The Fort McHEnry limited access channel has opened on May 15 for commercial vessel traffic to an available depth of 45 feet, seven weeks after the Francis Key Bridge was struck by the 'Dali'. The Fort McHenry Limited Access Channel will be open daily from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The channel has a 350-foot horizontal clearance and a vertical clearance of 214 feet because of BGE powerlines. The available depth may increase based on future survey analysis operations as salvage operations continued. Deep draft vessels will require a Maryland POilot and a two tug escprt. All transits must be at the slowest safe speed but not to exceed five knots until the 'Dali' has been removed, then 10 knots will be possible. The three other temporary channels currently in use, 20, 14 and 11 foot deep, remained ipen and should be uitilized by vessels that do not requier the deeper channel.
News
DIONISIOS SOLOMOS
On May 14, 2024, at noon, the Port Authority of Ios was informed by teachers of the High School of Thira who were making a day trip from Thira to Ios, about an incident with six students suffering injuries on board the 'Dionisios Solomos'. The ship was on a scheduled route from Thira. The injuries were caused by a fall on the escalators while the ship docked in the port of Ios. A 14-year-old boy was taken to the Ios Health Center for first aid, from where he was discharged the same day. The students, after the end of their excursion to Ios, boarded another ship bound for Thera. A preliminary investigation was carried out by the Port Authority of Ios.
Iskenderun
Thick black smoke was rising from burning containers at Iskenderun Port on Feb 6, 2023. The fire was caused by containers that toppled over during the powerful earthquake that struck southeast Turkey. ATurkish Coast Guard vessel was assisting efforts to extinguish the blaze.
Kerch
Russia's Ministry of Transport has set up a ferry service across the Kerch Strait to take over vehicle traffic, offsetting some of the impact of the damage to the Kerch Strait Bridge after a truck was blown up on the westbound road deck of the Kerch Strait Bridge on Oct 7 at about 6 a.m. Two spans of the westbound deck collapsed into the water, but the adjacent eastbound deck remained in place. The blast's timing coincided with the passage of a fuel train on the adjacent rail deck, and it ignited seven fuel tank cars, which burned for hours after the explosion. A Russian salvage diving team has arrived on the site and is completing an underwater survey of the damage, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said Sunday. An above-water inspection process is already under way. Traffic had partially resumed on the bridge by late Saturday, though restricted by the extent of the damage. Russia's Ministry of Transport said that it also resumed suburban commuter rail service over the rail track, though not heavy freight trains. Two ferries are already in operation to provide a bypass route, and eight separate parking lots have been set up for temporary storage for cars and trucks waiting to make the crossing. Two more ferries will join the effort on Monday, the Yeysh and Mriya.
LEON THEVENIN
The 'Léon Thévenin' departed Cape Town Harbour on May 14, 2024, at 3.45 p.m. UTC for the site of the faults on the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) and Seacom cables, which occurred on May 12. The faults were reported on the EASSy and Seacom cables off the East Coast of Africa, knocking out all subsea capacity between East Africa and South Africa. The cable faults were impacting Internet connectivity to Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Traffic drops of between 30% and 75% in impacted countries were observed. Following these cable faults, South African users complained about poor Netflix performance and issues connecting to other online services. However, the East coast submarine cables may have only been part of the problem. Several terrestrial cable failures also occurred, reducing capacity between Johannesburg and Cape Town. The vessel was expected to arrive at the cable grounds on May 18 at around 05:00 a.m. The 'Léon Thévenin' is equipped with various cable work tools such as grapnels, buoys, ropes, and dead weights and a ROV that can be used to detect, cut, recover, join, and test undersea fibre cables. The vessel had docked in Cape Town Harbour on April 25 after returning from Abidjan, where it had attended to a fault on the SAT-3 cable.
NORTH AMERICAN
On the morning of May 14, 2024, the 'North American' sank at a pier on the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound received a call at 07.30 a.m. after the crabber had partially sunk on the south side of the canal, east of the Ballard Bridge, with only the stern still protruding from the water.Responders from the Seattle Fire installed an oil containment boom around the vessel to prevent pollution, and a dive team started working on plugging vents and reducing the risk of fuel discharges. A second layer of boom has been deployed to further reduce the chance of a fuel slick escaping from the vessel, which can carry up to a maximum of 32,500 gallons of diesel, The actual amount aboard at the time of the sinking may be lower. The Global Diving and Salvage was the pollution response contractor for the incident, and its team will be removing the remaining petroleum on board and transferring it to storage tanks on shore. The Coast Guard is monitoring the progress of the response, and an investigation into the cause of the sinking is under way. Reports with photos: https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/3775064/coast-guard-other-agencies-respond-to-sunken-vessel-in-seattle/ https://maritime-executive.com/article/pioneering-crab-boat-f-v-north-american-sinks-at-the-pier
Kiel
The Port of Kiel expects another good season in 2023, resulting in 218 cruise calls, said its MD Dirk Claus in the morning of Jan 17, 2023, as part of a presentation reflecting on last year's results. It follows 2022's record-breaking 244 calls, which saw the port handle over 2.24m passengers, 836,000 of those from cruise vessels. The number of calls in 2019 was 37% less by comparison, numbering 178, and passenger volumes 4.1% lower. 2020 had been forecast to become a record season for Kiel, with 200 calls and 880,000 passengers, but aspirations were dashed owing to the pandemic. This year, a number of larger vessels are scheduled to arrive at Kiel on multiple occasions making the gross tonnage of arriving ships similar to 2022. For 2023, the choice of routes and destinations approached from Kiel will be slightly broader. Moving into the future, Claus expects Kiel to settle on between 200 and 250 cruise calls annually. According to the port, last year’s promising results were the result of ‘intense planning’ with international cruise operators. While 11 calls were cancelled owing to the conflict in Ukraine and the resulting loss of St Petersburg from itineraries, nine were newly added as a result of rerouting by operators. Looking ahead, there will be a strong focus on greener shipping with Claus hoping that between 60 and 100 calls can be supplied with green shore power this year. He stated that Kiel will continue to look at strengthening shore power in line with its corporate sustainability strategy to lower carbon emissions. Work on the new Ostuferhafen shore power plant is expected to conclude towards the end of this year, resulting in Kiel being able to offer shoreside connectivity at all its ferry and cruise terminals from 2024. Along with this €17m investment, a further €2m will be invested to install solar arrays. The systems, which will be fitted on roofs at Kiel Port, are intended to cover up to 30% of the port's electricity requirements in the long term. Kiel’s first call is expected to arrive April 7 with the river vessel 'Frederic Chopin'. The first cruise ship of the season, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines’ 'Balmoral', will arrive a week later. The largest ships to call will be 'MSC Euribia' and 'AIDAnova'. At the other end of the scale, the 'Ocean Majesty' will visit Kiel on six occasions while chartered to Hansa Touristik. The vessel, which celebrates its 57th anniversary this year, is popular with the German source market. One of its calls is scheduled to occur on June 18 during the Kieler Woche sailing festival which will run from June 17-25. Traditionally, this marks the peak of the cruise season with this year no exception: 22 calls are expected by Kiel at the same time as the event takes place. While the highest number of calls is expected between mid-April and the end of September as usual, some ships will continue to call later in the year. 'AIDAnova'’s last departure is scheduled for November 4 whilst December 20 will see Phoenix Reisen's 'Amera' arrive at Kiel as part of a pre-Christmas itinerary. The season will draw to a close a few days later with the 'Spirit of Discovery' on December 29. Costa-, AIDA-, MSC- and TUI Cruises will again be the port's largest cruise customers. The majority of calls account for turnarounds serving the German-speaking source markets, but a number of transit calls will also take place, P&O Cruises’ Britannia, Swiss Ruby, Holland America Line’s 'Nieuw Statendam' and Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ 'Seven Seas Splendor' among them. As in previous years, the Ostuferhafen outside the city centre will be heavily utilised by MSC Cruises and most other cruise ships will arrive at the Ostseekai.
Kerch
The Crimean Bridge across Kerch Strait suffered an explosion and fire in the morning of Oct 8, 2022. Two spans of the motorway bridge collapsed and fell into the water, the railway bridge above the motorway witha cargo train including railway car tanks with fuel, was on fire. All bridge traffic was suspended. The Crimean Bridge was more than a Bridge, both for Russia and Ukraine. For Russia it was a symbol of the Russian “victory” and historical justice. For the Ukraine, it was a symbol of the Russian aggression and Crimea occupation. The navigation span of the Bridge is yet undamaged, and therefore, the Kerch Strait Channel remained navigable. The Kerch Strait Transit is from now on, however, a risky undertaking, so all ship owners are advised to calculate risks and probably, change their ships voyages, avoiding Azov sea calls.
ABEILLE NORMANDIE
On the night of May 14, the CROSS Gris-Nez regional was informed that a migrant boat had set sail in the Malo-les-Bains sector. At the end of the night, in conjunction with the CROSS Gris Nez, the Dunkirk semaphore relocated the boat and indicated that it had stopped. At the same time, the CROSS deployed the 'Abeille Normandie' to the site. The crew of the 'Abeille Normandie' joined the boat near the beach of Malo-les-Bains, noticed that there were 19 people on board and that they requested assistance. The semi-rigid then towed the boat to the beach of Malo-les-Bains where the 19 people were taken care of by shore based emergency services and the police.
CG VALIANT
The US Coast Guard intercepted two separate boats packed with Cuban migrants trying to set foot in Florida aboard tiny vessels ill-suited for the high seas. The first boat was spotted about 12 miles south of the Marquesas Keys near Key West on May 10, 2024, with 15 Cubans on board. On May 12, authorities in Key West were tipped off by a good Samaritan that another boat with migrants was in the ocean about 26 miles south of Marathon. The Coast Guard Cutter 'Valiant' plucked eight Cubans from that boat and sent them home. The crew of the 'Paul Clark' repatriated 23 migrants to Cuba on May 14. Report with photo: https://nypost.com/2024/05/14/us-news/coast-guard-catches-23-cuban-migrants-headed-to-florida-and-sends-them-back-home/
Singapore
On Dec 1, 2022, at about 3 p.m. the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) was informed that 15 empty containers at Keppel Terminal had fallen from the wharf into the water as a result of strong winds during a squall. There were no reported injuries and no immediate impact to port operations. The MPA deployed two patrol crafts to monitor and cordon off the affected area to facilitate recovery work by PSA Corporation Ltd. MPA’s Port Operations Control Centre has restricted all vessel movements in the vicinity of Keppel Terminal until the containers were recovered.
Odessa
For the fourth day in a row, Iranian-made drones attacked Odesa on Sep 26 in the morning, this time against military targets and without civilian casualties. On Sep 23, two civilians were killed during Russian drone attacks on the port city. On Sep 25, Odesa was attacked by three drones, one of which was reportedly shot down by Ukrainian forces. Ukraine has not officially identified the drones, but from the video footage below it appears, according to experts, that they are Iranian-produced Shakhed 136 drones.