Damaged ship being patched up before refloating attempt

Work has started on making temporary repairs to the stricken bulkcarrier which hit a reef in the Minch.

Salvors have successfully offloaded all of the recoverable cargo material from the grounded MV Kaami.

The next step is to patch her up to prevent her flooding ahead of a forthcoming salvage attempt.

Plans are being drawn up to tow her off the rocks six miles east of Scalpay - about midway between Harris and Skye.

Weather conditions during the early part of this week had made it unsafe for the salvors to board the vessel, slowing down the cargo transfer.

Settled weather conditions on Thursday allowed approximately 30 tonnes of cargo to be removed and loaded to a landing craft for disposal.

A MCA spokeswoman said: “The focus of the salvage operation is now on completing repairs to make the vessel watertight and to allow for it to be re-floated.”

Eight Russian seafarers were evacuated by helicopter as the MV Kaami took on water when holed on 23 March.

The 90-metre-long ship which is flagged in the Bahamas was on voyage between Belfast and Sweden with a cargo of fuel pellets of recycled waste.

Around 27 tonnes of fuel escaped into the sea from a gash on her port side.

Her Norwegian owners have hired Resolve, a specialist salvage team, with the aim of removing the stricken vessel in one piece without causing further pollution.

A 500 metre exclusion zone is in place around the ship.

Damaged ship being patched up before refloating attempt

1 May 2020