At 8:36 p.m., and as Corporal Gidron said in his incident report, "the captain was instructed to prepare an engine in order to remove the ship from the link."
At 8:43 p.m., while the ship's engine was ready, the cable that was tied to buoy No. 4 was released, and at this point the ship was tied only by its two anchors (5 and 6 in the diagram above).
At 8:45 p.m., they began to raise an anchor; At 21:24, the lifting of the anchors was completed and the ship began to sail and move away from the link; And at 22:12 the ship docked in the Ashdod docking area.
- At this point, the incident had come to an end.
Causes of the Incident
- No special expertise is needed to reach the conclusion that the immediate cause of the chain of events described above was changes in the weather conditions that prevailed in the area, and even more so in the direction and speed of the winds.
Thus, while until noon the wind was less than 20 knots, and in varying directions (northeast-northwest), starting in the afternoon it began to intensify, and its speed reached 20 knots or more, while changing direction to a northerly wind, at an angle perpendicular to the belly of the ship (see diagram above, as well as details in the Raspan N/7 investigation).
The increase in the speed of the wind and the change in its direction increased the intensity of the forces exerted on the ship, causing the release of cables that were tied to various buoys, as well as the tearing of ropes, as described above.
Eventually, the loosening of the cables and the tearing of the ropes caused the ship to shake and move; brought about a decision regarding the termination of its claim; And finally, to the decision to release it from the dock and move the loading to another port, all while causing various damages to the connector.
- It should be noted that the parties invested considerable efforts in an attempt to determine the speed of winds that prevailed in that area at the time of the events, including the submission of expert opinions and their interrogation as part of the proceeding. However, I found that the determination of rivets on the basis of this evidence is not required in our case, since the speed of the winds and the changes that occurred in it throughout that day, as is evident from the incident reports prepared in real time by Corporal Gidron and the ship's crew, as well as from the testimonies before me, were clear, when the important thing is that there is no dispute that there were changes in the speed and direction of the wind from noon onwards, and there is no dispute that the winds reached a speed of 25 knots. with 30 knot gusts, and this is during the relevant hours, i.e. from 17:00 until around 21:00.
- The wind regime of that day and the change that took place in it meant that the winches on the ship, to which cables and ropes were tied to buoys 1 to 4, were ultimately unable to hold the cables and ropes.
Here it should be clarified that these winches include a brake mechanism, which consists, inter alia, of brake pads, which is supposed to hold the cables and ropes attached to it, and in the end the mechanisms in these winches did not hold the cables, as stated, and did not prevent the ropes from tearing.