Tugs tend LNG tanker as repairs made off Cape Cod

[jpak]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/13/tugs_tend_lng_tanker_as_repairs_made_off_cape_cod/

As Coast Guard and tugboat crews tended last night to a liquefied natural gas tanker crippled off Cape Cod, critics of LNG deliveries through Boston Harbor called the breakdown another warning of the threat the tankers could pose to the Hub.

The 933-foot Spanish-flagged LNG tanker Catalunya Spirit was heading from Trinidad to the LNG facility in Everett when its propulsion system shut down about 3 a.m. Monday, apparently because of a computer malfunction, the Coast Guard said.

After hours drifting at sea, the 5-year-old vessel was corraled by four tugboats about 25 miles east of Provincetown, where technicians were working last evening to fix it under Coast Guard oversight.

The engine breakdown was apparently the first such incident in the 27 years of LNG shipments to the Suez Distrigas facility in Everett.

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[Warpy]

1. I remember when they were building that facility

and reading about what a serious accident would do to the city. As I recall, about a quarter of the metropolitan area was under the gun should the worst happen.

Still, they have to put them someplace, and deep water ports all have cities that have grown up around them. It had to go into somebody's back yard, and opposition was crushed.

Engine failure out at sea isn't a big deal. Engine failure as it was docking might be.

[CabalPowered]

2. Yikes. Conditions are not favorable for repairs

Looks like rough seas, then again I'm not much of a sailor. I think this buoy is probably close to the ship...

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44018

Weather for Provincetown..

http://www.weatherunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=provincetown

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Not bad really, only 11ft

11ft seas on a 9 second period isn't too bad. For a ship of that size they wouldn't think much about it. North Atlantic in the winter doesn't get much calmer than that.