PORT ANGELES — After nearly two months in Port Angeles Harbor, the Polar Pioneer was welded to the deck of the MV Dockwise Vanguard, and the behemoth pair of ocean-going marvels of engineering were on the verge of departure late Wednesday afternoon.
Officials did not have a definitive departure time for the oversize ship and its massive cargo.
The Dockwise Vanguard will leave as soon as it is ready, but the departure time was uncertain and could happen at any time Wednesday or today, said Robb Erickson, vice president of sales for the U.S. division of Dockwise Shipping of the Netherlands.
The ship initially was scheduled to depart Monday.
On Tuesday, officials said the oil rig would leave the harbor Wednesday.
“What’s holding it up is adjustments and the process of getting the sea fastenings attached. Sometimes it’s slower,” Erickson said.
As soon as the adjustments are complete, the ship will fire up its engines and depart for Norway, he said.
Erickson said he has received photographs of his company’s vessel in the port and compared the imagery to Rio de Janeiro’s harbor and Norwegian fjords.
“It’s just a beautiful setting,” he said, adding that his company had hopes of returning to the area for additional work in the future.
The 902-foot semi-submersible heavy-lift ship’s itinerary will take the Polar Pioneer to Norway by following the American coastlines to the Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America before crossing the Atlantic.
Erickson noted that it will be summer in the Southern Hemisphere, where the ship will make its Atlantic crossing, so he expects clear sailing.
The Dockwise Vanguard is the largest ship of its type in the world and can lift more than 120,000 tons of cargo.
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.
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 the Alaskan coast.
The rig returned to Port Angeles on Oct. 28 to offload equipment after Royal Dutch Shell — which had leased the Polar Pioneer — gave up on Arctic drilling.
Transocean Ltd. of Zug, Switzerland, which owns the oil platform, donated about 15 tons of food to local food banks and soup kitchens earlier this month 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.