Suez Canal Blocked (NOW UNBLOCKED)

Bad Luck, Egypt makes a lot money keeping the canal open.
Without it they would be screwed...

This is quite worrisome. About 1/8 of all world trade passes through the canal - about $10 billion a day - and the disruption of supply lines between Europe and Asia and the ripple effect to North America if this continues could be quite serious. The alternative route around Africa has its own costs delays and problems. While not to dismiss the effect on Egypt, there are much bigger issues at stake. The sheer size of this thing -1,340 feet long and a displacement of 200,000 metric tons is daunting. A disturbing event at a particularly unfortunate time with the European economy struggling with the pandemic and their own vaccination fiasco.

Keep the thread on track guys... thank you.

Latest is it was a serious sustained gust of wind knocked her off kilter. I wonder what the speed limit is there and whether these behemoths have enough steerage at that speed. The thing is almost 200' wide, the canal there is about 700' overall, who knows how wide the channel is. Locals are claiming it will be resolved "soon". The Dutch, masters at this game, are on scene. Dutch news was discussing it and apparently the boys called home to Mom and said it may be "a while".

The container ship blocking Suez has been moved sufficiently to allow partial passage. Tug horns blared in celebration according to British reports. The Dutch firm in charge of operations warned that there was still work to do but passage is now possible . Danish shipping giant Maersk said that it would take at least 6 days to clear the logjam.

I just read that it was now fully afloat

Ever Given is now in the southern Bitter Lake heading north at 6-7 knots

The owner of Evergreen shipping was also a yachtsman. He built a 302' motor yacht in Japan around 1999 -- not bad looking. It was named Evergreen. It has been thoroughly revamped and updated and is now named Attessa IV I believe.

The Suez canal threads have been merged.

Yeah, a few shirts will have been lost over that issue. I like the dust storm theory, otherwise I can't see how such a big vessel gets into that situation before someone sees it happening and a swarm of tugboats shows up.

Having commanded big 1.000 ft container vessels through the Panama Canal in my younger days, I have some understandig for that incident.

1. These vessels are built and optimized for cruising speeds from 17 up to 25 Kts. This for hull and bow form and size and therefore command authority of its rudder(s). 2. A 1.300 ft long fully loaded box carrier (length x height to the highest box storage level) is a pretty big sail in the wind at strong crosswinds. 3. Those sand storms in this area can be pretty strong and may come very quickly. 4. The max. allowable cruise speed in the canal is very low for the maneuverability (rudder effectiveness) of those giants. If, due to traffic situation and because a very deep draft vessel is in front, those big vessels may have to travel in the canal very close to their minimum controllable speed. Means, things like this can happen and will happen again with such giant ships in those narrow and relatively shallow waters. 5 to 6 Kts travel speed is to slow for such vessels without assistance.

At my time, the big boys were 1.000 ft long and had a max. draft of about 50 max. 55 ft. Today they have 1.300ft LoA and have more than 65 ft of draft.

My question is, should such big boys travel the canal on their own? A powerfull safety tow boat hooked up on the bow and on the stern for immediate assistance, if needed (that is what rules ask for on the Elbe River closer to the Hamburg port), could prevent such incidents. This will increase the costs going through the canal but an incident like this is more expensive, both for the canal authorities and the shipping companies.

The Evergreen ship is free again but it will take 8 to 10 days to clean up the traffic jams on both ends of the canal. Lloyds Unterwriter will have to sign a few cheques for that incident.

Just my two (Euro) cents

HTMO9

Heh, the way that Evergreen was listing I'd guess there's a few more headaches for the owners in the near future. Yeah, I am surprised that yacht was on it's own. But not too surprised that nobody reported seeing anything, I think there's a lot of butt covering going on.

I am sure, there is some damage to the ship. If this volume and weight goes aground at the bow and the stern, the momentum will bend some metal. The listing can have been done on purpose with ballasting in order to assist in freeing the ship. But their must be some damage to the rudder(s) and/or the prop(s) and may be on the bulbous bow. The banks in several part of the canal are reinforced below the waterlevel with rocks and concreate to prevent damage caused by the wake.

It was. 20,000 tons of ballast were off loaded. Don't know if the report was accurate but I read it was doing 13 kts. And you conformed my steerage thoughts. Heck the rudders on my Hatt don't do anything until 4 kts. Fortunately I have two screws.