Dredge boat’s delay a real drag

Marisa O’Neil

A 167-foot dredge boat that landed on the beach at West Newport on

Sunday headed back out to sea Tuesday with the help of two tugboats

and a high tide.

The two tugs hooked up lines to the ship, the Eland, Monday night

in preparation for the 8:17 a.m. Tuesday high tide, said Newport

Beach Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz. The tugboats

started pulling around 7 a.m. and got the large vessel back out to

sea by 7:45 a.m.

Members of the Newport Beach Police and Fire departments,

lifeguards, Coast Guard and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department

Harbor Patrol were on hand to bid adieu.

Dennis Chastain, an oil spill prevention specialist with the

California Department of Fish and Game, observed the move. The Eland

contained about 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel, he estimated.

The hull seemed to be intact when the dredge boat made its way

back to sea despite spending two days partially on the beach,

Chastain said.

“We were lucky,” he said. “We had really calm weather and surf,

and it was on an accessible part of the beach. When they pulled it

off, they were lucky it was highest tide of the month.”

The boat did, however, appear to have suffered some damage to its

propellers, Chastain said.

The ship was scheduled to make a stop at a Long Beach shipyard to

check for damage, Schulz said.

The Eland ran aground Sunday at about 8 a.m. while it was dredging

close to the shoreline in West Newport. It caught on a sandbar, and

as the tide dropped, it ended up wedged on the sandy beach near 68th

Street, Newport Beach Lifeguard Lt. Brent Jacobsen said.

“It was pretty much high and dry most of Sunday,” he said.

It ran aground while working on the $5-million U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers project, which is dredging about 400,000 cubic yards of

sediment from the Santa Ana River.

Damage to the boat and shore were minimal because the

flat-bottomed boat is designed to work in shallow waters, Schulz

said.

The boat’s captain tried unsuccessfully during Monday morning’s

high tide to move the boat, she said.

“He really wants to get back to work,” she said.