Freighter Runs aground on Nobby's Beach

I haven't done much paddling of late for a variety of pretty lame reasons but today the weather in Newcastle went nasty. I mean very nasty. Last night the news gave severe weather warnings and this morning we got winds up to 100kph. By the time I got to work in Newie we got the news that a bulk carrier had beached itself at Nobby's so at lunch time I went for a walk to see. When I got there with Jason,one of my staff, we were amazed to see the ship right on the beach. Emergency services people had a cordon around the area and two resuce helicopters were struggling against huge winds. The beach was a mess and on buoy measured a 17m wave. We then found out two other ships nearby were struggling to stay off the coast and another in danger at Stockton. Fortunately, there appeared to be little danger to people so far as the rescue services are very good but anything could happen. Jason and I were walking at 45 degrees and the rain was like needles. He had a Driza-Bone on which gave great protection and I had my new Mountain Design Wentworth jacket which was brilliant. My canvas jeans got drenched so my next purchase will be some waterproof trousers. You can't have too much gear and I now live by the mantra "there's no such thing as bad weather, just a bad choice of clothes".