VIRGINIA BEACH
Crews composed of Coast Guard and salvage team members were optimistic about Wednesday morning. They knew high tide would be a foot higher than the previous evening.
Tugboats began towing the 570-foot barge again at sunrise. They made quick progress.
Before high tide even arrived, they moved the barge 40 feet in 10 minutes, said Mark Miller, a spokesman for Crowley Maritime Corp., the company that owns the barge.
Rick and Nancy Felini, who live in the Sanctuary at False Cape condominium complex next to where the barge got stuck, had been watching since it first drifted toward the fishing pier at Little Island Park last week.
"It clearly started moving, getting the full effects of the waves this morning," Rick Felini said of Wednesday morning's efforts.
About 15 minutes before high tide, La Princesa rocked loose.
"It made a big bang, and it was free," said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Robert Birdwell.
The first tugboat pull Tuesday morning got La Princesa off the beach and onto a sandbar, said Lt. Jack Smith, a spokesman for Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads. The second effort Tuesday evening moved the barge halfway across the sandbar.
Wednesday morning's effort pulled La Princesa off the sandbar entirely, Smith said.
"I was glad that the fishing pier lived to see another day," said Coast Guard Capt. John Little, deputy commander of Sector Hampton Roads.
But for moments the night before, the situation looked bleak - at least from the shore.
Three lighted tugboats were already hooked up to the vessel shortly after 6 p.m. Bobbing up and down in the waves as high tide approached, they cranked up the pressure to help rock the barge.
"Come up to full, please," crackled the instructions to one of the tugboats across a radio.
"It's moving!" a spectator said. "Those waves are breaking up the sandbar."
Not long after that, part of the wire linking one of three tugboats working to dislodge La Princesa split.
From the shore, it looked as if the barge that had taken up residence in Sandbridge days earlier wasn't going anywhere - at least that night.
Despite the broken wire, "last night, we were pretty close," said Phil Reed, who helped run the salvage operation.
"It's just a tremendous relief, all the way around," Miller said.
As Sandbridge's high-profile guest headed for the horizon and Wednesday morning wore on, life returned more to normal.
La Princesa's arrival and subsequent rescue efforts created a stir, generating a camera crew for National Geographic, off-season excitement and not-so-welcome traffic.
"That barge brought in a lot of business," mainly from Coast Guard members and police officers, said Becky Wilson, who works at Sandbridge Seaside Market.
Spectators with cameras disappeared shortly after La Princesa's departure Wednesday morning.
A survey team and Crowley's insurer boarded the barge and determined that it was seaworthy, Smith said.
The survey found La Princesa does have several structural deficiencies that will need to be corrected before its next cargo load, Smith said. At 3:50 p.m., the Coast Guard released La Princesa from Lynnhaven Anchorage. The vessel's next port of call is Pennsauken, N.J.
And now, Nancy Felini, who admits she spent "too much" time tracking the barge over the past few days, is looking forward to getting back to her morning walks on the beach.
Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com
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If I lived out there . . .
If I lived out there I'd be saying a prayer of thanks about now and breathing much easier. Having that barge loaded with chemicals such as chlorine sitting there just waiting for another storm to strike would make me mighty nervous.
"The Barge"
Good story, good ending, majestic, almost sad to see it leave.
Christmas
Hey let's leave the barge in place and put Christmas lights on it and those folks int he condo's can set up some food and beverage stands for those who come to see the new Christmas decorations in Virginia Beach.
my thoughts..in case you cared....lol
That "thing" was pushed up in there with alot of wind and water that's not there now. They are going to need another unusually high tide to get it off the sand.
I'm no salvage expert but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night!!
Ladies and gentlemen,
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Sandbridge Princess Hilton! You'll be dining tonight with Capt. Stubing. Please see "Gopher" to sign up for tonight's shuffleboard match or contact Julie McCoy to see who is performing on the Lido Deck tonight!
Added difficulties
The water there is very shallow and it has shifting sand bars. The only way to remove any of the cargo safely would be with a heavy lift helicopter. Putting another barge with a big enough crane along side would be too hazardous. It may take dredging a path out to deep water to get the job done.
Another keyboard salvage recommendation.
Scour out some openings in the sand underneath with high pressure water. Insert inflatable bags. Inflate the bags to relieve some of the weight. Then pull.
or
you could just sprinkle magic anti-gravity fairy dust on it and it will just float away.
Barge won't Budge
I'm sure the professionals performing this tasks are doing the best they can do. However, when I move a dresser, I remove the drawers to lighten the load.
So, why don't they remove some of the containers or liquid to reduce the weight, then tow the barge out to sea? Anyone can eat an elephant one bite at a time. It may take a while, but it can be done...
Remove Containers????
How would you suspect they do this? Plus the fact that they are hazerdous loads. It would have done more damage than good removing containers. They would risk having a crane stuck in the sand and then what...build a makeshift road to get the containers off??? Then what??? Company has to pay to move the containers to a terminal then have to pay Stevedoring charges to load them back onto that barge?
Someones thinking small with moving a dresser.
I was ther between 1030am-1200pm Tue 11/17/09
I spent a little over an hour and watched as THREE tugs were pulling pretty hard, evident by the taught lines behind the vessels connected to the barge. There was a fourth tug milling about before it headed off.
The reason the were able to pull it off the beach is because of the slough that runs parallel to the beach. The slough is a depressed and scoured out area of sea bottom adjacent to the beach surf zone that is 20-30 yards wide. From the beach beyond the slough to seaward is a sandbar also running parallel to the beach. The water over the sandbar is shallower than the water over the slough. When it was pulled the barge floated over the slough, but got stuck on the sandbar and has to scrape over it reach the sea.
Hope they get it off the beach. If not they should just leave it where it is, put some sand around it, build rooms into it, and rent them out. The thing is HUGE.