Thursday 7th February 12:30
Salvage operations on the Celestial Dawn, which has been lying on the rocks by Dingle lighthouse since going aground last Saturday, are now proceeding rapidly, after agreement was reached over the levels of compensation to be paid to the landowner at Lough near Dingle. Full access has been granted to the site for heavy machinery to be brought in to the cliff-top. The ropes securing the vessel are now in place and are currently being tensioned. Due to the fact that the Celestial Dawn is lying on her side, it is difficult to extract the fuel oil directly, so the salvage team have decided to tap through the side of the hull and then into the tanks from there. The necessary drilling equipment for this job is being flown in from Holland today. Some sort of rig may have to be fixed to the hull of the boat to accomplish this and subsequently to pump the oil/water mix out of the boat and into tanks on dry land. In order to put this into place, a crane will have to be brought on site, so the next job today may be to bring in hardcore and construct a roadway through the field.
It is clear that a complex and time-consuming operation lies ahead before we can say that the danger of a serious oil spillage is over, but it really seems that no expense is being spared to prevent further pollution and we remain hopeful of a good outcome.
Graham Timmins graham@irishdolphins.com
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