 |
STORIES FROM THE STORM
- The Stories
Tuesday at Nobbys Beach
OUR VISIT TO THE STRANDED PASHA BULKER
NEWCASTLE, NSW, AUSTRALIA
by
Eunice English
|
|
|
| Nothing in sight as
the bus crawled along with the traffic up Wharf Road towards
Nobby's Headland
and the harbour entrance. |
|
|
|
|
|
Then 'Wow!',
there it was, the top of the coal carrying tanker towering
above everything, the nearly-new paintwork showing between
the Norfolk Pine trees.
This was the first time
the bus driver had seen it too, since buses had been off
the road once the storm made the roads so dangerous - and
blocked - with stranded cars that flash flooding had floated
away. |
|
|
|
|
|
| At first it seemed a safety fence
would obscure our view, so we did what everyone else was doing,
took the obligatory pic to show we had 'been there, done that'. The
wind was brisk and cool, but the sun was warm on my back - and
I had a thick jumper plus my parka and scarf on. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Finger-pointing, a media tradition.
Two bulk carriers together, lol. The ships are called bulk carriers here,
or tankers, rarely freighters, although that is what they are. This
one had come to visit during the wild 'tempest' (as
one radio person called it). It hit the coast of New South
Wales with no real warning of the ferocity the winds would
hurl at us, or how much rain would be dumped from Sydney to
Newcastle and along the Central Coast. You had to be
there, it was really, really scary, and it for many people
really, really hairy, as they had to abandon their cars and
swim for their lives. A neighbour's young relative
didn't make it, and was washed into a creek. This
is a country that goes from benign to vicious in its nature
very swiftly, and just as quickly the sun comes out and it
is all over bar the clearing up. Perhaps the light-hearted
atmosphere of the crowd moving slowly up towards the beach
was because we had been traumatised for days, and this was
quite a distraction. I was one of the lucky ones, still
had power and heating, no leaks and no flooding, while just
along the road I left them putting their sodden carpets out
on the footpath for collection. |
|
|
|
|
|
When we came to the end of the
safety fence we could see clearly how stuck the flat-bottomed
tanker was on the reef. There
are large, flat rocks all along here, usually covered by
sand and providing a great swell for surfers. The surf
was too unsafe for anyone this day, but the surf club personnel
had done their bit in the 17ft high seas, riding the waves
on a jet ski in case any of the panicking Indonesian crew
jumped overboard as they were threatening to do. We
had listened in awestruck silence as our local 1233ABC radio
kept up a running outside broadcast of the helicopter rescue
of about 22 crew members.
One rescued crew member was heard to remark as he passed, 'I
ok, captain f*****!', though it is thought the captain
had to take orders from head office as to whether to head
farther out to sea and ride out the storm with the other
50-odd ships waiting to enter harbour. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Every so often there was a deep 'boom',
like a bomb going off, as the waves hit the underneath of the
hull, and ricocheted back into the surf. Inspections
had shown a couple of holes in the outer skin that were letting
in water, but fuel had been pumped to higher tanks to avoid
spillage on to the beaches, once the salvage crew got one of
the engines going. They were going to pump seawater in
as ballast. Since Tuesday special barriers have been put along
the sand to catch any oil that escapes due to testing and preparations
for trying to pull the tanker off. There is still a fair
chance of an environmental disaster all along the coastline
should the ship's huge amount of fuel be released by
damage to the hull. Two special tugs from Sydney and Melbourne
have arrived to assist the special salvage crew haul the ship
off the reef. Already it is forming its own new sandbank,
and affecting the way the sea works it. |
|
|
|
|
|
| The tide was coming in, and the
waves were getting bigger, so we had an inkling of how terrible
it must have been on Friday, when the sea and winds kept pushing
the ship closer to the rocks. On the other side of the harbour mouth, near Stockton
where the Sygma had beached in the '80s, a tug had bravely
pulled another huge tanker back out to sea, avoiding a double
disaster. There were three ships in difficulty at one
time last Friday, and many onlookers were gazing with hearts
in mouths, to put it in a cliché. |
|
|
|
|
|
| As people saw their fill,
they moved on to the next vantage point, and that was in front
of the surf club at Nobby's. You
can see a part of the moving tide of people here. We
were making for the shelter on the left of the pic, where there
are picnic tables and seats. |
|
|
|
|
|
Pam had brought a
thermos, and I had made banana sandwiches, so we enjoyed
a coffee and sandwich, then some of Pam's
home-made yummy chocolate cake. This was no day for
a diet.
The police were keeping an eye on things, as you can see
in this pic, but the crowds were very subdued actually, as
if respecting the state of distress of the ship.
A satellite dish was to
the right of this picture and people were able to watch
the happenings via the internet. At
the time of writing it is at: http://www.coastwatch.com.au |
|
|
|
|
|
There is a helicopter just above
Nobby's in
this pic, though it is actually between there and the Pasha
Bulker. Several
choppers came, did a fly around the ship, and went. Apparently
one was doing a regular inspection of the hull, three were
media choppers, and the most exciting of all actually landed
on the deck and several tiny figures scrambled out. That
was when I realised the true size of this tanker, though
it is one of the smaller ones, thank goodness!
A helicopter came flying low from the harbour, trailing
a long chain or rope, to which was attached a huge package. 'Salvage
equipment', the policeman told me. Bad weather
is due to set in towards the end of the week, so they are
trying to get a salvage attempt in before then. Everything
has to be correctly timed and in place to avoid a disaster. This
is an area frequented by fishing boats, and lobsters are
farmed further round near the cliffs. Local recreational
fisherman are worried too, especially those who fish from
the rocks. An oil slick will be awful. Our council
and surf clubs go to a lot of effort to keep our beaches
as lovely as this every day, so any pollution will be too
much. |
|
|
|
|
|
| The bulk of the headland, and the
bulk of the tankers are both beautiful to behold, and many
speculations have begun as to what could be done with the hulk
should she not make it off the reef. 'It would make a great resort!',
said one local businessman with relish. It sure is a
great tourist attraction, though the bus drivers are being
driven spare with the gridlock of cars crawling up to the beach
along the main city street. Yesterday the buses had to
begin and terminate at the Museum to avoid any further delays. A
shuttle bus did its best to ferry passengers between the other
stops. They need the patience of saints at the best of
times, but this has been a real test of their mettle, from
Friday when they were being swamped by flood waters, blocked
by stranded cars and finally just taking their buses back to
the depot and trying to make their own way home. |
|
|
|
|
|
| The view through the arches of
the picnic shelter at Nobby's
used to be dramatic enough with one interesting icon, but now... |
|
|
|
|
|
| The tanker fascinated people of
all ages. There
were cyclists, camper vans, cars of all sizes, and many backpackers
who could send postcards home with something more than 'wish
you were here', although they probably did wish folks
were here to enjoy the day. |
|
|
|
|
|
Pam and I headed back up the
hill towards the bus stop, hoping our bus had not given up
(it had) trying to get round the top of its route. We could still see
the ship looming large over the roof of the surf club, and
could imagine how horrifying it must have been to watch it
struggling in the huge battering seas and trying not to come
any further inland. One
of the signs to the left of the clubhouse said ' park
in bays only'. Well it certainly did! |
|
|
Storm
Stories index Page...
|
