Nh-Elif

A crew member of the "HC Jette Marit" was winched off and flown to hospital after he had a suspected heart attack. A lifeboat crew made a brave effort to treat the Ukrainian chief engineer after he fell ill on Jan 13, 2017, at 1 p.m. four miles east of Sunderland. The man at first refused to be taken off the ship by helicopter, but agreed to be taken ashore by sea and the Tynemouth RNLI crew were scrambled. Sea conditions were very bad with strong northerly winds, a tidal surge and a swell of one to five metres. Conditions worsened after two RNLI crew members got on board to treat him, so the coastguard rescue helicopter was then called in from Humberside Airport, arriving at 4.18 p.m. The sick man and the crew members were winched off the ship because it was too dangerous for the RNLI men to get back on board their vessel. The chief engineer was flown to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, and was well enough to walk off the helicopter. Report with photos: http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2017-01-14/sick-seaman-winched-off-ship-in-stormy-conditions/

The ballast problem, which threatened the safety of the "Jette Marit" has still not yet been settled. The "Jette Marit" arrived off Brest on Sep 9, 2015, and was actually moored in the Bay of Douarnenez. The ship security center (CSN) in Brest would like the ship to return to the loading port Flushing to unlaod the 19.500 tons of ferrosilicon with a value of $ 20 million as the port of Brest was not equipped for that, which would allow access to the ballast tanks. The owner refused this and would like that the "Jette Marit" continued the voyage to its original destination New Orleans. The CSN inspectors created a list of repairs needed which included work at the main engine, generators, ballast water pumps and valves, repairs of fire pumps repair, viscometer, toilets and boilers as well as the installation of ballast and a separator for oily water.