June 2, 2015
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Recently, Caroline and I were on Damazhou waterway section of
the Yangtze River in China on Sunday evening, April 26, 2015; where the ferry
boat sank last Monday evening, June 1, 2015.
It is widely reported that the
ferry
went down in a storm just after 9 p.m. about three-quarters of the way between
the Three Gorges Dam, just west of Yichang, and Wuhan – at a spot in the river very
near Jianli, in
Jianli
County in Hubei Province.
Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims of this
disaster; their families and to the Chinese authorities, military and emergency
responders. Hopefully many more passengers will be saved and the loss of life
be kept to a minimum.
Hopefully, no-one gets hurt responding to the disaster.
We pray for the safety of the emergency responders.
Caroline and I were sailing on the Yangtze River at that
very spot at that very time of the evening, on Sunday evening, April 26, 2015.
According to multiple accounts,
“The
Yangtze is the third-longest river in the world, stretching 3,915 miles from Tibet
all the way to the East China Sea…”
I am looking forward to going through our pictures to see if
we have a few photos of the Damazhou waterway section of the Yangtze River just
east of Jianli.
On Wednesday, April 22, 2015, we flew from Xi’an to Chongqing.
We had landed in Chongqing, China late that mourning to board a Viking river
ship, “Emerald.” From Chongqing, we traveled on the Yangtze River for the next five
days – through Sunday, April 26, 2015.
Our trip had begun in Beijing on Thursday, April 16, 2015,
after about a day of travel. After a few days in Beijing, we flew to Xi’an on
Monday, April 20, 2015.
We then flew to Chongqing and get on the Viking cruise
ship, “Emerald.” We spent five days on the Yangtze. We arrived in Wuhan on
Monday, April 26, 2015. From Wuhan we flew to Shanghai.
As an aside, for a story for another day, we flew in China
three times. Flying in China is an adventure. We flew from Beijing to Xi’an; Xi’an
to Chongqing; and from Wuhan to Shanghai.
The three flights inside of China are also in addition to
the two flights it took to get to China and the two flights home from Shanghai,
where we spent two-and-a-half hours on the tarmac before the 14 hour flight
even began. That said, I was good-to-go – I watched Bollywood for most of the trip.
On Saturday, April 25, 2015, we visited the Three Gorges Dam
to the west of Yichang on the Yangtse River. From the Three Georges Dam, we
sailed east to Jingzhou, where we visited an elementary school on Sunday, April
26, 2015.
The balance of Sunday we continued to travel east on the
Yangtze, by Jianli, towards our destination in Wuhan. Jianli is about
three-quarters of the way from Jingzhou to Yueyang. Yueyang is halfway between Yichang
and Wuhan.
At Jianli, the river does a wide but relatively tight turn. The
river is very deep – around 50-feet deep, a little over three-quarters of a
mile wide and the current is very strong. Just south and east of Jianli, where
the ferry sank, the Yangtze River crosses wide expanses of rural and
agricultural land.
“The captain and chief
engineer, who were reportedly among at least a dozen passengers rescued, told
Xinhua that the ship sank within one or two minutes after being caught in a
cyclone around 9:30 p.m. Monday. Another five people are confirmed dead.
According to the Washington Post, “The boat was [in-route] from the eastern city of Nanjing to the
southwestern city of Chongqing, more than 850 miles away. It capsized in Jianli
County in Hubei Province, about 600 miles west of Shanghai…”
[…]
“The Eastern Star is
considered one of the best passenger ships in China, according to CCTV. It’s
owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation (also translated as
Chongqing Oriental Ferry Company), which runs ships along tourist routes in the
popular Three Gorges area, a scenic river region framed by mountains and lush
landscapes. About 250 feet long and four stories high, the Eastern Star can
hold up to 540 passengers — nearly 100 more than were on board Monday. And
initial investigations found that the ship was equipped with enough life vests
for everyone on board, Reuters reported.
The Yangtze, China’s
longest river and the world’s third longest, is a popular waterway for shipping
and travel. It’s also the site of the Three Gorges Dam, a massive hydroelectric
project about 200 miles upriver from Jianli…”
