We spend so much of our lives waiting.  I guess it’s one of those unavoidables, like taxes and death . . . Ineluctable, if you want to be pedantic.   Yesterday, while waiting for high tide, a helicopter dropped in on the beached fishing trawler.  Click here for a bather flashing the crew. . .  hey, if you live on Clifton Beach and want to meet the unexpected visitors, how else do you get their attention?

At high tide this morning, another attempt to pull the trawler off the beach resulted in another parted towing line.

Meanwhile, holding the lead is Port Arthur-built, Cape Town-modified Ocean Pride.  Note the additions to make her beamier.

Here’s the muscle (Smit Amandla, ex-John Ross) that parts the towing lines.

Here crews of tug and supply vessel sort out the towing warp.

And 8000 miles to the northwest, Swan has not yet started loading.  Prepping and waiting is still going on, four days after I took these fotos.

But with a name like Swan and this time of year,

waiting is intended to be productive.

South African fotos by Colin Syndercombe;  sixth boro NYC fotos by Will Van Dorp.