Yacht TV; Port Everglades, FL

Port Everglades, FL | 2005-Mar-17

Initial Notification: The 100 foot yacht TV ran aground at approximately 2200 EST on 16 March 2005 at the entrance to Port Everglades on the north jetty. The position of the grounding is 26-05.671N; 080-06.222W as reported by USCG. The vessel had 7000 gallons of diesel oil onboard at time of grounding. Hull damage has occurred and the engine room is flooded with free communication with the sea. Lightering of the fuel took place using vac trucks on the shore. Some water in the flooded engine room mixed with engine oil and lube oils. A conference call was held with the incident specific RRT to discuss decanting and discharge of the oily engine room water if necessary during a refloat operation. The RRT agreed to this operational tradeoff if necessary. Coast Guard agreed that attempts to lighter all fuel and the oily seawater would be conducted prior to a refloat attempt. If decanting and discharge of the oily water becomes necessary, the discharge would be directed into a containment boom with sorbent materials for recovery of any oil sheens. Pump rates would be controlled to eliminate or minimize any sheens into the water. Protection measures for sensitive areas inside the cut have been reviewed and boom and sorbents will be ready for deployment at turtle nesting sites to the north and to protect mangroves and Whiskey Creek to the south. The potential use of special solidifier products are being considered to remove sheen from the engine room and as a filter for the oily water discharge. The M/V TV was successfully refloated at 1430 EST, March 18th. Once refloated, the vessel did not appear completely stable, so the Coast Guard decided to direct the vessel to a nearby facility at the Dania cutoff canal rather than the planned facility further away in the New River. The vessel made it safely to the facility without incident. No spill or even visible sheening was reported during the entire refloat and movement operation. The vessel damage will be further assesed and repaired enough to continue to the New River facility or removed from the water by sling at the Dania location.