Ray Smuts
STAY CLEAR of our port!
This is the implicit message beind Portnet's refusal to allow a a dilapidated vessel into Cape Town harbour after it had initially demanded a whopping deposit of $1,5 million - non refundable under certain circumstances - before acceding to the
vessel entering port.
Accompanying the letter of demand, a copy of which is in the hands of Durban attorney Struan Mundell, was the proviso that the deposit would be forfeited if the 8 980-ton Pep Nautic had not cleared port within ten weeks of entry.
Furthermore, the vessel would be subject to a doubling of the port tariff within the same time frame.
This left the owner of the vessel in a very difficult position, says Mundell, who represented the Pep Nautic's all-Indian crew after they had had it arrested off Cape Town, seeking payment of $45 000 in arrears wages and repatriation to their home country. The matter has since been resolved.
Mundell told FTW he understood that Portnet, after discussion with the attorney representing the vessel's owner, had later withdrawn the demand but made it clear the ship was not wanted.
That much is borne out by comment from port captain John Woodend who said: She is a floating nightmare. Ask what is right with her not what is wrong.
The Pep Nautic's main engines are out of order, the power generator is on its last legs and her navigation lights and equipment are all out of order. FTW also learnt that the 23-member crew had only one functioning toilet, inadequate bedding, no laundry facilities and little food.
Expressing misgivings that if allowed into port the vessel could languish there occupying valuable berthing and never be ready to return to sea in sound condition, Captain Woodend said even though she was not in danger of sinking he had demanded that the owner arrange a tow to her final destination.
The 23-year-old Pep Nautic, bought in September last year by the Ever Lucky Shipping Company of St Vincent and the Grenadines, was carrying a full load of teak logs when she broke down off the coast of west Africa and subsequently spent two months in the port of Luanda.
She was then towed to Cape Town by the salvage tug John Ross where Portnet marine safety manager Captain Peter Stowe said it appeared she had suffered an explosion in the crankshaft, entailing a lengthy and expensive repair.
Dave Murray, fleet logisitics manager for Smit Pentow Marine, which owns John Ross, said his company's involvement with Pep Nautic would end once the vessel's owner had appointed a tug for the tow to India - cost could be upward of $350 000 - and eventual discharge of her cargo at Tuticorin on the east cost.
Cape Town's deputy sheriff Keith Bateman, who was involved with the Pep Nautic over the arrears wages issue, remarked:It looks very much to one like a scrap ship on her last voyage to the breakers yards in India.
The Pep Nautic is the third lumber carrier to run into difficulties off the southern African coast in the past three months.
Logs washed ashore from the bulk carrier Sanaga which sank in the Mozambique Channel last November injured several people and caused at least one death.
The general cargo ship AIS Mamas ran into trouble earlier this year and was towed by John Ross to Saldanha Bay for repairs.
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