One day, when the wind was howling, I watched this tug trying to bring its barge in to Kawaihae harbor. Trouble was, the wind was blowing across the entrance channel. As it came in, the tug had to slow down, leaving the slab-sided barge even more prone to the effects of the wind.

In the top photo, the tug needs to leave the green buoy on its port (left) side, which it’s doing. Problem is, the wind is blowing from that direction, so the tug is already too far over. Also, it’s easy to see how the barge is no longer directly behind the tug, but has been pushed farther over by the wind.

In the middle photo, the tug has to leave the red buoy on its starboard (right) side, but it’s obviously too late for that. The tug captain knows he has no shot and, in the bottom photo, turns into the wind before heading out into open water.

I watched the tug try this maneuver several times without success. Next morning, on my way to work, I saw the tug and barge still out in the bay. It wasn’t until later that morning that it finally gained entrance to the harbor and tied up safely alongside the jetty.

Some recent high surf made a breach in the breakwater of the northern small boat harbor at Kawaihae. Besides punching this hole in the rock barrier, the wooden mooring floats were also badly damaged and boats using the harbor were ordered to relocate since it was no longer safe.

Repairing the damage being estimated to cost around $8 million. Usually these kinds of thing overrun the estimates by a generous margin.

The top photo shows the extent of the damage as a tug and barge approach the harbor. Below, the picnic tables are deserted as the wind whips up whitecaps and a blast of sand across the area.

Incidentally, the tug and barge were unable to get into harbor because of the strong crosswinds and spent the night out at sea. They were still there next morning when I saw them, but were able to finally get into the harbor a few hours later.