Tag: hazardous weather at sea

Heavy weather combined with inappropriate manipulations may lead to damage of a vessel, threatening the cargo, the environment or, even worst, human life. That's why, for the time being, Egyptian authorities have shut down the most important ports of Alexandria and Dekheila on the Mediterranean Sea and Ain Sokhna and Suez on the Red Sea because of extreme weather conditions, as stated by Reuters.

KrisEnergy Ltd. shut down its Thai oil production at the Wassana field in the G10/48 licence in the Gulf of Thailand and halted drilling of infill development wells by the Mist jack-up rig due to tropical storm 'Pabuk'. After temporarily shutting down the production, all staff from the Wassana mobile offshore production unit and Mist jack-up rig was safely evacuated to onshore Thailand.

The Dutch Government decided to deploy troops in order to help in the clean up operation for the over 200 containers that fell from the MSC Zoe containership on January 2. Relevant authorities are warning people not to touch the containers, as some of them contain dangerous chemical substances.

MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company informed that it has started a clean-up operation in response to a substantial spill of containers in the North Sea. Namely, the mega container ship MSC ZOE lost over 200 containers during the night from January 1 to January 2 in North sea during rough weather.

Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship 'Empress of the Seas' rescued two Costa Rican fishermen who were adrift for a total of 20 days between Jamaica and Cuba. Miraculously, the cruise ship's scheduled route for that time was Cienfuegos, Cuba, but she could not operate tenders in heavy storms and the Captain opted to a port with a pier. 

Several vehicles aboard a P&O Ferry were toppled over after the vessel travelled in extreme weather conditions during a voyage from Northern Ireland to Scotland.

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board released its report about the heavy rolling of the ‘MV Epsilon’, on February 8, 2016, while it was sailing from Cherbourg in France. As a result, ten passengers and two crew members got injured. The senior Master was of the view that the vessel could outrun the weather.

This video provides a compilation of ships struggling with big waves during storms. Ships in storms can be a scary but spectacular sight. However, a ship’s master should always be aware of the weather forecast when moves in dangerous areas and be ready to appropriately handle the vessel.

In 2002, the Greek-owned and Bahamas-operated tanker ‘Prestige’ encountered heavy weather during a routine voyage and eventually sank off the coast of Spain, causing the worst environmental disaster in the country and one of the greatest oil spills in Europe.

The NTSB issued its 'Safer Seas' annual report providing an overview of key lessons to be learned from the most major maritime casualties, noting that many of the issues noted in last year's reports were recurring topics, such as fatigue, poor bridge resource management, and distraction. The 41 marine accidents resulted in loss of life, injuries, and significant property damage.