Pasha Bulker at Nobby's Beach

We drove up the coast to see the now infamous Pasha Bulker at Nobby's Beach in Newcastle. Apparently this was become the biggest tourism attraction in Newcastle at the time. It was refloated off the beach last night and towed out to sea. Apparently this was also the first nice weather day that other people could go and see the spectacle as there were literally thousands of people lining the beach which was closed off obviously to prevent people climbing all over the vessel...

The ship was refloated last night with several holes in its sides, the rudder has broken off, the propellor is screwed (pardon the pun), the prop tube is obviously rooted as its leaking oil and there are several big creases down the side of the vessel. It will be interesting to see if it is junked or repaired...

New rule for me, panoramics dont work with a polariser filter on...



Here she is in all her grounded glory. I dont know if the anchors were even deployed to stop the beaching or not. There is some serious chafing on the bulb to suggest that they were out but how they got them back in is a mystery, especially if the vessel had run over its own chains. If the anchors weren't deployed the captain should be beaten with the ugly stick. Not that he shouldn't be already...



The swell was pretty reasonable on the day we went up there, not huge but decent. The noise that came out of the rear of the vessel as the waves thumped into it was so cool. Sounded like artillery shells in the distance...



More big hits...



Nobby's Beach with a big front coming through. Further rain and Storms were forecast that day...



The view from the beach before some rent-a-cop shmuck chased me away from my vantage point. Must be a satisfying career protecting a beach from the gaze of evil spectators...



While we were there the helicopters were constantly dropping crates off and picking other stuff off. One would presume it was dropping of salvage supplies and picking up fuel oil...





More stress on the structure...



The weather front rolling in behind...



Heaps of other coal vessels out at sea about to get hit by the bad weather. Hopefully the captains on these boats have a little more sense than the Pasha's Skip...



The usual suspects...



Al gives his disapproval...



All the others...