The container vessel APL Panama, stranded since Christmas Day off an Ensenada beach, now has its own jetty. Salvors commissioned the 500-foot rock-and-sand ramp and hired a giant crane to carry containers ashore. The operation is the latest in a series of attempts to lighten the ship's load and get it floating again. Weighed down by cargo and pinned in by sand, the 880-
foot APL Panama has refused to leave the broad sandy beach where it ran aground more than seven weeks ago. Led by Florida-
based Titan Maritime LLC, salvage efforts since the grounding reportedly have succeeded in moving the bow 35 degrees, about a third of the distance necessary to pull it away from shore. A major effort late last month involved six tugboats and a barge equipped with hydraulic pullers, with a combined capacity of more than 80,000 horsepower. On February 9, containers were hooked to the crane and lifted off the ship. The 300-ton crawler crane, with a 250-foot boom, has been working around the clock since February 5, and moving up to 60 containers per day. Leaders of the salvage effort had hoped they wouldn't have to resort to the costly land-based operation. (Source: www.signonsandiego.com)