As the largest port in the state of Florida, Port Tampa Bay ranks 12th in the country by trade volume. With 70 miles of channels, the port – approximately 40 nautical miles from the entrance to the bay – is difficult to navigate with radar, maps and markers alone. Every vessel over a certain size, including all commercial vessels, must take on an experienced harbor pilot to bring it into, or out of the bay.
That includes fuel tankers, and since the “entrance channel” from the Gulf of Mexico to Port Tampa Bay wasn’t re-opened until Saturday afternoon, gasoline was not being delivered.
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