Update: 6:30pm, 3 April: According to the latest report from the Cayman Islands Coast Guard, the disabled cargo vessel SC Montana is currently adrift about 20 miles west of Little Cayman, having been released from tow, but poses no imminent threat to the island.
Lieutenant Commander Leo Anglin of the Coast Guard told the Compass that the ship is drifting at about 1.4 miles per hour, and with winds out of the east-southeast, it is likely to continue moving out to sea.
By 10pm Wednesday, it’s expected that the ship will be 24 miles west of Little Cayman, at its current drifting speed, Anglin said.
Efforts are being made to contact the vessel’s main office in Greece to arrange for a salvage company to tow the vessel away, according to the Coast Guard.
At this stage, it is unclear when that tow vessel will arrive, but in the meantime, Anglin said, “we are going to continue to monitor the situation until the vessel is under tow to its next port of call”.
The engines of the Liberian-flagged ship, which was en route from Jamaica to Cuba, failed on Tuesday, and it had been drifting towards the western end of Little Cayman.
LEFKES, a passing bulk carrier vessel, assisted to tow it safely away from the island, and then released it from tow later on Wednesday.
The Coast Guard had noted that the docks on Little Cayman and Cayman Brac do not have the infrastructure to handle the stricken vessel.
Anglin explained that while the ship’s propulsion power had failed, the ship’s generators were working, so lights, air conditioning and hydraulics were functioning on the vessel.
The Compass reported earlier that all crew members and cargo on SC Montana are safe.
Navigator, a tug vessel, was also deployed from Grand Cayman.
On Tuesday night, crew members on SC Montana informed the Coast Guard that they had generator power and all mechanisms to slow their drift have been employed. However, the ship’s engines remained offline.
Additional reporting by Norma Connolly.
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