New Zealand: Rena Still Intact

Rena is still intact after the weekend’s stormy weather. Electronic sensors monitoring the movement of the wreck indicated some extra movement during last night’s swells, but Svitzer advises there was nothing untoward in the readings.

Salvage teams are going out to the wreck this morning to resume work on installing patches in the passages on Rena, to improve buoyancy.

No container removal operations were undertaken over the weekend due to high swells. Container removal operations are not expected to resume for the next day or so. A total of 167 containers have been removed from Rena. There were 1368 containers on board when Rena ran aground, and an estimated 87 were washed overboard on 12 October, leaving 1114 on board today.

The crane barge Smit Borneo is expected to arrive from Singapore around 11am today. The barge will remain in port for several days while the barge is prepared for container removal. The Sea Tow 60 is also in port. The anchor handling tug Go Canopus remains attached to Rena.

Winds are blowing north easterly at about 15 knots, shifting to northwest today with low cloud and swells of a maximum 4m. Another weather spike is expected tomorrow night and wet weather is set to continue for the next few days.

The rough weather resulted in the release of a small amount of weathered oil from under the wreck on Saturday night. This may result in some light oiling reaching beaches between Pāpāmoa and Mount Maungaui. Members of the public may see sticky tar balls reach the shoreline.

Shoreline Clean Up Assessment Teams will be checking the beaches today, and clean-up crews will be working at Mount Maunganui, Pāpāmoa and Matakana Island.

Container recovery specialists Braemar Howells advise that the rough weather could result in some debris from containers reaching shorelines – anyone seeing any debris should contact 0800 OIL SPILL.

[mappress]
World Maritime News Staff, December 5, 2011; Image: Maritime NZ