200303 Canal Convoy Problem
Canal Convoy Problem
Report No. 200303
Own Ship was a 96,235grt LNG carrier anchored in Suez Roads, Wind - NNW 13 m/s, Sea - Smooth
0215 Port Control informed us that the Pilot would board at 0430 and that we will be vessel No.5 in the convoy. They also ordered us to keep 2 shackles on deck at 0430.
0421 Steering gear tested, started heaving port anchor
0430 S.B.E. Weather conditions; Wind NNW 13 m/s, sea smooth.
0448 Pilot on board. Waiting for the vessel No.4 in the convoy to reach the main channel buoy. Our Pilot spoke with the Pilot on board this vessel They spoke about the difficulty of passing between anchorage V 1 and V 2 where another vessel (vessel "E") is laying.
0506 Resumed heaving anchor
0512 Anchor up and clear.
0514 Dead slow ahead. Rudder 10 degrees to starboard, heading at this time around 2900.
0515 Our vessel was drifting to port so I ordered to increase the speed to slow ahead and increase helm to 20 degrees to starboard.
0518 Our vessel stopped drifting to port side and kept steady with a speed of about 0.6kts ahead.
0520 We saw vessel No. 4 in the convoy overtaking us very close on our port beam and at this moment I ordered hard starboard.
0522 Vessel 4 was clear of us so we ordered "hard-a-port" and increased to half head in order to keep clear from vessel "E" which was anchored in V 2.
0530 Our Pilot complained to port control regarding the manoeuvre just carried out by pilot of vessel 4. This was recorded on the ARPA system of Port Control.
We think that vessel 4 passed only 20m from us and port control told us that she had passed about one cable on our port side. In any case, the action taken by the Pilot of vessel 4 was very dangerous. We suggest that all ships transiting Suez should be informed to watch out for this kind of situation.
It is further suggested that to avoid this type of incident:
- Port Control does not to ask any vessel to heave their anchor until the preceding vessel in the convoy is clear, in order to avoid drifting in the anchorage area.
- Vessels should be assigned an anchorage according to their position in the convoy. Our assigned anchorage area was V 1 (at the top of the anchorage area) though we were No. 5 in the north bound convoy. The vessel preceding us was anchored at V 3 (south east of us). She had to cross between two anchored vessels before reaching the main channel and this fact caused the incident.