COLUMN | Bulk carrier grounding in Australia highlights dangers of incident response delays [Tug Times]

For those readers who are not familiar with the case, the facts are briefly as follows.

Portland Bay had been berthed in Port Kembla, but all parties agreed that an approaching storm made it necessary for the vessel to put to sea to ride out the bad weather. The master decided not to go 50 nautical miles offshore, as required by the ship’s SMS manuals, but to remain closer to shore where he thought the weather would be better.

In the early hours of July 4, 2022, with the vessel 12 nautical miles off the coast, she developed engine problems and started to drift towards land in gale force winds and a heavy swell.