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| Nikcevic Vido and other crew members of the cargo ship Obod have been stranded in Hawai‘i for nearly four months. They are at the mercy of the damaged ship’s owners, who owe at least half a million dollars in bills.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
By Yasmin Anwar
Advertiser Staff Writer
If Montenegrin sailor Goran Radovic were told a year ago that he would spend four months stranded in Hawai‘i, he would have shrugged and said, "paradise."
After all, the tough 37-year-old boatswain comes from a poor former Yugoslav republic squeezed between war-ravaged Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
After being trapped in the Aloha State aboard the Maltese flagship Obod at Honolulu’s Pier 2 for nearly four months, however, Radovic says he’d rather be home with his wife and three children, even if it is winter in Europe.
Compared with his present state of limbo, Montenegro is looking better and better, he said.
"It’s not paradise in Hawai‘i if you don’t have money," Radovic said Friday. As he spoke, his fellow sailors paced back and forth along the Obod’s walkways like caged lions.
The Obod and its 20 crew members have been grounded in Hawai‘i since Nov. 4. Their ship came into port with engine trouble that developed on an ill-
fated odyssey to deliver building materials for a Washington, D.C., convention center.
The giant freighter is likely to remain impounded at Honolulu Harbor until its owners pay at least a half-million dollars worth of bills.
Trouble started in midocean. The freight ship encountered a storm at sea vicious enough to cause the Obod to lose part of its heavy cargo - steel beams that slipped off the deck.
In Honolulu, crew members say they feel they’re being held hostage to heavy debts owed by the Obod’s owners, who won’t pay what’s owed to set the vessel free or pay the crew, according to a lawsuit filed by crew members in U.S. District Court.
U.S. marshals seized the ship on Dec. 28.
For two months the Obod crew was restricted by INS regulations from stepping ashore.
That ban was lifted Jan. 30, and the crew was granted a 60-day advance parole to step ashore as they please.
Still, the sailors say they’re having a hard time surviving on handouts and loans.
Radovic hasn’t seen his wife and three children since January 2000, when he set sail on the Obod. After departing from Montenegro, the ship traveled to Asia via South America and the United States.
‘Very sad situation’
Through interpreter Serge Tabor, Radovic said he and other crew members are growing more restless by the day, after months of living in cramped, stuffy quarters, eating the same chicken dinners and waiting.
But they can’t return home empty-handed.
"These guys have been on the ship for six months without pay. They want to go home," said Honolulu lawyer Paul Cronin. He is representing a dozen Obod crew members in their claim for unpaid wages and other damages against ship owner Barmar Ship Management LTD and Oktoih Overseas Shipping Co.
Bryan Ho, an attorney for Nordic Technical Development Inc., the tugboat company that towed the broken-down Obod to Honolulu, said lawyers are hoping to persuade the ship’s owners and the time charterer, Pan Ocean Shipping Co., to pay off costs for towing, repairs, storage and maintenance of the ship and crew.
If they don’t, Ho said Nordic will ask the courts to allow them to sell the Obod.
Kerr Norton Marine/Norton Lilly Hawaii Inc., the local firm representing the ship’s Montenegro-based owners, has spent about $200,000 for the ship and crew’s needs, said Anne Stevens, general manager of the firm.
"It’s a very sad situation," Stevens said of the crew’s plight.
Stevens said there are several irons in the fire to resolve the matter: She last heard the owners were trying to work out an agreement with their insurance company to pay port costs and the crew, but does not know whether those negotiations were successful.
The Obod set sail from South Korea on Aug. 30 and was headed to the East Coast via the Panama Canal. But the ship ran into engine trouble in September and stopped in Hawai‘i for repairs.
Rough voyage
Back out on the open seas, the Obod ran into a storm that rocked the ship so hard that four giant steel girders broke free and plunged into the ocean, leaving sailors scrambling to lash the remaining cargo down.
In early October the engine conked out again. The ship was adrift for two weeks before Nordic towed it into Honolulu Harbor.
The crew received the standard 29-day offshore leave. But when that ended, INS officials ordered the sailors to remain on the vessel because it deemed them a flight risk.
Crew members say they spent a bleak winter holiday season virtually imprisoned on the ship. A local orthodox Christian priest came out to conduct a Christmas prayer service for them, but the priest had to stay on the dock because he was forbidden from coming aboard.
"Not a merry Christmas," recalled ship electrician Mirko Kapesic.
Things improved slightly in late January after the crew’s ordeal was publicized in the local news media and the INS let them off the ship.
Meanwhile, Hawai‘i’s small Serb community has rallied to the crew’s aid, inviting them for Sunday picnics and soccer at Kapi‘olani Park. University of Hawai‘i basketball star Predrag Savovic also befriended the Obod crew.
Girlfriend waiting
The Sailor’s Union of the Pacific also has donated phone cards, food and other supplies.
Though the Obod sailors appreciate the support, they can’t help feeling homesick.
Dragan Popovic, the ship’s youngest crew member at 24, signed on for the ill-fated odyssey in China. This is his second ship voyage, and he says he’s not sure he wants to go on a third.
A tall, lanky Montenegrin with large, melancholy eyes, he said he misses his girlfriend and can’t wait to start making wedding plans.
"When I return home, it will be a great, great thing," he said.
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