Grounded car carrier refloats itself

JANUARY 7, 2015 — Although salvors had no plan to refloat the grounded car carrier Höegh Osaka today, according to the latest update from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) Höegh Osaka self floated at 1.55 pm GMT and all salvors have left the vessel safely.

The list of the ship is reported to be unchanged and the vessel is currently under tow to a preferred holding position 2 miles east of the original grounding position.

The new location is just inside Portsmouth Harbor and is close to the area called Spitbank. Queen’s Harbor Master Portsmouth has established a temporary exclusion zone of 300 m around the vessel. Only exempt vessels are to enter the exclusion zone.