Shipwrecked Clean up on Padang padang (3rd REPORT)

Report to ISC, .....No 3.........Bali Island..........Tipi..........Padang Padang Ship Wreck and Reef Clean Up
Saturday.........19th July, 2008

6 am .........Check the unsecured wreck. Promised help from authorities still had not arrived. Oil and sludge turned the line up into a creamy white whirlpool.
As the tide was coming in the wreck started to move back out onto the reef a few meters. But, fortunately as the waves started crashing across the reef with the rising tide, against the now severely holed ship the aft or tail started to spin around to the north. It appeared that the wreck was heading back into the lineup. High tide would be around 12 noon.
As 10 am approached, we all watched in disbelief, as if by God's hands, the wreck parked it's long body parallel to the cliff between two massive rocks, with the middle of the wreck coming to rest against another large rock.
It deadset looked like someone was doing a parking maneuver. Maybe it was the ghost captain, or the Hindu Sea Goddess/Princess?
It was the best possible position for the surf break and to work on clean up operations.
Our first good break. We were so used to getting sucker punched by events; this was a piece of good karma.
11.00 am Clean Up meeting. Chris, Johnny, Clemens and myself. Things were starting to come together for a change. No one was going to stop us with this clean up now...........Yesterday we had taken 90% of the outstanding oil/toxic mix off the wreck, Today we would focus on cleaning up the rubbish, rotting bait and boat materials across the reef and the wreck.  Chris Moore would get the rice bags, I would get the ladder.  (We nearly all got killed trying to get on and off the slippery toxic deck the day before, with Chris doing a spectacular  back  flip off the deck on to the reef.) We would all meet back with the Role staff and Steve Palmer's men at 3.30pm.

1 pm  Help from the owner finally arrives, with a 8 man team with approx 300 meters of ropes to tie and secure the vessel to the rocks. Maybe too little, too late, but after watching this wreck moving back toward the lineup and the main Padang2 tourist beach earlier in the day, plus an expected even bigger swell on Monday, this was a positive action. We had questions about the size of the rope used to hold this 100 or so tons of ship. The rope is approx 4-5 centimeters thick, but this just may do the trick.

3.10-3.30pm The Clean up team assembled at the head land overlooking the back beach of Padang2........... Jason Childs and Made, Ulu's Johnny, Role staff with Chris Moore and Mike Mod, Steve Palmers's staff, Lorca, Ant and Kate, Jim Friedman and Tim Russo. Chris had about 50 plus rice bags, Tim had rubber boots and much need rubber gloves and I had an carefully manufactured stock Indo shaky ladder.
Firstly we broke the team up into the reef team and the wreck team. With the help of the Padang life guards  we cleared the reef of the obvious trash.
 There were many large fish hooks and tackle, miles of fishing lines and nets, as well as tarps, large chucks of fiber glass, fiberglass foam and varies other toxic materials across the reef. Large volumes of rope, net and line around the propeller and rudder.
Then we focused on the 35 meter long/6deck wreck, with Johnny, Chris and JB, with Steves guys cleaning the mess on the wreck. Cleaning up the bait and fish guts was not nice thing. A few calls to ruth could be heard. (Vomiting).
Anything that was not secure had to go off. They would pass down the bags from the lower decks and then had to throw down the bags and objects from the upper decks. There were containers, plastic pipes, preparation equipment and many heavy objects.
Lorca, Tim and myself placed it all in an organized pile 5 meters from the wreck.
There were 20 or so tourist watching. 5 guys with large bintangs in hand had to be escorted off the shipwreck. They thought it would be perfectly ok, with rubbish flying everywhere and guys cleaning everywhere to make a tour of the wreck, have a beer and watch the surf. They did not get far. With the smell of fish guts in the air, they were lucky our guys didn't test their flying ability!!!

By 5.30 everything was in bags and/or in movable piles, for the long haul to the staging site behind the back beach, where the oil/sludge was waiting from the day before.

By 6.00 pm the  4-5 cubic meters of trash including a few tens of kilos of maggots, were in  the safe staging area, where the tide and waves could not take its hold.
We all proceeded to the temporary warung at the Rip contest area for a drink and for the Indo guys, their beloved smoke, paid for by Role with Jason helping out. Took half an hour to sort out the bill. After a couple of counts the bill went down from 350 to Rp 205,000. What's new? Doesn't matter how stuffed you are we all have to go through, due process.
Everyone needed to get home and scrub up. Some infections were getting worse from the day before.
WOULD LIKE TO THANK TODAYS CLEAN UP TEAM......N.Y. Ulu's Johnny, Chris Moore, Tim Russo, Clemens, Jason Childs, Lorca, Ant and Kate, Jim Friedman, Role and Steves Staff, Padang Lifeguards AND THE 3 KIWIS AND AN OZZIE WHO HELPED IN THE LAST TIRING MINUTES. They exchanged a tour of the wreck after we had finished the wreck clean up for 2 loads each up the beach. About 100meters long each exhausting trip. Our guys did 6 or 7 each.
Tomorrow..............The long haul up to the cliff top with all this crap???
Monday..................Hard brush the sludge off the reef and rocks???
Tuesday...................Water testing???
Another clean up as the ship breaks up???
Cleansing ceremony???

It will be interesting to see what happens with the wreck. It still has its massive engines and generator. They will probably be cut out and hauled away. The wreck will slowly break up or will be cut up. This thick double walled fiberglass hull is extremely durable and tough. Fiberglass is also very toxic in itself.

After the bitter disappointment, of not being able to salvage the ship, as the rug was pulled out from under our feet by greed and the environmental catastrophe that has played out, we can only pray we so dumb humans will learn from these experiences, and restore the balance for future generations.

This fishing industry is in a real uncontrolled mess worldwide. Something must be done.

See you tomorrow........Mike O'Leary

(Also please donate if you can, you will always get value for money from us and so will the needy. That I guarantee. We have very positive proactive programs.)

Mike O'Leary
International CEO and Founder
R.O.L.E. Foundation Inc
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in creating a world without poverty
and reviving the health of the environment.
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