Nab Anchorage

[Kelvin Davies]

Is the weather in the Channel particularly bad today or what?
I notice there are 3 ships at the anchorage, none of which are heading for Southampton;
Marie Lehmann, headed for Belfast, made a sudden change of course in the early hours and headed for the anchorage.
MSC Cordoba, made a similar change of course yesterday evening
Yasemin, headed for Aliaga, changed to the anchorage around midnight.
Mosvik, headed for Pasajes, altered course toward the Nab this morning but may have had a change of mind.
The nearest weather buoy shows winds of 31kts and waves of only 6.9 ft.
Kelvin

[Kelvin Davies]

Since posting this, I have noticed most of the westbound traffic in the Channel is crawling along. Even OOCL Montreal is barely making 3 knots. Eastbound ships are pretty much all managing 13 knots so the wind is perhaps more fierce than first thought.
By the way, take a look on Marine Traffic at the vehicle carrier Torrens. Since yesterday evening it has been going round in hideous poatterns, south of the Isle of Wight.
Kelvin

[Allan RO]

Hi Kelvin

You will also notice that the 4 hopper barges working in the Marchwood area were all tied up last night and are not operating today.   They have previously been making 2 round trips to the Nab dumping ground every day.   It can't be too bad otherwise the pilot boats would not be going out.

Allan

[Riverman2903]

According to AIS Margate roads look busy today, don't know if that's weather related or just the state of the shipping industry in vessels awaiting orders.

[DanEarl]

Not sure if you know Kelvin, but when you click on any ship that has given live data on marine traffic you also get the current wind speed and direction it is getting, ok it doesn't give the wave height but it does give an indication of the weather they are experiencing !

Cheers, Dan.

[Kelvin Davies]

Thanks Dan, I had forgotten about that!
I was getting my info from the weather buoys in the area.
Cheers
Kelvin

[brimar]

Kelvin . . It seems to be spreading . .'Oceana' bound for Southampton has just completed a few circles around 17 miles SW of Portland (at 1945 today) she seems to be back on course now AT 11.2 KNOTS. . thought perhaps she was running early for the Nab or a possible MOB.

[Kelvin Davies]

Seems daft, doesn't it? She is due alongside at 05:45, at this rate she will be there at 03:00 (ish) so, with a following wind, why hot put the foot down, get in early and let the passengers have a good kip on the berth?
Speaking og Portland, have a look at the recent track of that well known vessel "British Warship" (sailing close to HMS Kent and that other favourite "Coalition Warship").
Mad as badgers, the lot of them!
Cheers
Kelvin

[Merc_S550]

Hello all-

I am currently tracking the Don Juan ship that is currently in the English Channel waiting to port in Southampton. It was due 2 days ago and for the past day or so that ive been monitoring, all is has been doing is circle around in the channel at low speeds.

Forgive me for my ignorance, but can someone please explain why this is occuring? Is it because of the heavy traffic and ships waiting to port in Southampton?

Thanks in advance.

[Kelvin Davies]

I would imagine the weather has been too bad to get pilots on and off the ships at the Nab.
At the moment, Don Juan is forecast to arrive tonight at 23:59 which translates to "sometime".
Enjoy your new car!

[Merc_S550]

Kelvin-

Thanks for the quick reply. I am just now learning about pilots entering ships to guide into port. I had no clue! I thought the captain did it himself. This is fantastic website with vast resources!