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| Seli I, In One Piece Two Years Ago. Photo: Jaclyn Archer |
The massive swell of Friday the 2nd of September was the death blow for the stranded Seli I. The abandoned vessel had been driven fast by a late winter cape storm nearly two years ago and with the owners, insurers and the City of Cape Town all failing to remove it, the break-up was inevitable.
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| The Seli I, 4 September 2011 |
A few weeks ago the unrelenting ocean made its first real inroad since it drove the ship aground. As the local big wave chargers were taking on the icy dungeons of moving water off Hout Bay
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| The Twisted Hull. |
But a more dramatic disintegration was to come. With a seven meter swell pounding the cracked hull, creating furrows in the sandbanks below the craft and twisting the old metal beyond its threshold, the Seli I split in three. Ripped like a tin can it released the dregs of its diesel life blood into the already dirty waters of the Blouberg beach front. The oily seep fanned out from the shattered hull, trapping the sea life in a greasy tomb.
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| The Clean-Up Effort In Full Swing |
With the beach now unsafe for human recreation eventually the City were forced to act and disaster management descended. Another case of reactive problem solving, when an early intervention could have ensured the Seli I was dismantled in the harbour rather than in the already stressed Table Bay . With a working harbour, a toxic river and who knows how many polluted storm-water drains pouring into the bay, the diesel spill is just another black spot on the bay’s marine environment.
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| Clean-Up and Banks, Built-Up By Sand Deposited Behind The Ship |
From a surfer’s point of view though it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the famous Seli banks when the oil clears and its safe to go back into the water…
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