Dubai Maritime News

Dali to be refloated today as manager urges for crew to be allowed to leave vessel

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The refloat and transit of the stricken Dali containership from its current location to a terminal in Baltimore is slated for Monday morning.

Optimum conditions call for the transit of the 9,962 teu ship to commence at high tide, predicted to be at 5:24 am. The entire refloat sequence, including deballasting, started yesterday.

Once free of its current position, up to five tugboats will escort the Dali the 4 km distance to the local marine terminal.

The ship has been pinned to the riverbed, having lost power and slammed into Baltimore’s bridge on March 26, an accident that killed six road maintenance workers, destroyed the bridge, and brought most of the port to a standstill for weeks. Authorities hope to have the main shipping channel open to commercial traffic by the end of this month.

The crew onboard the Dali have not been able to leave ship in the nearly two months since the accident, even being forced to stay onboard while explosives were launched last week to remove part of the bridge lodged on the bow of the ship.

The vessel’s manager, Synergy Marine Group, on Friday provided an update on the state of the crew.

Synergy claimed all crew were in good heath and were “holding up well”.

The manager outlined what it had been doing to help out for those stuck onboard. For instance, when on April 15 all the crew’s phones were retained by the FBI, replacements were soon after provided. Other examples are close monitoring of their physical and mental welfare, counselling which is available 24/7, regular delivery of pre-prepared Indian food in order to give the cook a rest and the recent embarkation of two additional deck crew to share the increased workload due to the numbers of visitors onboard and allow more downtime.

“We hope that, soon after the Dali is secure at a berth, the authorities will allow [the crew] to disembark so we can arrange to get them home,” Synergy stated in a release.

Source: Splash247.Com

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