The full moon, the opportunity to get out of the ship …

More than 320 ships are waiting to cross the Suez Canal. Four days after the grounding of the container ship Ever Given, from Asia, efforts are continuing to remove the giant 400 meters long and 220,000 tons. Meanwhile, the main shipping company operating in the Suez Canal, Denmark’s Maersk, has announced that 14 of its ships will take the longer route to avoid traffic jams. The ships will circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa.

The captain of the tug Battle 2, Mohamed hafez, said Saturday night was a good time to try and move the Panamanian-flagged vessel. Hafez predicts that the full moon and high tide will make maneuvering easier. Mohamed Qasem, Captain Hafez’s assistant, was also optimistic, risking a 90% chance that today they would be able to move the large container ship. Now that most of the sand and mud around the bow has been removed, the ships will use large steel ropes to pull the ship from the bow and stern. Hafez also added that they had already managed to move the bow of the Ever Given about 17 meters north, to where it was sailing before it hit one of the banks.

Previously, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), the admiring Osama Rabie, gave the first press conference since the incident with the container ship owned by the Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha. However, he prefers to be careful with the estimates. “It’s hard to say a time to fix the problem,” Rabie said from SCA’s headquarters in Port Tawfiq, a few miles from where Ever Given was stranded.

“Last night we were very optimistic about the finish as the boat was responding well, but at night low tide came and we had to stop,” Rabie lamented. Rocky terrain, strong winds and tides hampered efforts to dislodge the container ship. There are currently 14 tugs attempting to move Ever Green. “I can’t say when we’re going to finish, maybe tonight, God willing, maybe tomorrow.”

The SCA performed the first step, which was to remove the sand from around the bow of the ship. They also carried out excavations to increase the depth of the channel in the area of ​​the shore where the Japanese company ship Shoei Kisen Kaisha ran aground. The next step will be to slide the container ship out until it is unlocked and finally repositioned. If the latter is not possible, The next step will be to remove some of the cargo from Ever Given, which carries more than 18,000 containers of goods.

The SCA chief also reconstructed what happened last Tuesday during the sandstorm in which the ship ran aground. Rabie said it was a common weather phenomenon in Egypt at this time of year when winds reach 40 knots, although he said there were other elements besides bad weather.

“This is not the main reason the ship ran aground, but other reasons are added because behind these types of incidents there is usually a combination of factors,” Rabie said. He also pointed to a possible technical or human failure, although this could only be determined after investigations into the incident that took place last Tuesday. The SCA chief referred to the large size of the ship, but also noted that this is not the first time that a ship of these magnitudes has crossed the seaway which was enlarged in 2015.

Until There are already 321 ships waiting to cross from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and vice versa, as reported by Rabie. Although he did not speak of possible fines or compensation for what happened with the blockade of the channel. They offer logistics services to waiting ships, but they will still have to wait between one and two days to transit through the canal once it reopens.

The container ship “Ever Given” is a ship of more than 220 thousand tons he was trapped at kilometer 151, on the southern section of the canal. Coming from Asia, the ship was on its way to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, ran aground on Tuesday evening and was crossed on the southern section of the Suez Canal. Currently, most of the ships awaiting passage are in the Gulf of Suez, in the Red Sea, southern access to the canal. Others are waiting at Grand Lac, an intermediate location. While the Danish shipping company, Maersk, said 14 of its ships would use the route through the southern tip of Africa. The section that traveled Ever Given from Taiwan to the Netherlands is estimated to have lasted 25.5 days using the Suez Canal, while using the alternate and longer route through southern Africa, the trip can last up to 34 days, according to BBC reported.

The Suez Canal is a navigable canal located in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea (Gulf of Suez). The canal transformed the Sinai region into a new peninsula, forming the border between the continents of Africa and Asia. Its length is 163 km between Port Saíd (on the Mediterranean shore) and Suez (on the Red Sea coast). It shortens the maritime trade route between Europe and South Asia, because it avoids having to go around the African continent. On its 195 kilometers long, it gives way to 10% of the world economy. It is estimated that 25% of freight containers cross this sea. For now, it remains impassable.