Oil spill - Waterways affected?

[svShearwater]

Sorry if this is a na?ve question, I just haven't been around Galveston Bay to know better.  Will the oil spill eventually impact the waters that we typically sail, east of Clear Lake?  I have no concept of how far widespread the spill will become.  We had plans to go sailing to this coming weekend.  Don't worry or dumb idea?

[Deckhand]

From what I have heard, it has not gotten this far up the bay.

A later update from Philip to another TMCA member: "There was a report in the conference call that some oil has been spotted as far north as marker 57. If you should happen to be out there on one of your many fishing trips and notice any oil anywhere in the Redfish area, or near San Leon, please let me know!!!  And you can't fish in Moses Lake right now because they have closed the flood gate."

An earlier update from Philip Kroft:

Mariners...

It's probably a good thing that the weekend is over and that the weather this week is not going to be very conducive to boating! But if you are boating, you definitely do not want to be much further south than probably Redfish as the current CG Safety Zone extends all the way up to marker 42. There is a lot going on right now to get this spill cleaned up and to get ships and tows moving again. Per "Update 3"  below, the latest information can now be found by going to the Central Texas Coastal Area Committee website at www.ctcac.us and looking at the "Area News" column on the left. The latest USCG news release is "Update 4" and that is at: http://www.ctcac.us/go/doc/4703/2127726/.

Per a PCT conference call that I participated in this morning, one of the biggest priorities is to get the ferries running again, and that may be close to happening. The other is to get the Magic and the Navigator of the Sea sailing again, and then to get the Triumph moved to a cruise terminal. Right now she is at a commercial dock with passengers still onboard. All this can be seen at: http://www.galveston.com/webcams/ (Cruise Cam, Pier 23 Cam, and Emerald Cam), with some blog postings there also when you scroll down below the images.

Please distribute these updates amongst your constituencies as you see fit and are able.

Philip Kropf
TMCA Past Commodore (www.tmca.nu)
Recreational Boater Rep to the USCG Area Maritime Security Committee (AMSC)
Recreational Boater Rep to the USCG Port Coordination Team (PCT)
Recreational Boater Rep to the Lone Star Harbor Safety Committee (LSHSC) www.lonestarhsc.org
Recreational Boater Rep to the Central Texas Coastal Area Committee (CTCAC) www.ctcac.us
s/v Silhouette
713-598-6454 (c)
pkropf@flash.net

[Bee]

The old Skeptic (maybe that should be septic) is not so sure that bunker fuel will not get up above Redfish.

Weather man says very light winds from SE today (not so bad) and the light to moderate winds from the North tomorrow (very good).

If they can get the crap cleaned up before Wednesday we could get lucky and not have an issue.  If not weather man says winds out of the S and SE at 13 knots (not good at all).

Will keep my old fingers crossed.

[Bee]

Just saw on the news:

20-25 out of the S on Wednesday.  Not goodjavascript:void(0);

[Tye Dyed Gary]

Rode my bike down to Sylvan Beach, just in time to see the cruise ship turn the corner at Bayport heading south plus two other ships heading out at a very slow speed. Maybe they are trying one way traffic ?

[Deckhand]

Just received from Philip Kropf:
Mariners:

Late this afternoon I received great news from the CG: the restrictions against recreational vessels operating in the USCG Safety Zone are now lifted. As the message below (the text version of a broadcast notice to mariners) reads, the Safety Zones are still in place, but recreational vessels now have permission to transit through them. They key word here is "transit", meaning that the CG does not want any vessels anchoring or stopping anywhere in the zones to fish, or to swim, or anything of that nature.

Check out http://www.ctcac.us/go/doc/4703/1503963/ for the full update (10).

[ShakenNotStirred]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Cause-of-2014-ship-channel-collision-pinpointed-6317467.php