Two ships adrift in wind farm, rescue operation over
Yesterday one of the two ships could be towed, another tanker was stuck in the wind farm off the coast of Zeebrugge. The West Flanders crisis cell activated the North Sea disaster plan. But the storm made it too dangerous to carry out the rescue that night. “The tugs had to return,” said acting governor Anne Martens.
End of the provincial phase of the North Sea disaster plan. The Maersk Nimbus was safely towed out of the wind farm, no injuries and no damage to the wind turbines. #Incident #North Sea #StormEunice
— Crisis WVL (@CrisisWVL) February 19, 2022
“Seaman’s Arts”
A cargo ship and a tanker ship ran into problems off the coast of Zeebrugge around 4 pm on Friday afternoon. The cargo ship Diamond Sky with sixteen people on board was able to continue on its way to the Netherlands under its own power. “The captain of the ship managed to sail through two wind farms in Belgian and Dutch waters without causing damage. That is the work of seamanship and a bit of luck,” explains Anne Martens.
Tanker ship situation
The tanker ship Maersk Nimbus, with a crew of eighteen people and with more than 31,000 tons of combustible and refined product on board, was anchored all night off the coast of Zeebrugge, close to a windmill. The ship sails under the Danish flag and was en route from Algeria to Antwerp.
“It has too little power itself to safely sail away from the windmills in these severe weather conditions. It is safer to keep the crew on board than to evacuate them,” Acting Governor Anne Martens said yesterday evening.
Unsafe situation
A Dutch tugboat left for the tanker last night, but this night the sea conditions were still too dangerous to hook itself to the tanker. “We continue to make efforts, coordination continues.”
The problem was solved on Saturday afternoon.