UPDATE TO THE STORY BELOW

AFTER 75 DAYS ON THE BEACH THE APL PANAMA IS FINALLY AFLOAT!!

By Sandra Dibble

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

March 11, 2006

 ENSENADA – It took more than two months of pulling, lifting, blowing and dredging.

But yesterday, the APL Panama finally broke free from the sandy beach where it ran aground Christmas Day.

 It was 4:40 a.m. and raining steadily when the 874-foot container ship returned to the sea.

On shore, a handful of witnesses could see its lights come back on.

Aboard ship, fireworks sounded, lit by salvors celebrating the occasion.

 JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune

The cargo ship APL Panama floated yesterday after being freed from sand near the port of Ensenada, where the 874-foot vessel with 1,800 containers from Asia ran aground on Christmas Day.

Mexico won't allow the vessel to leave until the beach where it was stranded is restored. 

Less than three hours later, the vessel was two miles offshore, undergoing inspection of its hull, while bulldozers worked to restore the beach where the ship spent the past 75 days.

 “We've overcome the critical point,” said Capt. José Luis Ríos Hernández, Ensenada's harbor master.

Now comes the next challenge: paying the bill.

Under general average, the commonly used international legal procedure, the expenses will be shared by the vessel's German owners, Mare Britannicum Schiffahrtsgesellschaft MBH & Co. & APL, the global container transportation company that chartered it; and the numerous cargo interests.

The amounts are subject to negotiation.

 With its propeller damaged, the APL Panama isn't going anywhere soon.

The ship can't leave Ensenada until the salvors, the ship's owners and Mexican government inspectors have examined its condition.

In addition, Mexican authorities won't allow the vessel to leave until the beach where it was stranded is restored.

 The APL Panama ran aground at 6:12 p.m. Dec. 25, as it prepared to enter the port of Ensenada on a regularly scheduled trans-Pacific run. Mexican authorities attribute the incident to human error on the part of the vessel's Croatian captain, Zupan Branko; sworn testimony suggests he broke port rules by steering the ship into restricted waters without waiting for the guidance of a port pilot.

 Over the weeks, the vessel has generated widespread interest in Ensenada, drawing thousands to Playa Conalep, a broad sandy beach off a residential neighbourhood south of the port.

 JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune

One of three tugboats had a line fastened to the stern. Two hydraulic pulleys also were attached during the effort, which took almost three hours during the early morning.

An Ensenada taxi driver composed a corrido, a song telling the ship's story, and when residents celebrated a pre-Lenten carnival last month, the APL Panama was featured as a float.

 “We got used to seeing it, it belonged to us,” Francisco Ceseña, a 33-year-old Ensenada truck driver, said early yesterday as he arrived to haul away pieces of a temporary rock-and-sand jetty built for the APL Panama. “Now they've gone and stolen it.”

 The APL Panama was loaded with more than 1,800 containers when it ran aground, many of them holding electronic components from Asia for factories in Mexico. Nissan, Sony and Panasonic are among the affected companies.

 The APL's owners hired Titan Maritime LLC, a Florida-based salvage company, to move the ship, which was trapped in sand parallel to shore.

The salvors tried numerous approaches: pulling at its bow with tugboats and hydraulic pulling machines; lifting off more nearly 1,300 containers to lighten its load; moving sand by blowing air through tiny holes drilled into the hull.

  Last month, they hired a hopper-dredger vessel, the Francesco di Giorgio, owned by a Belgian company, Jan de Nul. The vessel dug a channel near the APL Panama's bow, about 260 feet wide and 30 feet deep, said Adam Van Cauwenberghe, the company's representative in Mexico City.

 Ríos, the harbor master, attributed yesterday's successful refloating to the combination of approaches.

 Pulling the APL Panama toward the newly dredged channel yesterday were three tugboats and two hydraulic pullers attached directly to the APL Panama.

While the salvage efforts have generated widespread interest – both from curious residents and members of the maritime community worldwide – hardly anyone was there to witness the floating. Ríos was among the few on the beach to see the ship float away in the early-morning darkness.

 But word soon got out – around Ensenada, across the United States and across the Atlantic to London and Germany as David Stirling, Titan's Scottish salvage master sent out a terse e-mail message from the APL Panama: “Vessel refloated at 4:40 lt (local time).”

******* 

ENSENADA BEACH

DOWN MEXICO WAY

Known as the "Cinderella of the Pacific", Ensenada is located 70 miles south of the international border, a 90-minute drive from San Diego.

Its warm Mediterranean climate, friendly atmosphere and accessibility by land, air, and sea have made Ensenada a favorite tourist destination for many years, and Mexico's second most-visited port-of-call for major cruise lines and pleasure boats.

HAS A GIANT HAS A GIANT NEW ATTRACTION 

The " APL Panama" high and dry since January since the mate on watch at the time, reportedly was in a hurry to get in didn't wait for the Pilot or tugs before he entered.

it is estimated that the keel is now under about 8 metres of sand.

Below from the fabulous website  http://www.cargolaw.com/ 

 “The APL Panama” Built - 2000  Operator - APL

 Owner - Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & Co

 Flag: Antigua & Barbuda (??) ed.

Type of Vessel - Cellular Length: 880ft.  Gross Weight - 40,306gt. Registered Deadweight -52,272gt.

Capacity - TEU 4,038 (1805 aboard)

 Cargo Gear - Gearless

Cargo Aboard At Time of Incident: 30,000 tons

 Editors Note:

 To get a more focused idea of this situation --please take moment to review the photos -- again. There is much to be learned & understood.

This time -- study the low tide wave lines in relation to the beach. Take a good look at the relationship between the ship and various the onlookers walking along the beach. Think of your own feet touching the bottom when swimming out in the waves, just off the beach. M/V APL Panama has beached not far from where your towel would have been spread out for a pleasant day at the shore.

 My question is whether you would personally decide to pilot your little, family cabin cruiser or any pleasure boat this close to the beach in clear weather, under sunny skies?

Now look back at this 14 story, 40,306 gross ton vessel, hard beached at Ensenada -- and consider that M/V APL Panama took this course on-shore knowingly -- Christmas Day, Dec. 25 --on purpose.

This incident is not a simple error in navigational judgment. Whatever the explanation, M/V APL Panama was literally driven onto the beach. A better job likely could not have been done if the action had been taken with intention. We do not suggest intention here -- but there is a yet untold story to explain this highly unusual event. It is said that the Captain declined assistance from an Esenada Harbor pilot -- an allegation currently denied by APL. Indeed, our sources from overseas suggest that something may have been amiss on the bridge.

Given required awareness on the command bridge when the vessel reached the Port of Ensenada -- or any vessel at any port of call -- we have never seen anything quite like this in clear weather.

 The true story of M/V APL Panama has yet to either been told -- or paid for. The cost will be epic.

 Jan. 14 2006

 M/V "APL Panama" remains stranded in the surf, despite major efforts by a half-dozen tugboats over the past 4 days to pull her bow away from shore. Salvage workers are hoping for greater success next week with powerful hydraulic pulling machines that are being sent from the United States, according to the owners.

This week, workers from Titan Maritime LLC, a Florida company specializing in marine salvage, made a major push to float the vessel, taking advantage of lunar high tides. The challenge has been daunting. The vessel, which weighs about 15,000 tons, is carrying nearly 30,000 tons of cargo. Seven tugboats pulling at full force Jan. 12 a combined capacity of more than 40,000 horsepower moved the bow a few more yards away from shore, and they are expected to repeat their efforts.

The massive effort that began Jan. 10, has been partially successful.

The bow has moved 20 degrees away from shore, about a 5th of the way that is needed to pull it toward open water.

The salvage crews hoped that the tugboats would be able to do the job.

But hydraulic pullers are being brought down on a special barge that was sent from Seattle.

The barge, 400 feet long and 100 feet wide, is at R.E. Staite Engineering marine contractors in National City, where workers have been preparing to send it to Ensenada.

Concerned about a possible spill, officials ordered all fuel removed from M/V APL Panama.

The testimony of Master & 1st Officer of M/V APL Panama has been obtained. The officers' statements for the first time lift the shroud of secrecy that has surrounded the incident.

There were no equipment failures only human error & that led to the grounding, according to sworn testimony on Jan. 2, by the Capt. & 1st mate, obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper.

Last-minute efforts to avoid disaster came too late.

At 6:12 p.m., on a night with good visibility, light breezes, smooth seas & swells over 6 feet, M/V APL Panama ran aground, 1.5 miles SE of the port's entrance in the surf off a wide sandy beach.

  "In my view it was too high speed," said Teo Motusic, the vessel's 1st officer, and 2nd-in-command, in testimony before port officials. "My opinion is that the Capt. did not come to the bridge on time." Motusic's declarations and those of Capt. Zupan Branko, paint a vivid picture of the half hour before the grounding and the desperate last-minute manoeuvres that proved futile.

 1st mate, Motusic, in testimony said he tried to call the pilot on the radio from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. "but without success."

As they approached the port, Motusic said he called the captain twice from the bridge.

But Capt.Branko did not show up to take command until 5:42 p.m.

Motusic said the captain was slow to react as he pointed out the buoys marking the channel's entrance, and the arriving pilot vessel. "The captain was all the time looking ahead, and he said, 'I still cannot see the pilot. Where is the pilot?' I told him and pointed, 'Captain, there is the pilot, there is the pilot!' " Motusic testified.

The captain gave the order "hard to port wheel"!

Then, the pilot called and warned, "Captain, you are going to the shallow waters," according to Motusic's testimony.

 Under questioning from Ensenada's harbor master, Branko said it was his 4th time entering the Port of Ensenada, and that all the equipment on board was functioning.

It was not until 6:05 p.m. that he realized the vessel was in danger, he said.

Seven minutes later it ran aground. "Why did you not drop any of the anchors?" the harbour master asked. "I did not consider that possibility because it was a very short time span," Branko replied.

Asked what he could have done to prevent the accident the first officer, Motusic, replied: "Everything happened very, very fast, and I was showing the captain the position of the buoys, the channel, pilot boat and breakwater."

As is the practice in ports worldwide, ships are supposed enter the Port of Ensenada only if there is a pilot on board. The pilot meets the vessel at an offshore location, in this case 2.3 miles W. of the port entrance.

Port officials say their records show the pilot was scheduled to meet M/V APL Panama at 7 p.m. Capt. Branko, said the crew told the ship's agent in Ensenada at noon the ship would arrive at 6 p.m., according to his sworn testimony given in the presence of his British attorney at the Ensenada harbor master's office. Dec. 31.

 So now conditions of the prelude to disaster are known -- but we think there is more, yet to be known.

A sand road has been built out to her to get a large crane close enough to start unloading the containers.

Below some reports from the local media

Latest plan: A channel along stranded ship

    By Sandra Dibble

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER February 25, 2006

 ENSENADA – Over the past two months, they've pulled at its bow, drilled holes in its hull, used cranes and helicopters to lighten its load. But the APL Panama, an 874-foot container ship, still clings to the sandy beach where it has sat since Christmas Day.

Now salvage crews are preparing a new tactic: creating a channel alongside the stranded ship with a specialized dredger vessel, the “Francesco di Giorgio”.

The channel would be “as close as possible to the container ship in order to tow it via the canal to deeper waters,” said Adam Van Cauwenberghe, a regional manager in Mexico City for the Jan de Nul Group, the dredger's Belgian owners.

 With the Francesco di Giorgio's arrival expected today, salvage crews are hoping to write the final chapter of the long-running saga that began when the APL Panama ran aground in shallow waters 1½ miles from Ensenada's port.

The ship's fate has been followed closely around the world, from factories in Mexico, to suppliers in Asia, to the vessel's owners in Germany, and to London-based maritime insurance clubs.

 Repeated attempts to move the ship off the beach with tugboats and a barge equipped with powerful hydraulic pullers have failed. The bow has been moved 50 degrees toward open water, but not far enough to float the ship, Capt. José Luis Ríos Hernández, Ensenada's harbor master, said this week.

THE "APL PANAMA" IN HAPPIER DAYS, TRANSITING THE PANAMA CANAL

More Local media comment 

Not necessarily in chronological (thats a BIG word) order

JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune

A crane was used to lift personnel onto the stranded APL Panama yesterday. Before a rock jetty was built, workers had to get to the ship by boat. 

The ship's position, parallel to shore, has made for an especially challenging scenario, Ríos said, and the vessel is now hemmed in by sand piled as high as 16 feet on its starboard side.

 An attempt last month to blow away the sand with a giant underwater pipe failed when the pipe broke in the surf. Earlier this month, salvage teams tried a different tack, drilling 200 small holes near the bow into the hull's starboard side, and blowing high-pressure air through them to disperse the sand.

 The latest sand-removal plans involve the dredger vessel, which is 313 feet long and is designed to operate in shallow water. Named for the 15th century Italian artist Francesco di Giorgio, it has been sailing from the Nicaraguan port of Corinth, where it was doing maintenance work on a navigational channel.

 As they work to remove the sand, salvage crews also have been lightening the APL Panama's load.

Titan Maritime LLC, the Florida-based company leading the salvage efforts, has been lifting off containers with a Sikorsky Sky Crane helicopter and a giant crawler crane, perched at the end of a temporary jetty, along with two smaller cranes on board the ship.

 Victor Manuel Celis Dueñas, customs director for Ensenada's port, said the crews are hoping to remove 1,200 of the 1,800 containers originally on board. By Wednesday, the APL Panama's owners reported that more than 700 containers weighing more than 10,000 tons had been removed, about a third of the original cargo weight.

Cargo owners whose containers are off the vessel are being encouraged to take them away, after posting a bond with the salvage company.

Some are sending their own trucks to pick up the containers, while others are loading them onto other container ships.

 The strain of the past several weeks has caused some damage to the APL Panama.

But Titan Maritime representatives have been telling local officials that the vessel is essentially in good shape.

 Human error on the part of the captain apparently led to the vessel's grounding.

Testimony of the captain and first mate indicate that the vessel violated port rules by entering restricted waters without a port pilot on board to guide it.

 The APL Panama's grounding off a residential neighbourhood has been of great local interest, initially drawing thousands of spectators a day to Playa Conalep, a broad beach off a residential neighbourhood.

But the area has been roped off, and the crowds have thinned considerably.

Sandra Dibble: (619) 293-1716;

Above- the QM2 on her way in to Esenada passes the stranded APL Panama.