Latest news on this saga:
Indeed, not an easy salvage operation. Getting her out and refloating her again is not going to be an easy task (IMHO).
The monster tug and the reinforced traction line that was brought to the scene have been in place for two days. A fourth attempt at freeing the vessel was made at high tide last Monday night, and she appeared to have moved some 80 meters. For that they had to cut the anchor chain, which was left buried in the sand, as it was impossible for the crew to pull her up out from the immobile, grounded ship. Since then other attempts have not produced much results - the vessel is buried in the sand, and does not move.
They are now considering taking out the ship's cargo, before attempting at pulling her out again. However that will also not be an easy task. The vessel is fully loaded with natural aggregates, which will require heavy duty cranes in place to take them out. And no vessel can come alongside, without risking grounding on the same sand bank. Flat bottom, keeless barges of a large size are not present in the Lisbon harbour. Besides, they may not be able to endure the rough seas that are being felt at the Lisbon harbour entrance. Where the vessel is, there is no natural protection, and the waves are high, so a flat bottom barge may easily break during the cargo transfer operation...an added risk the salvage team will need to consider.
Meanwhile, and as time passes, and with big storms hitting the area at least once a week, the risk of the ship's hull breaking increases. This may entail a fuel leakage, with all the unwanted environmental risks the spillage will bring. There are some 150 tons of fuel on board.