The research ship, Ángeles Alvariño, belonging to the Instituto Español de Oceanografía, has been anchored off La Herradura owing to a mechanical fault.

This ship is the one that was used to try and located the bodies of the young children, Anna and Olivia, allegedly murdered by their father before drowning himself.

They managed to find the body of 6-year-old, Olivia, but not the other daughter and the father.

The ship, which is anchored some 300 metres off the shore, has attracted a lot of attention from people on the beach and houses overlooking the bay. In fact, some people in canoes and on paddle boards have made their way out to greet the crew.

The ship owes its name, Ángeles Alvariño, in honour of a Galician professor and oceanographer. Currently, the Institute runs a fleet of five research vessels, between 65 to 14 meters length: Ramón Margalef, Angeles Alvariño, Francisco de P. Navarro, J.Mª. Navaz, and Lura.

All of them are equipped with the most modern electronic navigation systems, as well as the appropriate devices to collect water and sediment samples, to determinate the physical-chemical variables of seawater, as well as for the biological studies of marine flora and fauna.

The Ángeles Alvariño, which was built in 2012, has a length if 46.7 metres and a beam of 10.5 with a displacement (GRT) of 951 tonnes. It has a maximum speed of 13 knots and has berths for 11 researchers and 12 crew.

At the moment they are on a seabed-mapping mission covering an area of 250 sq/km with depths ranging between 100 and 2,000 metres. So far they have 392 hours of unmanned submersible time clocked up.

Update: She’s now left the bay and continued on her way.

(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia – Photo: JM de Haro)