Source Orange Marine.
The Leon Thevenin in Cape Town. Source Orange Marine.
  • After 6 days at sea, the cable repair ship Leon Thevenin reached its first target last night the West Africa Cable System (Wacs) S1i cable grounds.
  • It will now need at least 48 hours to repair the cable, its owner company Orange Marine told Business Insider South Africa.
  • It could take them up to February 8 to repair before moving on the the next break on the Sat-3/Wasc undersea cable. 
  • For more stories, visit Business Insider South Africa. 

After 6 days at sea, cable repair ship Leon Thevenin reached its first target, the West Africa Cable System (Wacs) S1i cable grounds, last night, according to South African National Research and Education Network (SA NREN).

Satellite tracking on VesselFinder.com shows the cable layer is now roughly 200 nautical miles East of Cabinda, Angola.

Leon Thevenin has been tasked with repairing both undersea cables Wacs and the South Atlantic 3/West Africa (Sat-3/Wasc) which went down in the early hours of Thursday, 16 January 2020, said Openserve.

The vessel will need at least 48 hours to repair the cables, its owner company Orange Marine, told Business Insider South Africa. 

It could take them up to February 8 (11 days) for the cable to be repaired, state-owned telecommunications company, Broadband Infraco, said in a tweet.

It was previously expected that the vessel would be making its way to fix the Sat-3/Wasc cable first which is much further North near Libreville, Gabon, as this was the repair commissioned first. However, it appears as if the ship has opted for the closer target and has been making a steady b-line for the Wacs cable instead.A second break on the Wacs cable, which was reported to originate on the United Kingdom side is expected to be fixed by 3 February, according to Broadband Infraco.

*This is a developing story. 

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