Costa Concordia Departure Pushed Back to Wednesday

The prow of cruise liner Costa Concordia is seen during the refloat operation at Giglio harbour at Giglio Island July 21, 2014. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Update: She’s off! Track Costa Concordia Live – AIS MAP

With the full refloating of the Costa Concordia cruise liner almost complete, departure of the shipwreck from Giglio has been confirmed for Wednesday, July 23, according to salvage officials.

An update Monday afternoon in Giglio said that the salvors from the consortium Titan-Micoperi have been pushed back until Wednesday from its original departure date of July 21 due to wind and weather conditions.

Technicians working to refloat the shipwreck battled strong winds overnight Sunday and into Monday, but work continued and the wreck has now emerged from the water by about 11 meters. There are still three meters to go until the wreck reaches its final towing draft of 18.5 meters, according to an update from the project’s website. Starboard sponson S4 is almost in position, the update said, and work is in progress to lower sponsons S5 and S14.

The effort to refloat Costa Concordia shipwreck kicked off last Monday when technicians began pumping air into 30 steel sponsons secured to either side of the hulk, providing the flotation for the vessel to be lifted from underwater platforms on which it rested since the end of the parbuckling operation in September 2013. The refloating operation made some good progress over the weekend despite a small oil spill towards the aft of the vessel on Saturday night. The spill, which was estimated to be about 50 liters, was quickly contained and an inspection of the vessel and equipment showed no signs of any additional leakage.

A convoy of 14 vessels will accompany the wreck during its tow to Genoa, where the ship will eventually be scrapped. The tow itself will be carried out by the AHTS’ MV ITC Blizzard and MV Resolve Earl and will take approximately 4 days with arrival scheduled for Sunday.

Full coverage of the Costa Concordia refloating can be found HERE.