Ships wait up to three weeks at anchor to load grains at the Port of Albany as supply chain-specific issues result in delays.
Most important pointers:
• Grain ships off Albany wait up to three weeks to load at ports.
• Some crew members have spent extensive phases at sea following COVID which has left them in isolation for several months.
• CBH says it is working on supply chain issues after a record crop.
Killasandra Tabita, an Indonesian seafarer and second officer on the Ocean Sukses, has been trapped on board the vessel for 14 days, close to dry land.
Per various sources, the wait time for ships at the port to load can range from about 10 days to almost three weeks.
The delays come after crews have faced isolation at sea and during the ongoing pandemic due to COVID-19 outbreaks on ships.
Tensioning under a record harvest
Duncan Gray, the operations head at CBH, a grain cooperative, said that expected delays were there after a record cereal crop last year in Western Australia.
Gray said that he was looking at about 23 million tons in the supply chain and that they would not get that out of the ports in 2022.
He acknowledged that the bottleneck resulted from rail transport-related delays but mentioned that the state’s grain trucks were functional at a record level.
He also mentioned that last week, they could transport 315,000 tons of grains to the ports. The earlier record was about 285,000 tons. Gray noted that they are working on supply chain issues with the rail provider named Horizon.
Rail operations have had issues, including six railcars unexpectedly derailing in June at a grain track in Wagin.
Volunteers deliver SIM cards.
Volunteers associated with the Albany Mission for Seafarers have reportedly sent SIM cards for seafarers. Colleen Donovan, who is related to the mission, said that the SIM cards are empty, and they can recharge those so that the seafarers can connect with their families.
Karaoke keeps the spirit high.
Aboard Ocean Sukses, Killasandra and colleagues keep striving to entertain themselves.
On the ships, they have karaoke and PlayStation to their rescue. They sing songs together.
