Fireworks Barge

[Guest]

Did anyone else notice that the barge for the Guy Fawkes fireworks display was towed over from Picton?

 

We were bringing Flying Circus back from Waikawa on Friday morning and just before we got to Diffenabch (yes, I know, that's not Diffenbach) I commented on a distinctively shaped barge that was being towed up Queen Charlotte Sound (looking like it was bound for Komaru). We went out via Tory Channel, and sailed back across a relatively docile straight, although there was a 1 metre slop left over from the weather earlier in the week.

 

Back at RPNYC I noticed that the fireworks barge was the same distinctive shape as the barge we saw in Queen Charlotte Sound. Then on Sunday morning when I stepped out onto the deck with my morning coffee I noticed said barge being towed out past Kau Bay, and later across Lyall Bay.

 

I was quite surprised. Given how long it takes to rig up commercial grade fireworks displays I can only assume that the barge was armed and ready to go when it was towed across... and the swells off Komaru and the Brothers were enough to make that seem a less than ideal approach. I guess they had been waiting all week for a break in the weather.

 

Anyone know anything more substantive about this?

[Guest]

They all went bang on Friday night!

I was sheltering in a shed at Clyde Quay. Pity the few brave ones who ventured down to the shore!

Sounds crazy to tow them across the ditch, they could have all got soggy.

[w44vi 17]

I was sheltering in the boat with the fan heater going full blast, chickened out going over, forecast for 50 kts with a motor that was not playing nice. I wonder if they have them set up on a frame and lift it on with a crane? I've seen the barges, previous years, tied up next to the container wharf

[grant 40]

it would have been a different barge. The fireworks barges were alongside aotea quay early in the week, its a couple of days for set up