The Cape’s dreaded winds were thankfully absent last week, but a port accommodation dilemma loomed large as ships of all types and sizes suddenly began descending on Table Bay. What made this spectacle even more surreal was that whereas ships tend to anchor over a wide area off Cape Town, as far as Hout Bay or even further out to sea, these particular callers, more than 15 at one stage, were bunched together off the port entrance like athletes at the start of a 1 500-metre race. Observing this mini-flotilla from my Three Anchor Bay eyrie, the majority of the vessels were clearly bulk carriers while less than half were containerships. The build-up is ascribed to a number of factors: berthing space taken up by repair vessels, among them the Doce River which came close to running aground off Sunset Beach in the violent storm a few weeks ago and is now at Eastern Mole 2 awaiting sailing; the long-term lay-ups of the FPSO Glas Dowr and the derelict rig Neptune Finder; the drawn-out off-load of a West Africa-destined rice cargo from one vessel to another, which is putting strain on K Berth and the Eastern Mole 2; and around 11 ships under arrest. Harbour master Captain Ravi Naicker was on leave at the time of this writing but acting deputy harbour master Vania Cloete said reasons for the build-up were not immediately clear, though there is no evidence to suggest a link to deviations from the Suez Canal, mainly to escape piracy off East Africa and in the Gulf of Aden. “We have basically been 100% full for the past couple of weeks, and the number of bulkers is higher than normal.” As to whether Cape Town has enough berths, currently 20 excluding four at Cape Town Container Terminal, to cater for various needs, Cloete says berths are utilised in the best possible manner. “The increase of vessels into port is under discussion to see whether it is ongoing or not. It’s been a tough few weeks but we are coping.” Michael Powles, planning manager at Cape Town Container Terminal, said less than half of vessels awaiting berths were containerships. Speaking to FTW at week’s end (July 10), he said six containerships were at anchor off the port, the build-up due largely to a number of vessels awaiting cargo for destinations like the US (MSC’s Carla, for instance) or West Africa transhipment cargo. The latter included Hansa Trondheim (delayed around 141 hours), and Mekong River (128.7 hours) while other containerships affected in one way or another were MSC Barbara (137.25 hours), Safmarine Oranje (112 hours), and MSC Sheila (about 91 hours). Cape Town Container Terminal was anticipating a busy seven days in the week to July 15, 23 callers in all for a total of 13 546 import and export boxes.
