The Strait of Juan de Fuca’s shipping lanes have a new red and yellow marker today, thanks to a black U.S. Coast Guard cutter and a black-and-white Brazilian freighter.
The 175-foot Coast Guard buoy tender Henry Blake on Monday replaced the so-called “Angeles Buoy” 4.5 miles northwest of Port Angeles’ Ediz Hook after a 656-foot heavy cargo vessel struck and sank the old marker early Sunday.
The bulk carrier Norsul Vitoria, owned by Compa^pbia de Navegaciôn Norsul SA of Rio de Janeiro, had departed Port Angeles Harbor about 2:40 a.m. Sunday and was headed for Vancouver, British Columbia, when it encountered engine trouble and went adrift, the Coast Guard said Monday.
“They were having starter-valve problems and were trying to make repairs when they hit (the buoy),” said Petty Officer Kurt Fredrickson of the 13th Coast Guard District public affairs office in Seattle.
The Norsul Vitoria’s captain notified the U.S. Coast Guard that the chain that anchors the buoy might have become entangled in the ship’s propeller.
That turned out not to be the case, and the vessel was up and running toward Canada by 5 a.m., Fredrickson said.
The crew aboard the Everett-based Henry Blake on Monday afternoon was preparing the 20-foot-tall buoy to be anchored in 460 feet of water in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The operation was expected to be completed by Monday night.
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