Runaway barge stayed in place overnight, officials said

VIRGINIA BEACH

As runaways go, she’s pretty slow – but you don’t want to get in her way.

La Princesa, a massive unmanned barge loaded with hazardous chemicals, spent Friday lurching down a stretch of beach in Sandbridge toward the fishing pier at Little Island Park. As emergency officials and a salvage crew tried to stave off a crash , onlookers watched with interest and some placed wagers on how soon it might happen. 

So far, there have been no reports of any chemicals leaking, and initial word that a large amount of chlorine was on board turned out to be a false alarm. But on Friday, the vessel was resisting  emergency officials’ hopes that she would run solidly aground and stay put until the rough seas subsided.

The barge drifting dangerously towards a Sandbridge fishing pier  did not move overnight, said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Mike Hvozda.

The barge is currently 75 to 100 yards north of the fishing pier at Little Island Park,  Hvozda said Saturday morning. However, tides and winds could cause the barge to continue toward the pier.

On Saturday afternoon, the vessel had become something of a tourist attraction. Dozens of people were crowding a small swath of sand near the Sanctuary at False Cape condominium complex and a steady stream of cars was arriving and parking along Sandbridge Road.

"Good lord," one viewer exclaimed when he rounded the corner and saw the enormous vessel beached in the pounding surf. Others snapped photos with cell phones and digital cameras.

The trouble began about 2 a.m. Friday off Cobb Island near the Eastern Shore, said Capt. Mark Ogle, commander of the Coast Guard’s Sector Hampton Roads.

A tugboat was towing La Princesa from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Pennsauken, N.J., with about 30  types of chemicals on board in large shipping containers. A cable connecting the two vessels snapped and the 570-foot-long barge began to drift.

Fearing a crash at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the Coast Guard sent another tug to try to corral the barge, but it hit 20-foot seas and had to turn around.

La Princesa hit the beach at about 6:30 a.m. in Sandbridge, a secluded stretch of sand about 15 miles south of the resort strip.

The Virginia Beach Fire Department sent its hazardous-materials team to the beach and saw no sign that any containers had failed or that any chemicals had been released, Battalion Chief John Harvey said.

With the barge headed away from nearby condominiums and toward Little Island Park and False Cape State Park, emergency officials decided there was little danger to the public.

The pier was another story.

Around midday, as the barge drifted closer to the pier, a Coast Guard helicopter lowered a salvage team down in a bucket. 

The wind was blowing fiercely – 35 to 40 knots, salvage master Guy Wood estimated.

Once aboard, “there were some bangs” as the barge was tossed by waves, he said, but it wasn’t too difficult to move around.

The two men flooded the barge’s ballast tanks, hoping to slow or stop it before it caused any damage.

By about 5:30 p.m., the barge was within 75 to 100 yards of the pier. But the efforts to slow it seemed to be working.

Earlier Friday it had been moving roughly 60 feet every hour, but after its ballast tanks were filled, it slowed to 10 feet an hour, said Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Ken Edmundson, a senior marine inspector.

Around that time, four members of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Strike Team, based at Fort Dix, N.J., arrived to lend a hand. The team specializes in responding to incidents involving hazardous substances.

Team members, clad in bright orange rain gear, were to take turns keeping watch throughout the night and to alert the Coast Guard’s district command if the barge came within 25 yards of the pier.

The strike team planned to set up air-monitoring equipment to ensure that no pollutants leaked into the atmosphere, said Chief Petty Officer Robert Birdwell, the team’s response supervisor.

“We’re monitoring for everything,” he said. “Our worry would just be anything catastrophic happening to the barge.”

“We’ll be checking it regularly,” Edmundson added. “Here on the scene, we are the eyes and ears of the command center.”

Coast Guard officials have been measuring the barge’s movement with a marker stuck in the sand.

“It’s not an exact science, but it gives us a pretty good idea of how fast the barge is moving,” Edmundson said. 

The wind may help blow the barge away from the pier, he said, but it’s hard to tell.

Longtime Sandbridge residents also were tracking the barge’s progress with interest from their command post at the Baja Restaurant & Grill on Sandpiper Drive, near the pier.

“Everyone at the bar has been running back and forth since 8 this morning,” said hostess Elise Kram. The restaurant opened early to accommodate the onlookers.

Before the barge, the most recent interesting thing was when a whale washed up on shore, Kram said.

The fishing pier is a community landmark that was recently refurbished, customer Cindy Snider said.

“If this barge takes the pier out, we’ve all got to be there,” fellow patron Barbara Pfeufer said.

By about 6 p.m., people started betting on when the barge would hit. Within an hour, 17 people had bet $5 apiece.

“10 p.m.”

“4:50 a.m.”

“Midnight.”

Shortly after 7 p.m., Baja’s operations manager, Melissa Boggs, doled out teal-colored “floating barge” shots: vodka, sour mix, Sprite, blue Curacao, and black raspberry liqueur.

Once the storm’s hangover passes, when the seas grow calm and officials approve a salvage plan, workers will assess the barge for damage and remove it.

Ogle said the Coast Guard also will investigate how the barge broke free of the tug, which was owned and operated by Crowley Puerto Rico Services.

Virginian-Pilot reporter David M Putney contributed to this story