Ever Given in the Suez Canal
The Suez Canal continues to be obstructed by the ship “Ever Given”. Meanwhile, ships are beginning to take the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of the African continent.
Four days after the container ship Ever Given grounding, efforts continue to remove the 400-meter-long, 220,000-ton giant. More than 320 ships are waiting to cross the Suez Canal.
The main shipping company operating in the Suez Canal, the Danish Maersk, reported that 14 of its vessels will take the longest route to avoid the traffic jam.
The captain of the tugboat Batal 2, said that Saturday night was a good time to try to move the Panamanian-flagged ship. He foresees that the full moon and high tide will facilitate maneuvers, and manage to move the large container ship.
Now that most of the sand and mud around the bow has been removed, the ships will use large steel lines to pull the ship from the bow and from the stern. And it has been possible to move the bow of the Ever Given about 17 meters to the north.
Rocky terrain, strong winds and tides hamper efforts to dislodge the container ship. There are currently 14 tugs trying to move the Ever Green.
The first step, which consisted of removing the sand around the bow of the ship, has already been carried out. Excavations were also carried out to increase the depth of the channel in the area of the shore where the ship ran aground.
The next step will be to drag the container ship until it is unblocked and finally repositioned.
The next step will be to remove part of the cargo from Ever Given, which carries more than 18,000 containers.
What happened is a common meteorological phenomenon in Egypt during this time of year, when winds reach 40 knots.
