Carrying a Tug and Towing a Barge, Ship Grounds at Caribbean Cruiser Harbor (Videos) – Loose Cannon
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When all else fails, try journalism. Carrying a Tug and Towing a Barge, Ship Grounds at Caribbean Cruiser Harbor (Videos)Engine Problems En Route From Louisiana to Puerto Plata in the D.R.
Spanish chatter over the VHF was the first sign. Shortly after dawn a ship with a barge in tow was headed toward Luperon Bay’s tricky entrance. Although witnesses didn’t know it yet, the ENE Vision was experiencing engine problems, and her captain was seeking help from harbor authorities. Indeed, the barge she was towing was disconnected and maneuvered into the harbor by local boats, which benefitted from calm conditions. Despite assistance from officers of the local Navy base, the mothership ended up anchored on short scope and grounded on a reef on an ebbing tide. Rising wind and waves throughout the day pushed ENE Vision right up against the craggy shoreline. Luperon is a cynched purse of an anchorage, with reefs on either side of the entrance. Plenty of boats have gone a ground hereabouts over the years, but this one may well be the biggest to have ever done so. Drawing about 12 feet, ENE Vision was never a candidate to enter the bay itself, which will only accept up to 10 feet of draft on a high tide. ENE Vision’s skipper may have hoped to drop a hook just outside the narrow entrance to the bay—call it the outer harbor—a stone’s throw from where Columbus caught up with the Pinta during voyage No. 1. Captain Martin Pinzon had anchored her there in January 1493 after his unauthorized expedition to the Turks & Caicos seeking gold. From Damien Christie of SV Suzie Manuela Somebody Else Should Take Credit for This Video According to witnesses, two tugboats arrived and tried to tow ENE Vision into deeper water, but that didn’t work; the ropes broke. A RoRo vessel also arrived to help, but it’s not clear what went on with that. ENE Vision was still on the rocks at the end of the day yesterday. At first, it was thought that the 190-foot multi-purpose support vessel was the HOS Crossfire because apparently the MarineTraffic AIS website hadn’t gotten the memo. According to a spokesman, Hornbeck Offshore Services of Louisiana had sold Crossfire “years ago,” despite her AIS ping having been identified as belonging to Crossfire. She was now registered in the Dominican Republic as ENE Vision and is displayed as such by MarineTraffic, but only when one digs deeper into the vessel’s information and photo gallery, for example:
The current owner has not been confirmed but the “ENE” in ENE Vision might hold a clue. It’s customary for three-initials in the front of a name to stand for the corporate owner, as, for example, the “HOS” in HOS Crossfire stood for Hornbeck Offshore Services. It happens that ENE Shipping and Trade in the Turks & Caicos owns vessels, though no mention of ENE Vision itself could be found on its website. ENE Shipping is a subsidiary of Olympic Group, possibly the biggest builder in the Turks & Caicos. Most construction material used in that desert island nation, all the cement and blocks, comes from the D.R. by ship. ENE Shipping did not reply to an email.
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