Coracle Oracle editor Red Hurring breaks the surface to file this report for the Oamaru Harbour Open Water Swimming Club.
It's murkier than a harbour working party meeting held in committee down there.
Certainly, no self-respecting member of the public would dare set foot in our harbour for a swim without taking the sort of precautions necessary for, say, speaking on a written submission to a panel hearing.
But I braved the waters at dusk yesterday, sans goggles, tape recorder or rescue remedy to discover the pleasures of a dip in the briny unfurl before me like a warning semaphore.
It was salty and aqueous and all those things you'd expect it to be.
The high tide at least cloaked the rocks, sharp shells and discarded old vinyl handbags invariably worn to a faint beige by the sea.
How come everything in, near, or around Oamaru eventually turns beige?
The majority of the population was one of the first things I failed to notice when I moved here on account of its endemic ability to go camo in cardies and fawn slacks, becoming as one with the stone buildings and beige dust, and moving apace.
Of course now it's a different story, given the greater access to mobility scooters enjoyed by the older generation.
They whizz along the broad streets in a genteel sort of manner, flags of various nationalities proudly flying, some even daring to sport a bumper sticker.
"My other car's a broomstick."
"You know the world's gone mad when kids run wild and dogs go to obedience school."
"Metal Up Your Arse." Oh, wait. That one belongs on the rear window of the car driven by that Metallica fan who works at Gillies...
You can't see the bottom of the harbour.
The same cheeky piece of seaweed tries footsie with me until I make it clear that this sort of behaviour is NOT ON and surge away with the powerful overarm that got me across the Tongariro River on many a hot day.
I surge across what I believe to be an impressive stretch of water only to look up, gasping, and discover I've moved about two metres.
Time to flip on my back and ponder the sky starfish-like.
There's lots to think about out there, and the town looks positively enchanting from another element.
The delusive distance, eh. No mobility scooters visible, the odd old bomb parked up above the sand, its tightly shut windows indicating one of two things: either the car's occupants can't stand the wind, or it's time for their after-work wind-down spliff.
Such an innocent spot.
The draw of the water as you get out must give that sandy stretch its name: Friendly Bay. Because as you wade out it's clear they'd rather you stayed in.
Pity I never kept that reference book on ships' flags.
Showing posts with label harbour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harbour. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Oamaru's Own Big Bang
Contributor Graeme Ferris relates a gripping story about efforts to fortify Oamaru harbour.
Most of us have heard of the big bang theory that emiment British astronomer Fred Hoyle considered totally ridiculous and spent many years of his life opposing.
There were however absolutely no theories surrounding our own little Oamaru harbour big bang, but they happened, one of them with sad consequences.
The first harbour quarry big blow-out occured one Tuesday afternoon in August 1938 and the associated earth tremor shook buildings over a large area of town. Several substantial harbour sheds including the engine shed and blacksmith's shed were wrecked by this shot which brought down 150,000 tons of rock and rubble to be used for harbour breakwater armouring.
The second big bang was indeed a large blow-out and I recall, even though about two miles distant, rushing outside to try and see just where and what this huge November 1943 noise was all about. After all, we were in the midst of WW2.
At the harbour quarry, two people were killed by the falling rock from this 1943 blow-out, one, a harbour board employee, the other, an employee of the then waitaki electric power board. Both victims were sheltering in a purpose-made slit trench located adjacent to the north west corner of the quarry, almost exactly where the eighty one year old Stothert & Pitt Ltd steam crane sits, the trench about as far away from the blasting tunnel as possible, yet still remaining in the quarry area.
For the second time in five years, the area resembled a bombsite with the sheds as far away as the carpenter's shop on Cross Wharf being riddled with holes. Once again, these harbour sheds were repaired or rebuilt with salvaged corrugated iron. Much of it from sheds now no longer required.
The Harbour Board was appropriately silent on the disaster and the quarried rock, as engineers had previously correctly told them, was totally unsuitable for the use they proceeded with in armouring the seaward side of the breakwater.
By 1956 the first batch of 20 tetrapods for breakwater protection was ready to be placed in position by the board's aging steam crane and apart from the later vertical drilling of the quarry face, no further blasting at the harbour board's quarry took place.
The random placing of this small number of tetrapods for breakwater protection proved to be an expensive failure, their correct designed interlocking placements being by the thousands, not hundreds, and certainly not tens.
The tetrapod saga continues in 2007 with the proposed random placement of almost 200 mostly recently constructed 15-tonne concrete tetrapods plus a few leftover concrete cubes, a legacy of previous patch-up days.
Graeme Ferris
Most of us have heard of the big bang theory that emiment British astronomer Fred Hoyle considered totally ridiculous and spent many years of his life opposing.
There were however absolutely no theories surrounding our own little Oamaru harbour big bang, but they happened, one of them with sad consequences.
The first harbour quarry big blow-out occured one Tuesday afternoon in August 1938 and the associated earth tremor shook buildings over a large area of town. Several substantial harbour sheds including the engine shed and blacksmith's shed were wrecked by this shot which brought down 150,000 tons of rock and rubble to be used for harbour breakwater armouring.
The second big bang was indeed a large blow-out and I recall, even though about two miles distant, rushing outside to try and see just where and what this huge November 1943 noise was all about. After all, we were in the midst of WW2.
At the harbour quarry, two people were killed by the falling rock from this 1943 blow-out, one, a harbour board employee, the other, an employee of the then waitaki electric power board. Both victims were sheltering in a purpose-made slit trench located adjacent to the north west corner of the quarry, almost exactly where the eighty one year old Stothert & Pitt Ltd steam crane sits, the trench about as far away from the blasting tunnel as possible, yet still remaining in the quarry area.
For the second time in five years, the area resembled a bombsite with the sheds as far away as the carpenter's shop on Cross Wharf being riddled with holes. Once again, these harbour sheds were repaired or rebuilt with salvaged corrugated iron. Much of it from sheds now no longer required.
The Harbour Board was appropriately silent on the disaster and the quarried rock, as engineers had previously correctly told them, was totally unsuitable for the use they proceeded with in armouring the seaward side of the breakwater.
By 1956 the first batch of 20 tetrapods for breakwater protection was ready to be placed in position by the board's aging steam crane and apart from the later vertical drilling of the quarry face, no further blasting at the harbour board's quarry took place.
The random placing of this small number of tetrapods for breakwater protection proved to be an expensive failure, their correct designed interlocking placements being by the thousands, not hundreds, and certainly not tens.
The tetrapod saga continues in 2007 with the proposed random placement of almost 200 mostly recently constructed 15-tonne concrete tetrapods plus a few leftover concrete cubes, a legacy of previous patch-up days.
Graeme Ferris
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