Sailing by wind and tide

The Master of the Nord Integrity was praised by the Norient Product Pool operations department for thus saving 27t of fuel. The report says that during the last part of her voyage in ballast from Sao Sebastiao in Brazil to Skikda in Algeria, the ship had so much time to spare after bunkering in Las Palmas in Gran Canaria that Captain Rohit Minocha decided, after consulting his shore base, to stop the main engine and rely on wind and sea current for a 3-4 day period.

The fuel saved amounted to $17,064 worth, and although Norden says that the voyage fuelled by wind and current alone complied with all safety regulations, the prospect of many ships drifting without power in busy shipping lanes sounds, to our ears, somewhat alarming. Despite this ultimate example of slow steaming (or should we say slow sailing?), Nord Integrity reached her North African loading destination just in time to load condensate for later discharge in Rotterdam.

Such practices are of course environmentally beneficial – though we wonder how the ship’s SEEMP might cope with drifting – and at the same time as praising Capt Minocha, head of pool operations Jens Malund Jensen acknowledges the potential dangers: “Not everyone gets the idea to use nature’s own forces like that. The captain has understood to use the local wind and current information optimally. Lots of fuel was saved, the voyage was safely performed, he reached the destination in time, he avoided to sit at anchor in the loading port. Everything and everyone benefitted from his decision.”

Mr Jensen goes on to observe that many factors must combine to allow this type of voyage. There must be plenty of time, wind and current must be in the right direction and of suitable strength, and, of course, there must be enough room to drift without compromising safety.

Notably, Norden believes that a vessel carrying cargo should never sail by wind and tide alone. For laden vessels, the company applies the ‘utmost despatch’ principle, meaning that the cargo must reach its destination as fast as possible. We can only hope, for safety’s sake, that widespread deliberate shutting down of engines on voyage doesn’t catch on as a fuel-saving measure.