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Big vessels restricted from Tinian harbor
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Posted on Jul 04 2004
The Tinian seaport remains closed to huge vessels after Typhoon Tingting dislocated a buoy and left it in the middle of the channel, restricting the navigation of big ships.
As a result, a Mobil Marianas tanker that was supposed to deliver fuel to the island on Thursday was not able to come in, Saipan seaport manager Antonio Cabrera said yesterday.
But Cabrera maintained that officials of the Commonwealth Ports Authority from both Saipan and Tinian, along with private companies, are working hard to get Buoy No. 4 out of the channel to allow the delivery to push through tomorrow.
“The buoy is in the middle of the channel and it’s blocking the navigation of big ships. But the ferry [servicing Saipan and Tinian] can come in because it is of shallow draft,” Cabrera said.
A draft refers to the depth of a vessel’s keel below the water line.
To get the buoy out of the channel, its 12,000-ton anchor has to be shackled up and attached to a tugboat that will drag it out to a safe area at the dock.
Among the private companies helping out in the efforts to retrieve the buoy are Saipan Marine Corp., Seafix Inc., and Stingray Divers.
Buoy No. 4 is not the only navigational marker that is off-station at the CNMI’s harbors, Cabrera said. He said that another such buoy has been dislocated at Tinian harbor. There is also one missing buoy and several others displaced at the Saipan seaport.
According to Cabrera, the navigation aids will be repositioned when a vessel from the U.S. Coast Guard in Honolulu comes next month to assess the buoys and to do maintenance and repair work.
“The U.S. Coast Guard will come to make sure that the buys are in the right position so vessels can safely go in and out of the channel,” he said.
