Ship to stay on the rocks until Thursday at least

The stranded bulk carrier Tai Ping will stay where it is until either Thursday or Friday - two days longer than announced last week.

The 16,000-tonne ship hit rocks in the town's fog-shrouded harbour last Tuesday.

The Maritime Safety Authority assumed regulatory control after the grounding, adopting an easy-as-she-goes approach to minimise the chance of either its urea cargo or heavy-fuel reserves spilling into the harbour.

But although salvors on Friday announced the vessel might be refloated by tomorrow or Wednesday, the authority said yesterday that the Tai Ping would stay where it was until at least Thursday morning.

Authority spokesman Lindsay Sturt said problems getting tugs from Lyttelton and Timaru meant tomorrow was a little optimistic. Both vessels were not due in Bluff until tomorrow night.

In addition, salvors had removed only just over 2000 tonnes of urea from the hold by last night, and the extra days would give them time to barge a further 2500 tonnes to shore.

Mr Sturt said heavy rain on Saturday meant the barge was laid up for several hours, but the 40km/h winds that whipped through the harbour had had little effect on the well-ballasted Tai Ping.

About 280 tonnes of heavy fuel had been moved to wing-tanks further from the hull, and 64 tonnes of diesel were being transferred to tanks on deck.

"Clearly now that the fuel has been moved to a safer area, the threat of contamination has been greatly reduced. So at the end of the day, there is no hurry to move the ship."

Mr Sturt said most of the 60-odd emergency response personnel placed on standby on Tuesday had been stood down. If anything did go wrong, a team would be assembled quickly.

A soundings vessel continued to amass sonar information throughout the day yesterday.

Meanwhile, the authority investigation into the grounding will continue alongside the salvage operation. The Tai Ping's master and crew have been spoken to but Mr Sturt could not confirm whether the South Port pilot, who is still working, had been formally interviewed.

MetService ambassador Bob McDavitt said the salvors would enjoy a week of light winds, with nothing approaching the 40km/h gusts that buffeted exposed areas over the weekend.

- NZPA

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