“It’s crazy, double last year’s wind,” said frustrated business unit manager Oscar Borchards, while Sapo’s vessel planning manager Derek Goetze admitted:”It was bad in 2004 but this is absolutely the worst I have experienced in 15 years.” Last week was no better as the south-easterly blew continuously, eventually subsiding in the early hours of Friday as the terminal prepared to welcome on March 6 (Sunday) the 4 500TEU newbuild, P&O Nedlloyd Heemskerck, on her maiden voyage to South Africa. She is the largest container ship ever to call at Cape Town and the fourth new vessel to join the Southern Africa-Europe Container Service (SAECS). Her March 7 naming ceremony was postponed for several days due to wind delays. She will off-load 560 containers and take on 1 693 boxes in Cape Town. Borchards says the average turnaround time last month stood at 80 hours compared to 40 hours for the corresponding month in 2004, due entirely to wind. In the first four days of last week wind delays stood at 67 hours.
