Stricken carrier Barkly Pearl leaves Geraldton port for second towing attempt

The Barkly Pearl has left Geraldton Port this afternoon in a second attempt to be lifted onto another vessel in deeper waters.

The Norwegian heavy lift vessel the Falcon will make another attempt to lift the Barkly Pearl in position. The Barkly Pearl left Geraldton Port at around 2.30pm.

The operation, which requires the specialised lift vessel to partly submerge, was not successful on the weekend so the Barkly Pearl returned to port to await safer weather.

A Mid West Ports spokeswoman said the weather would be assessed at around 6am tomorrow and a determination made for the operation to go ahead.

“It is projected that there is a weather ‘window of opportunity’ for the operation to occur between the 7th to 10th January,” she said.

The loading will only occur during daylight and is expected to take around three hours.

The Falcon has been awaiting favourable conditions in deep water north east of the Abrolhos since the weekend.