Recent situation at Azov Sea reminds events happened during winter 2012 when in one day 30-31 January 2012 navigation at lower Don was suspended actually for one and half months. Azov Sea was fully frozen and plenty of vessels were left in ice without help and parts of them were drifting with ice westbound due to improper orders of port authorities from one hand and due to lack of diligence from owner’s safety navigation service. Than salvage operation began and took over 15 days. At that time situation was called as ‘force majeure’ – the natural event which could not be predicted or somehow forecasted. That time port authorities require vessels to have l3/ice 2 class for including into first ice convoys. Nowadays situation repeats. Same time – end of January , same severe NE wind with arctic cold makes Azov Sea frozen and navigation impossible. Could we expect this after 2012? Think yes, and so current situation being expectable could not be implied as ‘force majeure’ in our opinion anymore. As for duration of ice problems we can estimate them basis year 2012 as 45-60 days e.g. till third decade of March.
