PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles Harbor is expected to lose an increasingly familiar resident today as a giant oil drilling platform departs for Europe.
Work was nearly done Tuesday afternoon to weld the Polar Pioneer to the giant deck of the MV Dockwise Vanguard, said Robb Erickson, vice president of sales for the U.S. division of Dockwise Shipping of the Netherlands, which owns the Dockwise Vanguard.
Today’s departure is two days later than initially planned, Erickson said.
The 902-foot semi-submersible heavy-lift ship will take the Polar Pioneer to Norway by following the American coastlines to the Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America. Then it will cross the Atlantic, Erickson said.
“A vessel the size of the Dockwise Vanguard with a large, heavy cargo like the Polar Pioneer on board will behave something like a large ocean liner, very stable and capable of handling heavy seas,” Erickson said.
The Dockwise Vanguard is the largest ship of its type in the world and can lift more than 120,000 tons of cargo.
Erickson noted that it will be summer in the Southern Hemisphere, where the ship will make its Atlantic crossing, so the weather will be fairly predictable and manageable.
Blue Marlin
Dockwise also owns a second heavy-lift ship that recently visited Port Angeles Harbor.
The smaller 738-foot-long semi-submersible MV Blue Marlin loaded the drill ship Noble Discoverer on its deck Dec. 11 and departed Dec. 14 — a day earlier than initially scheduled by Dockwise.
Operations can continue normally in bad weather as long as winds remain less than 15 knots, according to Dockwise officials.
Port officials have said the Noble Discoverer is headed to the West Pacific.
The Polar Pioneer initially visited Port Angeles in April to prepare for a summer of drilling for oil in the Chukchi Sea, off Alaska, and returned to Port Angeles in late October to offload equipment.
Transocean Ltd. of Zug, Switzerland, which owns the oil platform, donated about 15 tons of food to local food banks and soup kitchens in preparation for the trip.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.