the saga of the joy riding mystery ship continues
speak up w your theories for the ships strange wanderings - assuming the coordinates are correct at all
44.2832° / 148.5940° -- 6 days 11 hrs ago was ca 125 miles from the large Japanese mainland island of Hokkaido-the main ocean side-not the side it would be if S Korea was next port but makes sense for a Shanghai/Ningpo port
and was then ca 1400 miles from Ningpo which would take ca 5.33 days to traverse so they could've arrived at Ningpo by now-though the ETA has been June11
and how would they arrive by June 11 even after taking a joyride to Alaska??? not with anything more than a few hours stopover.
Since the coordinates were headed to Unalaska in the Aleutian islands chain- and that made no sense-
the assumption then became Anchorage-the only large port- but in a brief search didnt see any steel plants in Alaska -only fabrication and recycling plants--
-and vesseltracker -the best ship site for showing vessels in port- though its very spotty also unless pay a bribe price of $18,000/ yr for full coverage -didnt show Ilia at Anchorage- we apparently only get updates twice/day of ship positions 3-7 days old and closest position given to us was 700 miles S of Anchorage-and likely couldnt make this joyride this fast w an Anchorage stopover
and the ship did pass thru the Unimak or Amukta passes (into the Bering Sea) near Unalaska- an island chain built by volcanoes 4000-9400 ft elevation-
which is exactly where the line of coordinates had shown it heading for days -but there are no steel plants there and its not where you would ship a huge load of 23000 tons other inventory if such was fertilizer-the islands are rocky and used for pasture but not for agriculture to my knowledge-but might be used by USA military-
and why did it pass into the Bering Sea after passing near Unalaska ( near Dutch harbor) -when the shortest route to Korea/China from Unalaska would not be thru the Bering Sea-
and isnt there a greater danger of icebergs in the Bering Sea-those are cold currents in that area, unlike the warm Atlantic ocean conveyor belt that makes life convenient in North Europe -extrapolating from limited data it followed the N side of the Aleutian islands,only to have to change course in a much more southerly direction later in the Kuril islands to heads toward China-Korea---
thus logically indicating an intervening destination-that the whole point of the joyride was the Aleutian islands unless it did make a very quick stop at Anchorage
what destination could possibly be in the Aleutian islands other than USA military-and not even they would not have a steel plant there or require 23000 tons fert either
Ensenada is ca the same latitude as Shanghai-which is 140 miles N of Ningpo- so the ships original slightly southerly bearing til out of range of AIS antenna would be a direct course to Ningpo- until JCM spotted it hundreds of miles out to sea near San Francisco -and all the following readings kept taking it farther from the coast as it went North-thus apparently bypassing Portland (the only likely known destination for fertilizer)
so speak up w your theories no matter how bizarre
ILIA
Contribute to this page Add to My FleetVessel's Details
Ship Type: Bulk carrierYear Built: 2011
Length x Breadth: 229 m X 32 m
Gross Tonnage: 44027, DeadWeight: 80256 t
Speed recorded (Max / Average): 12 / 11.5 knots
Flag: Panama [PA]
Call Sign: 3FSB9
IMO: 9577460, MMSI: 351427000
Last Position Received
Area: Bering SeaLatitude / Longitude: 44.2832° / 148.5940° (Map)
Speed/Course 12 knots / 250?
Last Known Port: LONG BEACH
Info Received: 6d 11h 44min ago (AIS Source: -2)
Not Currently in Range
Itineraries History
Voyage Related Info (Last Received)
Draught: 13.7 mDestination: YUSO S. KOREA
ETA: 2013-06-12 21:00
Info Received: 2013-06-04 15:36 (1d, 17h 23min ago)
