Dear Source:
This accident and others yet to come are totally predictable — just a matter of time. Even an "empty" tanker has enough stuff left in the empty tanks to foul nearby shores, such as Sandy Point, one of the largest nesting sites for endangered leatherback turtles in the Caribbean. The reference to "Enfield Green" is maybe designed to distract us from realizing this is Long Point, just three or four miles upwind and current from Sandy Point.
Does anyone know if this "tanker" was actually one of the self-powered tanker barges that HESS-HOVENSA uses to shuttle crude from the storage terminal in St. Lucia? The registry is held by a European petro chemical company, but it could be in charter to Hess (see info on position of the ship at the bottom of this message).
Hmmm I can tell where the boat is instantaneously, but it takes us two weeks to learn that it hit a reef in the Virgin Islands . . .
[The Sichem Amethyst is currently (Tuesday 8 am) at Location: 39°26'19" N 75°32'25" W – locator FM29FK55DG 15.1 km East bearing 95° from Middletown, New Castle County, Delaware, United States [?]
16.0 km South bearing 165° from Delaware City, New Castle County, Delaware, United States 65.6 km Southwest bearing 210° from Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States 130.1 km South bearing 182° from Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States, which is halfway up the Delaware Bay in the US East Coast, and it is supposed to be en route to Darmouth for arrival on January 26th??]
Bruce Potter
Washington, D.C.
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