Vessel runs aground, briefly blocking Suez Canal

An oil tanker ran aground on 31st Aug 2022, Wednesday in Egypt’s Suez Canal briefly blocking traffic in the global waterway before it was freed.

The Singapore flagged vessel Affinity V, drifted and obstructed the canal’s south section while travelling around 1700 GMT in a south convoy of vessels.

Five of the Suez Canal authority’s tug boats managed to get the vessel floating again in a coordinated operation five hours later the incident. Technical failure in the vessel’s steering mechanism caused it to hit the bank of the canal, and that navigation for other ships passing through the canal had returned to normal.

The 114070 Tons tanker Affinity V was built in 2016 with a length of 252.26 meters and a width of 45.04 meters and her current draught is reported to be 11.2 meters. She dropped anchor after transiting the canal at Suez south anchorage for further investigations and inspections.

DGS Circular on Clarification regarding booking and a nearing in competencv examinations of the nautical discipline - req.

The Director General of Shipping has issued a circular (NT Exam Circular No. 13 of 2022) dated on 16.06.2022, to provide Clarification regarding booking and a appearing in competency examinations of the nautical discipline. 

• Online portal for the nautical grade competency examination will generally be opened on 16th of every month and will be closed on five calendar days before the commencement of the examination schedule of the following month. 

• Fresh candidates are required to book all subjects of the written examination of all functions of that particular grade during the first attempt.

• Fresh candidates (1st attempt), appearing/appeared in written exams and waiting for results are allowed to book for oral examination in the same month or the next month, provided they have completed all the required modular courses.

• For booking oral exam of a particular function, he/she has to clear all the written papers of that particular function.

• As per existing practice, candidate shall ensure minimum of one month gap between two consecutive attempts of written / oral examinations.

• Candidates who have passed all the written papers of all the functions of the particular grade are eligible to book and appear for oral examination every month.

• If any candidate due to some reason, is absent in the examination in a particular month (he/she may be allowed to book and appear in the next consecutive month.

• Signal examination of 2nd mate (FG) & NWKO (NCV) grade have two components, i.e, signal visual and signal oral. Signal Oral is conducted along with the navigational oral examination (Function 1).

• Candidates booking for Navigation function orals are allowed to appear for Signal visual examination of that month automatically.

• Candidate who wish to appear only for signal visual examination can make booking manually as per existing practice and send the booking and payment details to respective MMD through email.

• Candidates who have passed the signal examination but have failed the function 1 oral exam, the candidate may re-book through the exiting online process, including the payment of the function 1 oral exam fee.

• If a candidate fails the signal visual examination, the candidate needs to continue to re-book the signal exam at the respective MMD by the exiting manual process.

Click here to read DGS Circular NT Exam Circular No. 13 of 2022