Aussie tug joins battle for Jody F Millennium

By JO-MARIE BROWN and NZPA

A Melbourne tugboat will this morning join efforts to refloat Gisborne's seaside attraction, the log carrier Jody F. Millennium, raising hopes that the ship will leave this week.

The 35m tug Keera began its journey within days of the grounding but did not arrive until 8 am yesterday.

It would now join the tug Pacific Chieftain in trying to pull the ship's bow around to face south into Poverty Bay in preparation for a refloating attempt on Wednesday morning.

United Salvage director Ian Hoskison said the Keera would take the place of the tug Seatow, a smaller vessel that had been holding the ship steady since the Pacific Chieftain's tow rope snapped last Thursday.

The Seatow would now help to stabilise the ship's stern to control sideways movement that has seen the Jody creep 60m along the beach over the past few days.

By high tide at 11.30 am tomorrow all three tugs should be in position to begin easing her around into the sea, Mr Hoskison said.

Salvors also hoped to have a clearer idea today of how much of the 20,000 tonnes of pine logs aboard would need to be removed before the ship could be refloated.

"We've got to get her through the sand bank," Mr Hoskison said.

Calculations to lighten her load would be based on how successful the tugs were in pulling her around to face south.

Gisborne's pollution fears have also subsided, with salvors announcing that almost all of the fuel oil in the ship's bottom tanks was now safely above the waterline.

The clean-up cost of the stranding has topped $1 million.

* Jody F. Millennium is named after actor Jodie Foster.

United Salvage director Ian Hoskison said one of the owners had been "enamoured" with Foster, so had named the ship after her - but misspelled it.

The actor's name is Jodie. The millennium part of the name comes from the ship's launching nearly two years ago.

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