Bulk carrier aground in the Minch

[bikedaft]

Update on ongoing salvage response to grounding of MV Kaami anyone know where?

 

[Motor_Sailor]

Eugenie Rock is my best guess from the AIS position.

 

[Kylora]

Update on ongoing salvage response to grounding of MV Kaami anyone know where?

According to AIS

Latitude / Longitude: 57.7899° / -6.4688°

Status: Stopped

Ash

Edit - I'm too slow!

 

[iain789]

The Portree Lifeboat was launched at 2.24am Monday 23 March 2020, in response to a MayDay call from the cargo ship, MV Kaami, which had run aground in The Minch.

The cargo ship had ran aground on the rock, known locally as Eugenie Rock which in about 6 nautical miles North West off Duntulm, Isle of Skye.
Also called to the scene were the Emergency Towing Vessel Ievoli Black and the Pharos, a Northern Lighthouse Board buoy-laying vessel. The duty Stornoway Coastguard Rescue Helicopter arrived on scene and began to airlift 8 of the Russian crew to Stornoway, no injuries were reported.
The weather conditions on scene was a F8 Southerly wind (45mph) with rough sea state.
The MV Kaami, is a Bahamas registered 90 metre cargo vessel. She left Drogheda port in Ireland on the evening of Saturday 21 March and was due to arrive in Slite, Sweden, the following Saturday morning.
The Ievoli Black remains on standby.
The Lifeboat was stood down about 4.30am and returned to Portree.

Portree Lifeboat responds to a MayDay call from a grounded cargo ship, MV Kaami | RNLI

 

[awol]

Heading north, she was well west of the IMO-Adopted recommended route .

 

[Minchsailor]

It's well marked by a S cardinal, and she had no right to be there. That area of The Minch is exceptional well marked.

Wonder what Stornoway CG was doing, and if it tried to make contact and broadcast a warning?

The MAIB report will be interesting, to say the least.

 

[JumbleDuck]

The RAIB report will be interesting, to say the least.

Indeed. The attempts of rail accident investigators to make sense of a marine incident should be entertaining.

 

[Minchsailor]

Freudian slip....now corrected

<The RAIB report will be interesting, to say the least.>

Well, almost certainly it was on the wrong track!!

 

[Minchsailor]

Having looked at the chart today, she appears to have transited the TSS off Neist Pt, altered course to clear Waternish Pt, where there should have been another course change of 30 deg to Stbd, to transit off NW Skye, leaving Eilean Trodday to Stbd, and Comet Rk and the reefs of Fladda Chuain to port.

This route is lit up almost as well as an airport runway.

If that course change is not made - where does she end up? bang on Eugenie Rk (if she had been lucky, and missed the rock, the next stop almost certainly would have been the Shiant Isles)

A similar thing happened in 2003 when the Jambo missed a course change to port after El Trodday to clear Cape Wrath, and ended up crashing into the Summer Isles - the watch fell asleep. This resulted in the new advisory routes in The Minch, and a major up-grade of the navigation marks.

See https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/547c70d7e5274a428d0000c9/Jambo.pdf

This present incident happened in the early hours - watch asleep?? But there was a crew of 8, so surely the bridge would have had helmsman and a lookout??

 

[bikedaft]

well, we've all fallen asleep whilst helming, i suspect. i certainly have. but in a slightly smaller boat. but, we can only guess at the moment. fair chance that that is what happened though!

any news on refloating her?

 

[Wansworth]

I’ve turned up for watch duties and found the skipper asleep on the bridge sofa!

 

[Kelpie]

Similar incident back in the 90s when the Golf Star didn't make a turn to starboard and ran into Scalpay. I believe in that case the change of watch occurred via a knock on a cabin door, rather than on the bridge.

 

[burgundyben]

Looks like she is still there.

 

[NormanS]

Ships transiting the Minch, and in this case, the Little Minch, are required to report their positions to the CG at various reporting points. Also, I would expect the CG, in this particular case, at Stornoway, to keep a watch on AIS, which would have made it obvious that the ship was well off the recommended route, and standing into danger. There was a big rumpus a year or two ago when a ship ran onto the Pentland Skerries.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Similar incident back in the 90s when the Golf Star didn't make a turn to starboard and ran into Scalpay.

And in 2012 when the Coastal Isle rang spang into the south end of Bute with the drunken and fraudulently-qualified mate asleep in his bed. Seems he left the bridge to use the toilet and was so befuddled that he wen to his cabin afterwards rather than back on duty.

Grounding of feeder container vessel Coastal Isle

 

[Minchsailor]

Norman - must have reported off Neist Pt (ECHO), next RP was approaching El. Trodday (Foxtrot), but CG would have known from AIS to be well of correct track by then.

I guess if the watch was asleep, there's not much they can do, only being able to give a call on VHF.

 

[Kelpie]

As an aside, it's always seemed odd to me that the coastguard reporting calls are made on ch16. You'd think it would be exactly the kind of thing that DSC was invented for. So if even big merchant ships don't use it, it's no wonder that us yachties don't either.

 

[awol]

The advantage of Ch16 reporting is that everyone can hear it - not so valuable if you have AIS but v. useful just to know who is out there.

 

[Motor_Sailor]

The crew was Russian - you can't rule out Vodka as a contributing factor.

 

[Kukri]

She is an old banger, built 1993. I think we can put this one down to usual causes.