When Good Supertankers Go Bad

These pictures are really just too amazing not to repost. Most people probably forget that ships exist out there so large that they make the mind boggle when we see them. This effect is doubly magnified when we see them in settings where they don't belong. Take the story of the APL Panama, a supertanker which ran aground on a California beach on Christmas Day 2005.

Witness but a few "Oh my god!" pics (click to enlarge):

Just another day at the—HOLY CHRIST! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT DOING THERE!?!?!?

Time to offload with an Evergreen Sikorsky S-64 Sky Crane. How long do you think that took?

Here you can actually see the tanker lurching to her port side under the tugboat's pull. Alas, it would take many tries...

In the end, it would take until March 10 (over 2 months) to insinuate this topheavy lady back into her native waters, all because the captain was too impatient for the local pilots to come aboard and navigate her into port.

Take home lesson: patience is a virtue.

Almost forgot... this story courtesy of Todd "Gabrito" Huss.