North Coast Review: Storm conditions leave container vessel powerless and adrift off Haida Gwaii

The weather system that is currently battering Haida Gwaii and some portions of the North and Central Coasts, is proving to be a troublesome thing for marine interests off shore.

Friday morning the first reports of a vessel adrift off the shore of Haida Gwaii began to filter across the news services of the province.

With the CBC's Carolina de Ryk and George Baker taking to their twitter feeds to provide the first of the local accounts of the 135 metre container ship's troubles.

The Russian container vessel Simushir lost power in the early hours of Friday and is currently adrift 19 km west of Gowgaia Bay.

It's last port of call reportedly was Port Angeles, Washington. The vessel tracking site vessel finder offers up this snapshot of the vessel

Simushir photo from vessel finder

The Council of Haida Nation posted to their Facebook page an expansive update on the dire situation facing the ship.

The Council of the Haida Nation has set up a command post at Old Masset.

Tugs have been dispatched from Alaska and Prince Rupert to attend to the situation, but weather is certainly an issue with near hurricane winds and heavy seas leaving assistance at least 20 hours away.

Updates:

The Prince Rupert Port Authority provided some helpful information as the morning moved into afternoon, outlining the nature of the size of the vessel in distress at the moment compared to those that call on Prince Rupert's Fairview Terminal.

As well, the Council of the Haida Nation have updated their information flow on the incident, providing this Press release on the situation.

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, who also represents Haida Gwaii at the Legislature offered up what appears to be her first official comment on the situation, a short observation on the incident as part of her twitter feed today.

Global BC outlines that a planned press conference on the situation will take place at 3:30 this afternoon.

Late Friday afternoon, the British Columbia Government issued its statement on the marine incident (see here)

Photo from Maritime Forces Pacific Facebook page

The Royal Canadian Navy posted photos and video of the stricken vessel to their website late Friday (see more photos here)

8:30 PM -- The Council of the Haida Nation has provided another update on the efforts off shore of Haida Gwaii. Outlining the news that the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Gordon Reid had secured a tow line onto the Simushir and was slowly towing the stricken vessel away from the Haida Gwaii shore.

The Gordon Reid will await the arrival of the CCGS Wilfrid Laurier in the early hours of Saturday, with the plan then apparently to bring the Russian vessel to Prince Rupert.

Weather however continues to be a factor with a strong pacific system expected to arrive in the region at that same time.

9:30 PM-- Our updated article on the latest developments off the coast of Haida Gwaii can be reviewed here.

We'll offer further updates on the situation from various media services below, as we learn more about developments.

Council of Haida Nation Facebook page updates

Russian vessel Simushir (green) CCG Wilfrid Laurier (blue)
North of Haida Gwaii enroute to Prince Rupert as of Noon Sunday.
Expected in Port perhaps late tonight,
but more likely early Monday morning, weather dependent.

2 comments:

AnonymousOctober 17, 2014 at 4:30 PM
if it runs aground think I will visit qci.....the ferry is 2 expensive I will just walk over on the slick....yuk
AnonymousOctober 19, 2014 at 8:34 AM
I wonder what the point is of trying to ban tankers in our waters if foreign vessels are carrying these things in our water ways anyways.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Storm conditions leave container vessel powerless and adrift off Haida Gwaii

2 comments: