Sunday, May 5, 2019

Wellington to Picton ferry fun


A photo by Costa Christie of the Inter-islander Aratere at a 51 degree angle on 4 March 2006. YouTube footage of the crossing: -



The Maritime NZ incident report is here

".. at 1644 Aratere suddenly and without warning took a sheer to port and rolled heavily, estimated by those on the bridge to be about 50 degrees ..
".. at 1739, Aratere again sheers to port and rolls approximately 50 degrees to starboard .. passengers and crew members are injured

During the voyage 31 cars, 8 vans, 6 trucks and 7 railway wagons were damaged -- photos in the link -- four passengers were injured but not hospitalised. A crew member suffered two fractured ribs and a cracked sternum.

On page one of the book Strait Crossing: the ferries of Cook Strait through time we put a couple of heavy weather scenes similar to this to depict this infrequent but not rare situation in Cook Strait.

1 comment:

Wallace said...

Most interesting, 50 degrees is darn scary, been in that situation else where, and perhaps best to hire a car sooner than take your own and chance it when weather is threatening.