High adventures on the high seas
On 17 September, the pontoon by the wharf decided it needed an adventure! Off it went, under the wharf and went for a look see what happening at the Duke. Thanks to all those people who spotted it and sounded the alarm. Bruce went down to make it secure, tying it to a nearby Pohutukawa, and noticed its ladder was damaged from a previous grounding.
Rather than just tie it back again, Bruce made plans for repairs to the ladder, to extend it below the waterline, as well as get a diver to check out the mooring. This was going to take several weeks, but sometime around the 15 October, it escaped again, this time heading overseas to check out the Treaty Grounds. Reports came in that it was at the beach below the Whare Waka and this time Andrew Johnson kindly headed over to retrieve the escape artist at the next high tide.
Safely back at the Johnson Brothers yard in Opua, the team assessed the errant pontoon and found that not only was there no ladder attached by this stage, but that the frame needed rebuilding. They generously offered to sponsor building a new frame and attaching a new ladder for us. Shot Johonson Brothers, you are awesome!
The next job was to get it back on the mooring so in stepped Rob Lang from Moorings Northland, who generously serviced the mooring again at no cost to the Wharf Trust. This included adding a 3m x 20mm regular link chain in a bridle format plus adding a buoy for ease of retrieval for when Johnson Brothers were ready to reinstate the pontoon.
The Wharf Trust on behalf of the Russell Community would like to say a huge thank you to Johnson Brothers and Moorings Northland for their generosity to get our wharf back ready for summer.