Driven into the shallows and pinned there by wind, waves and sand. On 8 June 2007, the Pasha Bulker grounded at Nobbys Beach in Newcastle, Australia, during one of the most powerful storms to hit the region in decades. The ship came aground awkwardly between sea and shore, with Nobbys Head sitting small in the distance.
The east coast low had been well forecast. Newcastle Port Corporation radioed the 56 ships waiting offshore, requesting that they move further out to sea before the system arrived. The Pasha Bulker did not heed the warning. As the storm intensified, the 225 m bulk carrier was driven onto the sand, almost parallel to Nobbys Beach, its red hull suddenly stranded in the surf beneath a sky that seemed to be folding in on itself.
The storm produced record ocean conditions. A maximum wave height of 14.13 m was recorded at the Sydney deepwater Waverider buoy, while around 300 mm of rain fell in 24 hours across the region, causing widespread flooding.
