technical for my non maritime readers.
The fire pump is another pump that they have brought into service. Not so much as a precaution for fire, but to keep the aft deck awash from the open fire hydrants, to flush the maggots overboard. The salvors affectionately refer to this fire pump as "the maggot pump"!
Fuel for the salvors generator is choppered out almost daily, in 200 litre drums slung in a cage beneath one of the bigger machines. While some businesses in Tauranga may be suffering, the helicopter operators are not one of them.
That is all from Astrolabe reef today.

6th November
I am totally unaware of to how many people this blog is eventually forwarded on to, nor how many read it, but hope that you are all finding the saga of the Rena salvage interesting, regardless of your walk of life.
My challenge is to make it technically accurate, without getting bogged down in technical marine details, so that it is both interesting and entertaining.
Hopefully I have the right balance, as it is going out to experienced mariners throughout NZ, Australia, SE Asia & Scotland, as well as to auto technicians, Fonterra shift workers at Kauri, the legal and teaching fraternities, as well as the wider farming community. So I have a broad range of backgrounds to cater to.
It must be going to someone in Russia too, as I was spammed by three Russian ladies last night, all wanting to marry me.
Such is the life of a seafarer!
Thanks for the offer Yuliya, but no thanks.
It was a beautiful morning this morning, with a light westerly blowing. The oil sheen drifting eastward was much lighter than that observed the previous two days.
There was some light drama on the tanker Awanuia this morning, as one of the three mooring lines connecting her to the Rena, experienced some chafing overnight, where it went through the roller leads at the stern of the Rena. Her mooring lines are the "Dyneema" type (or similar) which are very light, strong and easy to handle, with good stretching characteristics, but poor chafe resistance. They had to shorten the mooring to adjust the length of the rope, so that the worn section was wrapped on the bits of the Rena, hence under less tension, with less potential to snap.
In an ideal world, a wire pennant should be utilised between the bits and the roller fairleads (like at port Taranaki), so that the rope mooring is connected outboard of the roller and will not chafe. No doubt there will be an insurance claim from the Awanuia for replacement ropes when this is all over. She has done very well there though, ably assisted by the tug Waka Kume.
Pumping of lube oil to her continued after this, however the transfer rate was hardly impressive.
There were two lots of dive operations undertaken on the hull of the Rena today.
On the starboard side, the divers were investigating and planning a "hot tapping" arrangement, whereby they would drill two holes in number 5 starboard oil tank, to recover the remaining HFO. One hole at the top of the tank and the other towards the bottom.
Contrary to what one might expect, "Hot tapping" does not involve flame cutting. It is a term used in the oil and dive industry, to drill through a pipe or tank wall, when there is pressurised hydrocarbons on the other side, without allowing any hydrocarbons to escape when the drill is removed.
Best to Google it if you want more details on how it’s done.
Once the pipe work is connected to the hot tap, then oil is drawn from the top hole and water is let in from the bottom. The static head of the water outside, continues to displace the oil, forcing it to the top of the tank where it is sucked out. A simple and effective method, making use of basic physics by taking advantage of the different properties of both fluids.
The 2nd dive was on the port side, to inspect some crumpling damage on her hull, immediately forward of her accommodation, in the vicinity of the bilge keel.
There is always a significant sheer force at the bulkhead between a vessels engine room and the next forward hatch. In simple terms, this is caused by an imbalance of forces, of buoyancy on one side and weight on the other.
In the recent north easterly blow, the buoyant engine room and aft hatch were rising and falling with the swell, at a different rate to the section of the hull wedded to the reef. The focal point for the structural flexing caused by that difference of motion, is at that bulkhead forward of the engine room, already under sheer force stress. As the trough of the heavy swell has caused the aft end of the Rena to drop, the bottom of the hull has buckled under compression forces, while at the deck, expansion forces have caused cracking.
Here ends the physics lessons.
This compression buckling and cracking is not visible to us on board the GO Canopus and is not as visually impressive as the gaping wound in her hull at number 2 hold, where she is firmly aground. However in the next big North East blow, it is here that she will now most likely break in two, with us connected to her by a tow wire. It will make a good fishing story - the big one that didn't get away ;-) Needless to say, this 2nd dive operation was in the same location as where we were required to be to load oil. The dive survey took precedence over us and we were requested to depart the scene to allow safe diving operations.
Divers become very nervous when propellers and thrusters are whirring above their heads.
So we departed the port side and spent the rest of the afternoon waiting and watching, with oil tanks still empty.
I have prepared both a stability plan and a deck cargo loading layout plan, but as yet, neither have been called upon.
That is all from Astrolabe reef today

What's in a (ship's) name

2011-07-10T17:54:00.001+10:00

Ship's names are an expression of the wild and weird imaginations of what is typically a very seceretive world of private equity. Names foisted on unsuspecting vessels (and their Masters) like 'Nice Approach', 'Ducky Shiny', 'A Elephant', 'B Whale' and 'Titan Uranus' as starters.

Our company ran a competition to name the series of vessels currently under construction, and in short the 205,000 DWT NewcastleMax Capes will be known as the 'Navigators'. Names will be familar to most Western mariners - Cook, Cartier, Tasman...

A name which will be less familar is 'Zheng He', Hull PN68 and ship four in the build programme.

Admiral Zheng He was a central Asian Muslim, captured as a child and installed in the court of the Emperor Yongle. A confidant of the Emperor, Zheng He commanded seven voyages of trade and exploration between 1405 and 1433, each lasting between two and three years duration and venturing as far west as East Africa and the Straits of Hormuz. The Chinese had recorded sea trade back to the Roman Empire, and it's believed that Admiral Zheng He's voyages were along well known routes. What established Zheng He in China's recorded history was his establishment of diplomatic envoys with nations his fleet visited. Admiral Zheng He died on the retun leg of his final voyage circa 1433.

PN65 (to be named 'Cook') has 100 of her 231 block completed and the coating phase has commenced. Pictured are the completed rudder horn (shown under fabrication in an earlier posting) and the lower Engineroom which will house the tail shaft. Keel laying is scheduled for the end of July.

The Antipodean Mariner
10th July 2011

2011 Day of the Seafarer

2011-06-26T19:53:00.000+10:00

Saturday 25th of June was the IMO's Day of the Seafarer - a day to celebrate seafarers, the job they do and why the world would be a lesser place without them. I spent the Day of the Seafarer over, and not on, the Indian Ocean which is the reason for my late posting.

Although my days as a real seafarer are over, it forms the strongest affiliation between my person and professional self. To provide some structure to this posting, I'm going to ask readers who have been to sea and who influence the lives of seafarers to consider the following...

Seafarers live and work aboard ships in the same way you live at your home and work at your office. When you're reviewing the latest Outline Specification for a new ship, please look at the standard of the fitout, automation and equipment. And yourself whether you would live in an unlined steel cabin with a single 100V powerpoint for 10 months, or whether you could avoid a close quarters situation running accross the wheelhouse between the autopilot and ARPA. People who design ships don't sail on ships, and we have an obligation to apply our knowledge to make ships better places to live and work.

Seafarers need sleep. Seafarers cannot work for 38 hours straight because junior officers are not qualified or experienced enough to maintain a cargo watch. Give them people capable of efficiently performing their own job so that they can get the rest they need to do their job.

Seafarers need protection. Because your company decided to opt out of the tax system which pays for warships and airforces doesn't remove the risk of your seafarers becoming hostages. Give your Masters freedom to navigate around piracy zones and the resources to protect their ships and crews. Build them a citadel. Even better, given them an armed guard or three to fight back.

Seafarers need motivation and appreciation. Just because you didn't get the Statements of Facts as soon as the Pilot disemarked probably means the Captain is probably busy settling down the ship on passage. Share with the Captain and the Chief Engineer what's important on this charter, and what they need to know to make the voyage a financial success.

Seafarers are rarely criminals. They become criminals through being improperly incentivised to perform criminal acts such as make a 'majic pipe' or as a consequence of commercial pressures to act unsafely. No Captain set out to collide with a bridge pier or run aground on a coral reef. However, they are all too often arrested for the consequences of the actions and contributions of others aboard and ashore.

Seafarers in the main hard working, inventive, practical and good natured. They navigate daily around the hidden shoals in charter parties, Port State Control inspections and Superintendent's demands. Once a year we celebrate them - every day we need them.

The Antipodean Mariner
26th June 2011

Coal from Mozambique

2011-06-13T18:33:00.000+10:00

Mozambique is positioning itself as the new frontier for metallurgical coal. The central province of Moatize is estimated to have billion of tonnes of this critical input to the steel making industry, which sells at price multiples to thermal coal.

The Antipodean Mariner did a whistlestop tour of Mozambique in May to study the rail and port infrastructure under development for the first Mozambican coal exports since the end of the post-colonial civil war.

Two key pieces of infrastructure - the Sena Rail Line and the port of Beira will export the first coal from open cast mines at Tete. The Sena Rail Line was heavily damaged during the civil war, and has been rehabilitated by its Indian concessionaires' Rites and Ircon. The port of Beira has languished in post-war obscurity, notably only for its position as the corridor for imports and exports from Zimbabwe. The port had silted up to only 6 metres of water, reducing blue water traffic to a trickle. A new coal terminal is under construction at Beira which will export up to 6M tonnes per year.

Foreign aid has funded dredging of the Pungue River channel back to 8 metres below chart datum. Berth 8 will be refurbished to load up to Supramax bulk carriers and two new tran-shipment vessels purpose built by Coeclerici for Vale's 4M tonne per year capacity.

The Zambesi River flows from Tete to the Indian Ocean and the Mocambican Government are looking at permitting barging to move coal for export.

Mozambique has a goldrush town feel about it - conspicuous wealth side-by-side with grinding poverty. Mozambique certainly felt like a country with a future.

The Antipodean Mariner
13th June 2011

PN65 - First Blocks Commenced

2011-04-15T17:02:00.000+10:00

The first blocks of PN65 are in fabrication, and the Site Team's work has started in earnest. At this early stage, we have two Superintendents on site with the team increasing to thirteen Superintendents at the peak of the project (and eight ships under simultaneous construction). The initial task of the Superintendents has been to focus on quality procedures and raising HSE standards with the foremen and workers.

This block is a section of the double bottom and hopper side connecting to the hold tanktop.

Also under construction is the rudder stock which will be attached to the hull.

Keel laying of PN65 is scheduled for the end of July, at which time about one-third of the ship will have been constructed in block form. All of the main equipment has been selected, with only the Ballast Water Treatment System still to be finalised. The main engine will be an MAN B&W 6S70ME-C electronically controlled slow-speed diesel. This engine has electro-hydraulically actuated fuel injection and exhaust valves for improved fuel economy and emissions control.

More next week on naming the series.

The Antipodean Mariner
15th April 2011

The Cult of the 'K' Bike

2011-04-10T17:28:00.000+10:00

No shipping content in this post - it's dedicated to the BMW K series motorcycles and my fascination with them.

With the K1200LT, BMW's production of the K series longtidinal four cylinder ceased after 27 years. The K series produced 16 road models (but no dual purpose variants) from 750 to 1,200 cc. The K series was designed by BMW's Dr's Eng Josef Fritzenwenger and Stefan Pachernegg, with the first bikes released in 1983.

The design's revolution was to take a four cylinder engine, integrate the gearbox and drivetrain, then turn it in its side. There is a wealth of material on the 'Net on their design, modifications and 'How to' resources. This posting is about the five K series BMW's I have owned since 1988.

K100 (1988 to 1996)
My first K100 was bought in Melbourne as our transport while I was a student in Tasmania. Over eight years, it transported us around Tasmania and the east coast of Australia, before sailing across the Tasman with me when I worked my passage on 'Union Rotorua'. Sold in 1996 for a BMW F650.

K100RS (2003-2005)
My second (K100RS) was bought sight unseen on eBay - I rode it back to London from Norfolk. We were moving to Australia from the UK, and my 2001 Ducati didn't qualify for importation. At 20 years, the RS was able to be loaded into our household container for a sea trip to Melbourne and new life in the Colonies. Great handling sports tourer, sold on eBay and moved to South Australia.

K1200RS (2005-2006)
The third was an ex-Police K1200RS, which had been converted back to dual-seat configuration. Despite the telltale white, the K1200 was a weapon of smooth power, comfort and long distance weekend runs. Sadly, the only bike I've ever written off - embedded in the back of a sub-compact on the daily commute.

K100RT (2008 - )
My fourth is another ex-Police K100RT. The 'RT started life in Tasmania with a fellow uni student, migrated to New Zealand for a while then back to Queensland and now Melbourne. Like an old racehorse, she has been put out to pasture and the odd weekend ride. Roadworthy, but with only 107,000 km on the clock after 26 years, plenty of riding left.

K1100LT (2011 - )
My fifth and current squeeze is K1100LT full dress tourer. For less than the price of a scooter, it's got full luggage, stereo and an 1,100 cc powerplant that pulls like a tractor. This will be the mount for my forthcoming East Coast road trip (2 weeks plus or minus). What has made the K series a legend? K series bikes are bulletproof and will run to 300,000km. The gearboxes are legendary for smoothness and parts are readily available from after-market suppliers worldwide. Hopefully, there will always be a K in my garage.

The Antipodean Mariner
10th April 2011

'Vale Brasil' - 400,000 DWT Very Large Ore Carrier

2011-03-30T11:39:00.000+11:00

For the followers of Capesize bulk carriers, the Brazilian iron ore giant Vale (formerly CVRD) has created waves with their game-changing 400,000 DWT Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOC). In conjunction with traditional Ship Owners and Sovereign Wealth Funds, Vale has commissioned as many as 35 VLOC's of between 388,000 and 400,000 DWT to be built at Yards in China and Korea. With Vale's freight penalty betwen Brazil and Australia to China currently running at $12.50 per tonne (and this is in an unsustainably low freight market), the Brazilian's strategy is to effectively remove their exposure to freight market fluctuations. In the pre-GFC spot market, when Capes were earning $200,000 a day time-charter equivalent, the freight differential reached over $35 per tonne - all lost sales margin again the better geographically positioned Australian exporters. The impact of this rapid introduction of 14M DWT of capacity, or put another way the loss of over 380 Capesize cargoes annually from the freight market strikes fear into the heart of Capesize Owners who 'super-sized' at the peak of the shipbuilding boom. Vale's first VLOC is the 'Vale Brasil', which takes over the 'Berge Stahl's (364,000 DWT) mantle of the largest dry bulk carrier afloat and in service.

Photos are of 'Vale Brasil' undergoing sea trials in Korea. Ironically, it has been South Korea's Daewoo Shipyard which has beaten China's Rongsheng to deliver the first vessel, despite over a year's headstart by Rongsheng. 'Vale Brasil' is scheduled to load her first Brazilian ore cargo in May 2011.

VALE BRASIL
IMO Number 9488918
Flag SINGAPORE
DWT 400,000 tonnes
GRT 200,000
Speed (knots) 14.8
Draught (m) 23.00 (75.46 ft)
Depth Moulded (m) 30.40 (99.74 ft)
Breadth (m) 65.00 (213.25 ft)
Length 362.00 (1,187.66 ft) (LO)
Class Society Det Norske Veritas
Engine MAN-B&W 7S80ME-C8
Power 27,162 (Kw)

News is circulating of long delays at Rongsheng and the reported scrapping of some hull blocks due to problems with blasting and painting.

The Antipodean Mariner
30th March 2010