Log carrier at mercy of sea after tow line snaps

By JO-MARIE BROWN

Heavy weather has forced salvors to reconsider plans to free the grounded Jody F Millennium off Gisborne.

A steel cable from the ship's bow to the Pacific Chieftain tug snapped in heavy seas today and the Jody swung back to her original position beam-on to the sea.

Salvors had spent two days gently easing her bow around to face south into the ocean in preparation for refloating and as a safety precaution because of the bad weather lashing Gisborne.

But the setback has ruined any chance of refloating the ship tomorrow. The earliest possible attempt will be Saturday morning.

United Salvage director Ian Hoskison said the tow cable, one of two being used to manoeuvre and hold the ship steady, became snagged on the seabed at 12.40 pm.

Swells of up to 6m were hitting the Pacific Chieftain at the time, lifting the tug's stern out of the water.

Mr Hoskison did not know what had caught the line.

"It may be the anchors and cable from the ship that were lost originally but even that seems a bit light on for the sort of weight the Chieftain had on its wire," Mr Hoskison said.

The cable was around 9cm thick and had a breaking strain of 250 tonnes.

Before the incident the salvage master on board the ship had been de-ballasting (emptying water tanks to make the vessel lighter) to try to move the bow further into the prevailing weather.

"That had been happening then suddenly he started getting knocked back," Mr Hoskison said.

The risk of the ship breaking up or leaking more oil was greater now the ship's beam was again facing the swell.

The transfer of oil ashore stopped on Wednesday when a southerly storm arrived.

About 427 tonnes remain on board the ship, of which 199 tonnes are in tanks below the waterline.

An inventory of the ship's oil has now confirmed 25 tonnes leaked into Poverty Bay last weekend.

Helicopters worked to remove logs from the ship yesterday until the weather became too rough.

The plan is to take 1000 tonnes of the total 20,000 tonnes of logs.

Mr Hoskison said about 40 tonnes an hour could be removed, making the job long and expensive, "but there is no alternative at the moment".

He said helicopters would tomorrow morning try to re-attach a tow-line between the ship and the Pacific Chieftain if the weather allowed.

A second tug - the Seatow - remains attached to the ship but is too small to have much effect against the strong seas.

The salvage master has re-ballasted the Jody to stop her from moving further along the beach because of fears that she could run over the city's sewage outlet.

Mr Hoskison said the ship was closer to the outlet than before but not close enough to pose a real threat.

Refloating attempts were also abandoned this morning because of the rough weather.

Salvors have decided that a third tug will be needed to push or pull the ship's stern when an attempt is made, but the swell of 3m to 4m would have to die down first.

The wind and rain in Gisborne eased slightly this evening but the MetService says swells will continue to roll into Poverty Bay for several days.

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