Ever Given Ships Erratic Route into Suez Canal

> it goes towards the east bank (consistent with a strong gust of wind blowing it off course)

Apparently the wind was coming from the east, so it was more likely the opposite, a lull.

The ship was oversteering to the left the whole time because of the strong wind. When there was a sudden lull in the wind it got too close to the left side. The bank effect might have then pushed the bow away and pulled the stern in, resulting in the ship getting wedged.

[1] has a good description of the situation and the bank effect.

[1] https://archive.is/pmUEm

Ahh I was wondering about the heading. Makes complete sense

This guy talks about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hoPmPhwLq4

apparently it was a problem as they were going ~13 knots as it was at the beginning of the canal. The first one Maersk Denver did ok slowing down gradually but the second one Asia Ruby almost crashed into it or ran aground as well

It would be much shorter in these circumstances. Your link is talking about 400,000 ton tanker ships. Container ships like the Ever Given are closer to 200,000 tons. And the cruising speed of a container ship is around 24kts, though I think they run slower than that nowadays to conserve fuel. The speed limit in the Suez Canal is nominally 8kts, but the Ever Glued was reportedly going 13kts when it ran aground. I would guess that that isn't unusual. With half the speed and half the mass, the stopping distance would probably be more like half a kilometer.

The stopping distance is known, so presumably the pilots space the ships deliberately so that they can stop safely.

didn't the ship lose power before running aground? If so that means the ship would still be coasting and there would be time to warn the ship behind to stop. It'd be much worse if the ship was intentionally steered into the canal banks.

The 'fuck it we'll do it live' of the sea

Bit of a dick move then.

That doesn't go more than 24 hours back without login

I've been trying to figure this out too. Maybe they have a stern anchor too?

Maybe each needs a stern tug?

Looks like a pretty standard holding pattern. They seem to have carved out a sort of area that other ships don’t come into much, then they drift with the currents and winds until they approach the outer bounds of their “parking space” and bring it back in a bit.

It all seemed normal enough to me until it started going in without a tug like those other container ships in front of it.

Then it looks like it lilted to the left and must have over corrected and ended up in its current position.

Couldn’t help but laugh as the tugs started coming in. What a hopeless situation but such a natural response. Everyone comes over and starts checking out the mess.

It is real, multiple sources reported that movement. It seems accidental, some other ships there probably made that pattern too.

Survivor bias. If it didn’t accidentally draw that shape, it wouldn’t have been shared and we wouldn’t be hearing about it.