Monarch salvage continues: Divers work in Cook Inlet's extreme conditions
Imagine your house is flipped on its side, then being blindfolded and asked to find the bathroom. Put the house 60 feet underwater, and that's exactly what salvage divers face every day as they conduct fuel removal operations on the M/V Monarch, which sank in Cook Inlet on January 15.
Underwater, there is zero visibility, said Jim Butler, spokesman for Ocean Marine Services Inc., the company that owns the Monarch.
In the area where 166-foot vessel sank, near the Granite Point platform about 16 miles from Nikiski, there is a lot of turbidity caused by sand.
"The sand itself creates sight problems," Butler said, "and it also blocks any natural light from getting down below."
Because divers are working blind, it takes multiple dives just to pump out one tank.
"It can take one dive just to find it," Butler said.
Divers only have about an hour and a half each day to work on de-fueling the remaining eight tanks of the vessel that rests on the inlet's seabed.
"We can get up to three dives a day," Butler said. "We're working on about 25- to 35-minute dives at slack water. We really don't have a lot of time."
Although de-fueling operations are not uncommon, they are in hostile environments such as Cook Inlet. Taking into account zero visibility, extreme tides and an upside-down boat, which is resting next to an oil platform, it's a bad situation, to say the least. Then insert the added difficulty of maintaining a 150-foot vessel's position near an oil platform in water moving at a rate of seven knots.
Due to the aforementioned circumstances, Butler said everyone involved in the project is slowing down and taking their time.
"It's kind of an interesting scenario," he said.
This is the first de-fueling operation conducted in Cook Inlet's waters, Butler said.
As it stands right now, the Monarch seems to be in the same place as when it sank six months ago.
"We have no indication that the vessel has moved. Nothing's changing. It's not moving, it's not leaking," Butler said.
When the ship went down, it was carrying an estimated 35,000 to 38,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Approximately 3,500 gallons is believed to have spilled as the Monarch sank.
Last month, the 207-foot vessel Perseverance docked at Granite Point and divers began to de-fuel the tanks. However, with a boat that size, Butler said crews faced difficulty maintaining the ship's position.
A smaller dive support vessel, The Sand Island, was then brought in to focus on prep work.
Currently, operations are on hold as crews, which finished preparatory work about a week ago, are waiting for the arrival of new de-fueling equipment.
Along with the additional equipment, a new ship, Polar Bear, will come to the inlet for the next phase of the de-fueling project.
The Polar Bear is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. It takes about four days to get the equipment rigged to the vessel, Butler said.
De-fueling should commence sometime at the end of next week. The project should last until middle to late August if everything goes as planned.
But with the type of conditions Cook Inlet has, no one is counting on that.
"It's hard for people to understand the complexity of it," Butler said. "Each tank is a little bit different for getting into."
Also, it's unknown how much fuel remains in each of the eight tanks, not to mention the damage.
"The access points are what's damaged," Butler said. The access point, too, to every tank is different, he said.
The same team of divers is being kept on the project to ensure familiarity with it, Butler said.
"Literally, every dive is different," he said. "We're trying to recognize that."
Mike Nesper can be reached at mike.nesper@peninsulaclarion.com.