Despatched from its station in the Azores, the mega-tug was successful in bringing the damaged bulker Caravos Horizon safely to Greece for delivery to its owner, after an extremely awkward towage of a crippled vessel under adverse weather conditions.

At the same time the group was responding to another casualty, this time a grounding in the East China Sea. A wide array of salvage equipment, including specially fabricated cargo slings, was sent for the Thia Chryssoula , a 52,000dwt bulker which had run aground in the Senkaku Islands laden with 43,000 tons of steel slabs. Tsavliris was awarded the LOF and was immediately faced with difficulties due to sovereign rights issues in to the area. Although mobilizing tugs, personnel and equipment was a demanding logistical exercise, Tsavliris managed to put together a large salvage operation in order to lighten the vessel and bring it afloat. The operation was further hindered by the prevailing unfavorable weather conditions and the fact that the islands are mostly uncharted, which caused hesitation on the part of the lightering vessels involved. In fact, the first lightering vessel brought in by Tsavliris had to pay additional insurance premiums of nearly $500,000, only for it to sail away without doing the job.

A second lightering vessel then managed with great difficulty to go alongside and perform the operation. In a race against threatening typhoons, Tsavliris managed to refloat the vessel and deliver it under its own power to South Korea.

Highlights of other activities in the last two months include the successful salvage of the cargo vessel Arion , disabled with steering gear failure about 900 miles east of Salvador, Brazil. In another successful lightering and refloating operation, Tsavliris-contracted tugs were able to refloat the cargo vessel Eleftheria , which had run aground in Denmark's Great Belt while on a voyage carrying barley from Rostock to Jeddah.

MJ Information No: 21157