SHIPWRECK RESCUE DRAMA

Saturday 08 @ 16h00. The Ocean Pride has spent the entire day alongside the Ikan Tanda. Apparantly fuel is slowly being transferred to the little vessel. No use has been made of the large pipes which are meant to transfer oil to the waiting containers. Helicopters have constantly been offloading various supplies onto the deck of the large ship. Hundreds of residents and many others who got past baricades have enjoyed the glorious sunshine and beach weather. There has been no further pollution of the beach.

A huge cold front has been forecast for tonight or early sunday, so if the transfer of fuel is not completed today, there could still be a major oil spill if the Ikan Tanda is battered again by heavy seas. According to some news reports, authorities are claiming that the release of the cargo, potassium nitrate (a fertiliser), into the ocean will have minimal impact of marine life. If any readers are able to substantiate or refute this claim, please mail mike@e-gnu.com.

Sunday 09 @ 14h30. The storm hit with a vengeance during the night, but fortunately nowhere close to the strength of wednesday's gale which brought the Ikan Tanda aground. Helicopter and salvage crews continued their efforts in adverse conditions during sunday morning. Fuel continued to be pumped from the grounded ship, and according to local sources, have now succeeded in removing up to 60 000 litres (approx 60 tons), leaving an estimated 170 tons still on board.

During the afternoon, winds became too strong and efforts were called off for the rest of the day. Traffic police are being far more effective today in maintaining road blocks into Scarborough. Winds have picked up to 80km/h, but the Ikan Tanda appears to be deeply bedded onto the reef.

I have been doing some research into potassium nitrate, together with Patrizia Litty - a local friend and fellow webmaster. There are some startling facts on this everyday fertiliser, which I will post onto this site later today, together with some images of the ship and todays conditions.

Sunday 09 @ 15h30. Listing slightly to port, the Ikan Tanda lies hard aground on a reef close to shore. Salvage crews have aborted further efforts to remove more fuel today in the adverse weather conditions. At this stage only minimal quantities of fuel have been removed from the ship. Diesel and oil is being pumped from their tanks onto a holding tank on the ship's deck. From there, it was pumped down to the tank onboard the Ocean Pride, which then transferred the fuel to Hout Bay harbour, about 10 nautical miles away!

It appears plans to pump the fuel ashore have been abandoned, although residents of Beach road were told that tankers would be using the road to ferry the fuel out today.

That did not take place.