The cable laying vessel Stemat Spirit has made exceptional progress over the last 36 hours with the result that the operation to offload the 100MW Normandie 1 (N1) power cable at Archirondel has been accelerated by 24 hours. It will now take place on tomorrow’s (Monday’s) incoming tide between 3pm and 5pm.
The cable laying vessel Stemat Spirit has made exceptional progress over the last 36 hours with the result that the operation to offload the 100MW Normandie 1 (N1) power cable at Archirondel has been accelerated by 24 hours. It will now take place on tomorrow’s (Monday’s) incoming tide between 3pm and 5pm.
The 4,000-tonne vessel has been clearly visible off the east coast for over 24 hours as she almost completes the 27km journey from Surville, Normandy, to Archirondel where N1 will connect to Jersey Electricity’s primary substation there.
The Stemat will anchor 1.5km off the shore this afternoon when a specialist cable jointer from Italian manufacturers Prysmian will board the vessel and cut and seal the cable in readiness for its offload by the Dutch installation contractors VBMS.
The Stemat will wait for tomorrow’s incoming tide before making her final approach into St Catherine’s’ Bay starting at around 2pm. All mariners are asked to please keep clear. A mobile exclusion zone around the Stemat and support vessels remains in force. No vessels are to pass within 1,000 metres of either side or ahead of her, or within 500 metres of her stern without prior clearance from Ports of Jersey.
Once the offload has been completed, the Stemat will move out to deeper water where she will make ready for departure early on Tuesday morning. Next stop is Rotterdam to off-load around 3km of spare cable which Jersey Electricity keeps in stores with VBMS in case of future repair.
Jersey Electricity would once again like to take the opportunity to thank the many boat owners of St Catherine’s who have kindly relocated their vessels to enable this landing operation and also all mariners for the co-operation during the installation.
