The Hoegh Osaka is currently being held in deep water at Alpha Anchorage near the coast of Lee-on-the-Solent

At a top level meeting this morning, international maritime experts Svitzer met the Maritime Coastguard Agency, ship owners Hoegh and the Environment Agency to discuss the future of the 51,000 tonne vessel breached in the Solent.

They announced that they have been given the green light to start pumping out the 2-3,000 tonnes of water believed to be inside the ship as soon as possible, once it is safe to do so.

This could be as early as this afternoon but may not start until tomorrow.

Once they have pumped the water out, they will start to get the ship upright, before towing it into Southampton.

It is believed that this process could take between five and seven days.

Hugh Shaw, the Secretary of State's representative for maritime salvage, said: “She remains stable in that area, she still has a 52 degree list.

“Our plans at the moment are to keep her in situ.

“Obviously we are aware of the worsening weather coming through which is going to start increasing as we go through tomorrow into Saturday.

“We need to do a dive inspection to check the condition of the hull.

“Weather and tides depending hopefully this will continue over the next couple of days.”

He said because of the forecast bad weather, it might be necessary to anchor the ship to the seabed. He added that the ship currently does not have any power and the salvors were relying on their own generators.

Mr Shaw added: “It’s an extremely difficult and perilous job and I would personally like to thank the efforts the salvors have made, to be working at 52 degress must be hard.”

Mike O'Neill, Environment Manager at the Environment Agency, confirmed that there was a “very low risk” to the environment at the moment.

Mr Shaw said that there is a thin film of oil on the top of the water inside the vessel, but there is no current risk of a spillage.

The meeting comes just hours before high winds and rain sweep across the region with gales of up to 55mph battering the area over the next three days.

Crews had planned to carefully move the 180m ship from its position grounded and tilting at 50 degrees on Bramble Bank.

It was deliberately grounded there when it began listing after leaving Southampton Docks on Saturday.

But last night the rescue mission was called off after experts discovered the ship had taken on too much water on board.

Water had initially seeped in after a digger it was carrying came loose and smashed into the hull puncturing a hole which has since been fixed.

The rest of the 1,400 cars and nearly 100 pieces of excavators and heavy plant machinery and the vessel's 500 tonnes of fuel are secure, salvors say.

The race is on to anchor the vessel to the bank to prevent it from capsizing while another plan is drawn up.

It is currently anchored two miles south of Lee-on-the-Solent, but attempts to right the vessel may have to wait due to gale force winds and heavy rain.

The 51,000-tonne vessel was run aground on Bramble Bank in the Solent on Saturday evening to prevent her capsizing.

She remained there until yesterday afternoon, when the high tide and winds caused her to refloat, and rescue teams launched an opportunistic bid to move the ship away from the Solent.

She has remained at that site overnight, and talks between owners Hoegh, salvors Svitzer, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Secretary of State's representative for maritime salvage Hugh Shaw are set to take place this morning.

A spokesman for Hoegh told the Daily Echo this morning that bad weather may delay any attempt to bring the vessel back upright.

He said: “Everything depends on the weather.

“The actions that are planned are a survey, and to begin to pump out some of the water that's come in.

“I think it's going to take some time.

“Clearly with the bad weather here until Sunday that is going to limit the operations Svitzer can get on with.

“We are taking this very carefully and very slowly.

“The next operation will be to reballast the ship, bring her upright and then take her into a port somewhere.

“We've got to decide where that is.”

Divers are hoping to check the Hoegh Osaka for major damage as part of a survey operation.

They will inspect the vessel’s hull and will look especially at its bilge keel which stops the ship from rolling.

The surveyors also hope to reach the lower decks to inspect the hull’s integrity.

A hole punched in the hull on the ship’s sixth deck by a shifting excavator in the cargo hold has now been repaired.

The cargo, which also includes ten buses, manufactured by Yorkshire-based Optare and worth £1.4m, were also part of the cargo and on their way to the Middle East, will also be assessed.

A spokesman for the MCA said: "The vessel was held by three tugs overnight at Alpha Anchorage.

"The salvors are doing a full assessment."

It follows another day of drama in the Solent, when the hulking 51,000-tonne vessel was “out of control” after a combination of high tides and the weather forced it afloat and towards one of Britain’s busiest shipping lanes.

Salvage crews launched a race against time to secure the enormous carrier and move it from the path of another approaching ship.

And after narrowly avoiding disaster, the act of nature proved a fortuitous opportunity to relaunch the huge rescue operation that had been postponed less than 24 hours previously.

Today operations are continuing to re-right the vessel in deep water at Alpha Anchorage on Spit Bank, two miles off the coast of Lee-on-the-Solent – two miles east of where it was deliberately run aground when it began listing shortly after leaving the Port of Southampton on its way to Germany on Saturday.

Salvers from global maritime firm Svitzer initially cancelled an ambitious £10m rescue operation planned for noon yesterday after discovering that the vessel had taken on more water than previous thought.

Water had initially seeped in after a digger it was carrying came loose and smashed into the hull, puncturing a hole which has since been fixed.

But the drama began at 1.55pm yesterday when high tides, strong winds and the effect of crews pumping out water from the hold caused the vessel to refloat itself.

The rescue team took advantage of a small window of opportunity before high winds and heavy rain forecast for the region began battering the county.

Hugh Shaw, the Secretary of State’s representative for maritime salvage and intervention, told how extra tugs were needed to take control of the vessel as it lurched from the bank and began rotating 180 degrees.

He said: “Winds that came through were gusting a lot higher than forecast and got the ship off the sandbank.”

He said she was “out of control” for a small period of time while teams worked to stabilise her and added: “We were worried that she would wander into the main shipping channel and she would be impeding the shipping area.

Hugh Shaw

“There was a ship coming in and it had to slow down and allow us more time to get it out of the way.”

Once secure the tugs began slowly moving the ship eastwards along the Solent, still listing at 52 degrees with lights illuminating her decks as darkness fell.

A 500m exclusion zone was placed around the ship as the convoy made its way at a rate of about three knots, with people crowding the shorelines to watch.

Southampton Port continued to operate normally during the operation, with Associated British Ports (ABP) closely monitoring the situation.

Last night the vessel was due to arrive at a new holding position at Spit Bank.

Crews face the delicate task of re-righting her, which will involve using pumps to move ballast within the vessel to eventually put her upright.

It will enable them to rescue its cargo of 1,400 cars and nearly 100 diggers, excavators and heavy plant machinery. Its 500 tonnes of fuel has remained secure.

The Queen’s Harbour Master Portsmouth has established a temporary 300m exclusion zone.

A spokesman for Svitzer praised the crews but said that there is still a lot of work to be done.

He said: “They grabbed the opportunity which was down to the forces of tides, weather and water being pumped out. They acted professionally all round and it was a first class job.

“But it isn’t over yet.

“Let’s hope it all ends well and they can get the ballast right.”