Tag: hazardous weather at sea

TAFB, the National Hurricane Centre's Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch, published a detailed five-day marine weather forecasts concerning the offshore waters of Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Ecuador. The new areas reflect an unprecedented increase in predicted lead-time and detail. Such improvements should promote better decision making by ship captains and crew in hurricane-prone waters.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) focused on the fact that the risks to transportation, coming from climate change, especially coastal transport infrastructure, threaten global trade and development. Damage, disruption and delays that may be caused by extreme weather events and climate change pose a huge economic risk to closely interlinked global supply chains.

Maritime lawyers at Lipcon, Margulies, Alsina & Winkleman informed that they have filed a Class Action lawsuit against Viking Cruises regarding the Viking Sky incident where the cruise ship stranded off the Coast of Norway, raising the need for hundreds of passengers had to be evacuated by helicopter.

The South African National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) reported of a Filipino seafarer that was medivaced off a bulk carrier suffering a dislocated shoulder. The rescue operation took place on Saturday, May 4 in Table Bay, off Cape Town. The patient was brought to its sea rescue station before being transported to hospital for further care.

A big disruption was caused Sunday morning at the Greek Port of Serifos, in the Aegean Sea, involving the general cargo ship 'Syros Wind'. The video, uploaded by local media, depicts weather conditions with strong southern winds that made the ship to break off its moorings. 

The Swedish Club issued an alert on the unprecedented increase that the Upper Mississippi river is expected to experience. Specifically, the rises of 6 to 7 feet are expected on the Upper Mississippi above the junction with the Ohio River, according to forecast of May 1, from Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center, LMRFC.

High water on the US Mississippi river keeps on reducing shipping traffic, in light of the flood warning still in effect for river areas north of St Louis, Missouri, limiting the size of tows in New Orleans, Louisiana and making the discharge conditions of import vessels difficult, reports ICIS author, Lane Kelley.

The Philippines Supreme Court has reopened the case against an official of Sulpicio Lines over the 2008 sinking of its ferry Princess of the Stars. The Supreme Court reversed a Court of Appeals dismissal against Edgar Go, Sulpicio Lines' first vice president and team leader of its crisis management committee.

The USCG eliminated, on March 7, the traffic located along a specific area of the Houston Ship Channel, after severe weather conditions halted cleanup operations that were being conducted because of the petrochemical fire and the chemical spill of the previous month.

In its newly published Safety Digest, UK MAIB focuses on a passenger ferry that was attempting to moor on a berth with a strong groundswell in strong winds when, without warning, one of its mooring line bollards was ripped from the deck. The ferry had to be taken out of service for several days to facilitate repairs to its deck plating and a roller fairlead. Nobody was injured.