Salvors eye tide for refloating

2005-06-16 09:38

East London - Maritime authorities are looking to Monday's spring tide off the coast of East London to assist in refloating the beached bulk carrier Kiperousa.

"We are waiting for spring tide and nice swells and maybe she will disappear over the horizon on Monday," said SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) spokesperson Captain Peter Kroon.

He said Tuesday's bad weather was not as bad as they had hoped for. Bad weather would have created bigger swells which would bounce the ship around, making it easier to refloat her.

Wednesday's sunshine did however cast a "favourable complexion on the whole attempt."

Continuing attempts to refloat the Kiperousa - a 14,921-ton log-carrier which ran aground on a reef off Bhenga, just south of Hamburg in the Eastern Cape, on Tuesday last week - have proved unsuccessful.

The Kiperousa was en route from Gabon to Durban to take in fuel oil.

The department of environmental affairs and tourism's oil spill response team put up a protective boom across the Mtana Estuary north of the grounded ship as a precautionary measure.

"The protection of the marine environment remains an important priority for the department," said department spokesperson Carol Moses.

The Kuswag 1, an oil pollution abatement vessel deployed by the department to the scene, remains on standby in the event of an oil spill.

The department continued to monitor the currents, weather and wind conditions and its anti-pollution patrol aircraft, Kuswag 8, is also engaged to monitor the situation.

A small amount of oil was reported to be leaking from the vessel, but is naturally dissipating rapidly. No oil is reported to have reached the shore.

The risk of pollution remained, as most of the approximately 250 cubic metres of heavy fuel oil and 63 cubic metres of diesel oil was still aboard the vessel.

Members of Samsa's casualty response unit also remain on site.

- SAPA