Vessel waits in port – to maintain schedule

A water canon salute was
accorded Safmarine Ngami
on her approach to the port
of Cape Town last week, with
Louise Angel, Safmarine’s first
female master,
in command.
The 2 500 newbuild,
delivered to Safmarine in
February, had dropped anchor
in Table Bay about 23:00
on October 18, where she
remained until the morning of
October 23 – a total of some
105 hours. The handover of
command by Captain Iain Ross
to Angel had taken place on the
vessel’s voyage from Durban.
According to Mike Powles,
planning manager at Transnet
Port Terminals Cape Town, the
vessel had “requested to work”
on October 23.
Deployed on Safmarine’s
weekly Amex service, she was
originally scheduled to load
200 containers but in the end
only took 50.
Safmarine explained that the
vessel was ahead of schedule
when she arrived in Cape
Town, and in the interests
of keeping to a named-day
schedule, she was berthed –
as advertised/scheduled – on
October 23.
Commenting on her ‘smaller
lift’, fewer boxes were loaded
on board because another Amex
vessel was in port at the same
time.
According to the trade, there
were no ‘short shipments’
– the only boxes not loaded
were 11 containers which
had not met the WCRS (US
Customs approval – 24 hour
notification).