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tristandc.com / index / news / newsshipping |
Latest Shipping News |
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| MV Edinburgh arrived safely from Cape Town on Friday 27th June at 10.00. Passengers got safely ashore and offloading has commenced in calm conditions. It will be important to unload essential groceries (including flour which ran out of stock in the Supermarket several weeks ago) despite only being able to use the factory crane, as the weather forecast for the weekend is not promising. |
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MV Edinburgh Delay
It is reported from Cape Town by Dorrien Venn, representing Ovenstones, that due to unforeseen repairs being carried out while the vessel is in dry-dock, MV Edinburgh's estimated departure has been postponed until Friday 20th June. |
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| June MV Edinburgh Voyage MV Edinburgh is scheduled to depart from Cape Town on 12th June, as previously planned, with arrival at Tristan on 18th June, unloading for about a week (depending on sea conditions) and departing on 23rd / 24th June and expected arrival back in Cape Town on 30th June. Aboard will be Administrator David Morley and his wife Jacki for a UK leave and outgoing CBTO Station Manager Clement Mochet on completion of his tour. Chief Islander Conrad Glass will serve as Acting Administrator during David Morley's absence. This voyage is crucial to the Tristan community as much of the May cargo was returned to Cape Town due to high seas and lack of a heavy duty crane preventing unloading. Supplies of groceries are very low - especially flour. Regular visitors will be aware that winter shipping arrivals and departures are often changed due to high seas, and if ever Tristan needed a calm week - 18th-23rd June needs to be the one. |
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| SA Agulhas Developments The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Directorate: Antarctica and Islands have entered into a new four year contract with Titan Aviation. As a result SA Agulhas will be using a very large Kamov KA32 helicopter as well as a B105, which give them greater efficiency and passenger/cargo carrying capacity. SA Agulhas has a also introduced a revised on board alcohol policy which restricts alcohol consumption to the bar available each evening, and changes duty free purchase arrangements. We have a separate page devoted to images and information on SA Agulhas and the two regular fishing vessels MV Edinburgh and MV Kelso which provide the scheduled service to Tristan da Cunha - see Scheduled Ships Page. |
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| MV Edinburgh departs at last for Cape Town Scheduled to arrive on Tristan on 30th April, arriving on 1st May but not able to unload passengers until 6th May, the ill fated MV Edinburgh has at last left for Cape Town on Wednesday 21st May, ETA 28th May. The original schedule was for departure on 6th May, arriving back in Cape Town on 12th May. Much of the incoming cargo (over 50 crates) remained on board and will return to Cape Town awaiting the next MV Edinburgh sailing due to leave on 12th June. The poor weather compounded the problem caused by the lack of a heavy duty crane. A knock-on effect will be shortages of groceries and stocks of flour are very low. Leaving Tristan is the BBC Horizon film team led by Dr Noe Zamel who has carried out work on the asthma gene on two previous trips to Tristan da Cunha. We expect to publish news of the team's work and publicise the resulting broadcast in due course. Joining the team aboard MV Edinburgh is Father Chris Brown who is going on leave, and a group of seven Islanders. |
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| MV Edinburgh brings BBC Horizon Team MV Edinburgh arrived from Cape Town on Thursday 1st May, but owing to poor weather passengers were not landed until Sunday 4th and cargo on Tuesday 6th May. MV Edinburgh's cargo was restricted due to Tristan's heavy duty crane being out of action (see Harbour News Page for further details). Notable amongst Edinburgh's passengers is a team from the BBC who will be making a film scheduled to be shown in the UK as part of the Horizon series. The team is led by Dr Noe Zamel who carried out work on the asthma gene whilst visiting Tristan da Cunha in the 1990s. Also arriving is an electrical engineer - Maans van Niekerk - who is trying and sort out electrical problems (as Tristan has experienced recent power cuts because the new modern stand-by generator is not really compatible with the old electrical system, which was installed in 1968 with a life of 30 years). He is also beginning to plan an electrical upgrade upgrade which it is hoped will be delivered in 2009. Inevitably, MV Edinburgh's departure will also be delayed, probably until next weekend - ie Friday 9th - Sunday 11th May. The loss of the big crane is slowing unloading and bad weather is forecast for Thursday 8th May. |
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| MV Edinburgh and RFA Gold Rover arrive on 5th March MV Edinburgh arrived on Wednesday 5th March with the Ovenstones team to assess the Factory fire damage and a new generator. The generator was transferred, first to the Lyme Bay, then via Calshot harbour to its new site alongside the fishing factory site on Saturday 8th March - see pictures and report on our Factory Fire Page. |
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RFA Gold Rover, also returned to Tristan da Cunha on 5th March (after its special December mission to deliver much-needed drugs), to re-fuel the RFA Lyme Bay, see pictures of the maneouvre on the Operation Zest Page carried out on Thursday 6th March. Photograph from Anne Green taken on 6th March 2008 showing the RFA Lyme Bay and Gold Rover at the Tristan da Cunha Anchorage. |
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RFA Lyme Bay arrives on 28th February The 16,000 tonne Lyme Bay arrived at Tristan da Cunha a total sea journey of over 12,400 kms or 7740 miles taking four weeks from its departure from Portland Harbour in Dorset on 1st February. The ship will provide its own power for its mission - code named Operation Zest - to re-furbish the badly damaged Calshot Harbour - see Harbour News page for details. Photograph from Robin Repetto taken on 28th February 2008 |
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Photo left shows the vessel alongside her home port berth in Portland Harbour, Dorset from where she departed for Tristan da Cunha on 1st February 2008. |
Published by the Tristan da Cunha Government and the Tristan da Cunha Association. Copyright © 2008 and all Rights Reserved. This page first published February 2008 |