Investigation underway on Ultra Galaxy, salvage team prays for good weather

While the salvage team on the Panama-registered cargo vessel, the MV Ultra Galaxy, continue to hold their breath in prayer for, at minimum, a week-long ‘good weather window’ to prepare for extraction of tonnes of the vessel’s remaining fuel and oil, getting to the bottom of why the now wrecked vessel ended up beached sideways on that west coast of South Africa, remains as much a priority.

That is according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) in confirmation that it has already begun assisting Panama maritime authorities’ investigation of the incident that occurred a month ago after the vessel was abandoned by its crew on the Atlantic Ocean, after it listed heavily, and eventually grounded a day later.

SAMSA Chief Operations Officer Sobantu Tilayi, addressing an on-site national media briefing held on Friday at the coastal area of the vessel’s grounding, explained that in terms of international maritime laws and regulations, the obligation to investigate the cause of the vessel’s grounding lay with its country of registration – Panama – with SAMSA only providing such assistance as necessary and required.

To this end, Tilayi confirmed that Panama maritime authorities had already launched the investigation, following their visit and interview of the 18-member crew of the casualty vessel, domiciled in the Philippines.

In the video below, Mr Tilayi fully explains the process of the investigation, and for further illumination, also delves, albeit briefly, into the role of South Africa’s Incident Management Organisation (IMOrg) and its relevance and significance to the country’s state of readiness for maritime incidents of the kind.

With an investigation on the cause of the grounding of the MV Ultra Galaxy now formally underway, a salvage team from Smit Salvage South Africa led by Salvage Master, Rudolph Punt; is ill at ease having to wait patiently, hoping for a good weather window of no less than a week at least, to be able to fully establish the presence of low-sulphur fuel and oils in the grounded vessel’s underside tanks for extraction.

Punt said unabating inclement weather in the location was a major hindrance to what he described as an elaborate process for effectively and successfully extracting the remaining tonnes of fuel and oil believed to be still on the casualty vessel.

With a Platform Supply Vessel alongside, he said, primarily, they needed to stabilize the now wrecked vessel, and then once having located fuel-laid tanks below, heat the fuel and oils on board first, to about 50 degrees Celsius, before transferring it by pipes to the PSV – an extraction heating initial process lasting up to 48 hours, on average, at a time.

Shortly after arrival at the site of the operations two weeks ago, and with only one day of good weather since, he said the team managed to extract about eight cubic meters of oil. Then the Cape of Storms lived up to its reputation at this time of the year, belting out very windy and wet weather, giving rise to ocean waves of up to six meters pounding the vessel at intervals of 15 seconds apart, at times.

As a result, on Saturday, 27 July, the vessel broke apart into four pieces and in the process, two of its tanks – 1 & 2 got breached and tons of fuel and oil leaked onto the sea and beach alongside, for a spread of up to a kilometre.

For the full narrative by Rudolph Punt, inclusive of the salvage team’s preparedness for a ‘worst case scenario’ – click on the video below.