Ship Photo of The Day - It's Not All Broken Tows, All The Time

Today’s ship photo is to remind us that the vast majority of ocean towing operations go off without a hitch. It’s almost hard to believe considering headlines these days, but it’s true… and here’s proof:

Netherlands-based Fairmount Marine tells us that their tug, the Fairmount Glacier, successfully delivered the newbuild rig, La Muralla IV, to the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico following an uneventful tow – the best kind – from Okpo, South Korea, via the Sunda Strait and around the Cape of Good Hope.

La Muralla IV is a new semi-submersible drilling rig for ultra deepwater operations. The rig, which is owned by Mexican Grupo R and constructed by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea, is designed to drill up to depths of 10,000 meters and comes in at a length of 118.6 meters and a width of 96.7 meters.

Fairmount Marine’s Fairmount Glacier hooked-up with the rig at the end of October last year offshore the port of Okpo, and since then has sailed 16,200 miles at an average speed of 6.6 knots towards the Gulf of Mexico, where it arrived safely at the end of February. During the voyage, bunker stops were made in Singapore, Mauritius, Walvis Bay and Curacao.

So remember, the biggest – and best – stories when it comes to ocean towing are often those which you never hear about.