| The latest on the beached boat at Padang.
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UPDATE
The latest word on the street is that the boat was abandoned by Taiwanese fisherman, who ran it aground and ran off into the night. That probably explains the sharks fins and Chinese characters on the bow. It doesn’t sound like they’ve found them yet. A local girl was trying to tell me they ran north, but didn’t know where to… maybe straight up to racetrack? Lucky there was no swell, or they would have got a surprise… haha…
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The boat has settled on a much more precarious looking angle today, and it’s starting to leak a fair bit of diesel. In fact the whole area around it reeks of diesel. The local ladies on the beach are not too stoked… lucky the wind is offshore, but a bit of swell could bring it in. I don’t think it’s gonna take too much to tip it over… there’s hardly any swell now but the biggest sets are rocking it in a very sketchy looking way. If it tips it’s gonna be a massive environmental stuff up.
Looting has kicked into overdrive and so far it doesn’t really seem like any effort is going to be made to get this thing off the reef. It’s slowly being dismantled on site and anything of value is being taken. There’s people all over it and around it. The load of fish has been cleaned out, now crew are taking petty containers, tanks, radio gear etc. A lifeguard came past proudly holding the steering wheel and I was like no way, this thing isn’t going anywhere, ever.
You can’t help assuming that it’s starting to look like it could become a permanent feature of Padang Padang.
Even if they did want to get it off, there’s no real big tides until Friday, when some swell is supposed to kick in as well. If no-one gets it’s off the reef by then it’s gonna get smashed back to Taiwan. Let’s hope it doesn’t get smashed square into the lineup…. tidak bagus.
- Chris Caley
| | Finders keepers | Photo: Chris Caley |
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Boat runs aground at Padang Padang
Chris Caley via Chris Rennie( editor of The Surfers Travel Guide) sent Coastalwatch these images and video footage of a boat that ran aground nose first barely 20 – 30 metres from the Take off zone at Padang Padang yesterday Saturday July 12.
Chris Caley said,”The strange thing is there wasn’t much wind or swell at the time so I can’t figure how it happened? Looks like the captain has just gunned it and run aground on the reef. Strange!"
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Quote from the CW crew
"Apparently it’s lodged in a vein, so it could be there for a while to come… leakin petty too… looks very very wedged… lookin at the watermark on the boat, even the highest of high tides (maybe +1.7m on these shots) still has a long way to go before floating it off… anyway, they have until the weekend before some solid padang lips start pounding it into oblivion…"
"A few guys have climbed up into it and have been looting the freezer of 50-60lb tuna! Apparently there’s everything in there, swordfish, sharks fins… and freezer still running"
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