The 186-foot "Kilo Moana" research vessel made its way slowly into Honolulu Harbor, now back level after running into trouble Friday afternoon. A hole the size of a baseball had formed in the ship's hull and the vessel began taking on water.
"It was extremely unnerving. We have 20 scientists on-board, we have 20 man crew on-board, and I've been sailing for 18 years. I've never been a situation remotely like that before," says Matthew Alford, who was on board the vessel. He is a University of Washington Associate Professor of Oceanography.
Video captured by the U.S. Coast Guard showed the ship leaning to its right, as the starboard side began to sink.
"By lunchtime I'd say we had about a 20-degree list, it was pretty pronounced," says Alford.
Crew members rushed down into the pump room that was quickly beginning to flood. The Coast Guard brought in multiple assets including two HH-65 Dolphin helicopters, a C-130 aircraft and 3 boats.
"They tried to patch that hole temporarily. They couldn't do that. They were taking on water at about 400 gallons an hour," says Lt. Leigh Cotterell, U.S. Coast Guard.
Rescue swimmers were lowered onto the vessel and delivered seven pumps to the Kilo Moana, together with the crew they worked to stop the leak.
"They worked their tails off for 16 hours to keep us safe," says Alford.
The UH Manoa research vessel was on day two of a five day mission about 60 miles north of Oahu in deep ocean. Students and scientists from Hawaii and the University of Washington were preparing to deploy a mooring to measure waves and conduct routine water tests. This was their third trip and attempt to get it in place, when they got into trouble.
"There's no question that the Coast Guard saved us from a really, really serious situation," says Alford. "And that's what kept hitting home for me I was just on this ship two months ago north of Western Samoa and if this had happened then we would have been in life rafts."
The Coast Guard is thankful a disaster at sea was diverted, and no one was injured.
"That the vessel made it back safely, it didn't sink somewhere and create some huge pollution incident in our pristine waters," says Lt. Cotterell.
The Kilo Moana will be dry-docked as repairs are made. In the meantime other vessels will be used to conduct further ocean research.
