Ship me somewheres east of Suez
My life remains a double-tracked medical cavalcade, but ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
selkie has just informed me of the latest development in the Suez: "theyre actually doing it! ever given has been there so long that theyre actually going around the cape of good hope like 1700s scurvy patients oh my god."
I can only imagine how nervous the Panama Canal must be feeling right now. I just checked and thank God the dredging of Boston Harbor is proceeding on schedule. If we Storrowed a container ship, we'd never live it down.
P.S. The breeze coming through the window smells like the ocean; there was a gyre of seagulls visible above the roofs in the afternoon. It is coincidental but pleasant, considering all the chanteys I now have stuck in my head.
selkie has just informed me of the latest development in the Suez: "theyre actually doing it! ever given has been there so long that theyre actually going around the cape of good hope like 1700s scurvy patients oh my god."I can only imagine how nervous the Panama Canal must be feeling right now. I just checked and thank God the dredging of Boston Harbor is proceeding on schedule. If we Storrowed a container ship, we'd never live it down.
P.S. The breeze coming through the window smells like the ocean; there was a gyre of seagulls visible above the roofs in the afternoon. It is coincidental but pleasant, considering all the chanteys I now have stuck in my head.
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I hope your cavalcade gets a rest soon.
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this is very cute.
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I was saying to
I hope your cavalcade gets a rest soon.
Thank you.
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I wonder how the Northwest Passage is doing.
[edit] I still don't know the answer to that question, but there's Stan Rogers filk now. I'm so happy.
this is very cute.
It is! Thank you.
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That whole canal story is wild. I hope they fix things soonest!
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*continues sending you wellness vibes*
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*hugs*
That whole canal story is wild. I hope they fix things soonest!
Same! But in the meantime, I have like eight different chanteys stuck in my head.
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Because it's amazing?
*continues sending you wellness vibes*
*hugs*
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Thank you!
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Love the filk.
Hope the sea breezes bring you health.
Nine
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I did know that it's still used as such; I assumed the tweeter was calling attention to increased traffic. That's not the case?
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I burst out laughing. That's brilliant.
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(At least that's how it used to be, and I've seen nothing recent to indicate that that's changed. The Suez being only accessible to steamers and not sailing ships was a big part of the final death of sail as a cargo shipping method in the early 20th century, is why I happen to know this relevant bit of trivia; I had a major special interest in clipper ships once upon a time. I... may possibly be feeling a bit smug that this particular bureaucratic choice has finally come back to bite someone in the ass, which is probably very wrong of me but there you have it.)
I've been seeing a lot of different estimates of how long it would take rerouted shipping traffic to actually reach the Cape, ranging anywhere from days to months (I am really fucking dubious of that one). I know your standard cargo steamer makes about 8-12 knots, but I haven't yet figured out how to measure the distance to be covered, Google Maps not having a handy sailing route function as far as I'm aware.
Edit: Okay, it looks like a modern container ship can hypothetically make up to 25 knots, but they've usually been going at 12-14 knots in recent years to save on fuel prices. Fascinating. I wonder if they can crank back up to 25 without having to be refitted, since it sounds like they had to be refitted to get down to the 12 knots.
I assume a ship that was diverted around the Cape to avoid the traffic jam would want to go as fast as possible, if they had enough fuel aboard to do so, and I'm seeing the big news services quote a minimum 7-10 day timeframe for the detour. So a ship that had turned around and headed for the Cape as soon as the canal was blocked might be reaching there shortly, but I really don't see any modern shipping company making that call within the first couple days when people kept saying the ship was partially refloated and whatnot. It's only in the past couple days with the "maybe weeks" quote floating around that I suspect anyone in that sort of decision making position would start to look seriously at doubling the Cape as an alternative.
And honestly, given that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed, I don't think many ships are actually going to divert unless we get a really solid timeframe. Any company that sent their ship down the coast right before the canal gets unblocked would feel very stupid and whoever made the decision would probably be fired. I suspect they'll mostly stand by the sunk cost fallacy and keep waiting.
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Fair enough.
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No, as a late-breaking ass-bite, it's hilarious. Does it mean you would like to feel smug about the Suez using tugs to clear the shipjam behind Ever Given?
I've been seeing a lot of different estimates of how long it would take rerouted shipping traffic to actually reach the Cape, ranging anywhere from days to months (I am really fucking dubious of that one).
I am also dubious of months, but if you get some hard numbers, please let me know. I am genuinely curious.
[edit] I suspect they'll mostly stand by the sunk cost fallacy and keep waiting.
Thank you for the numbers. Now I'm trying to figure out what prices are going to rise on first, if they haven't already.
[edit edit] The re-routing seems to be happening, though:
"Already, seven giant carriers of liquefied natural gas appear to have decided to change course away from the canal, according to Kpler.
"One of these ships, chartered by Royal Dutch Shell, had picked up a cargo of gas at Sabine Pass in Texas and was heading toward the canal when it made a sharp turn in the Atlantic Ocean toward Africa. Another, operated by Qatargas, a state energy company, and loaded at Ras Laffan, the Qatar energy hub, was headed for Suez but then veered away toward the Cape of Good Hope before reaching the Red Sea.
"Container ships are also changing their plans. HMM, a South Korean shipping company, ordered one of its vessels that was headed to Asia from Britain via the canal to go around Africa instead, according to NOH Ji-hwan, a spokesman for the company."
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Also, it makes a real difference whether you are on a time charter or a voyage charterparty, because of how delays will get calculated in terms of your hire costs for the boat.
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I would like you and
(I appreciate also the reminder of the Six-Day War and would say something about the silver lining here being an absence of the need for mine sweeping, but I don't want to jinx it.)
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So what are you expecting from this obstruction?
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The first and most important issue is going to be establishing how the
skipper came to fall down the companionwayboat ended up in both banks simultaneously in the first place. There's a wonderful article Sailors talk about hydrodynamics the way CEOs talk about macroeconomics: they either treat it with mystical reverence, or they claim to understand it and are wrong. delving into the physics of it.Then there's going to be all sorts of fallouts between the owners, the charterers and the insurers. Oh, and the salvage issue, of course.
And that's before everyone else sticks their three pennorth in.
(Incidentally, the attached post I did a couple of weeks ago manages to combine kdrama and shipping law, and it has some background on shipping rates.)
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Heeee.
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"For the wider we our canals to build,
The less chance we have of up to 12% of global shipping being keeled."
Thank you.
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Oh, my God, there's so much more of it than I expected. Indeed.
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ROTFL[Trying to stifle my giggling so it doesn't disturb [roommate's] Zoom class]; and of course this exists.no subject
Didn't know that about the Panama Canal! I was also going to say that it's also now doubled at all the locks (so even if the new locks were OOC, the smaller ships could still get through); but then it occurred to me that that wouldn't help if a ship somehow went sideways in the Culebra Cut...
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There is a designation for that, although it doesn't appear to apply to container ships. That said, it looks as though Ever Given exceeded a couple of its parameters and I'm sure people who know more about naval architecture than me have already taken up this point. [edit] Yep.
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"She was stacked to the funnels with treasure and tat
Hope you weren't expecting any of that"
(And speaking of the Northwest Passage.)
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And you rule NW Passage! Who said global climate change wasn't good for something! (ouch)
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It reminds me of discovering Boston's Conley Terminal in 2019. I miss so many places.
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There is (or was) a Cape Horn Society, for which the membership criterion is having rounded the Horn under sail. In the maritime museum in Castletown, Isle of Man, there's a Cape Horn Society medal which was donated by the museum's founder, who rounded the Horn while being born.(What size of medal her mother received, history does not, alas, record.)
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