So this weekend, everyone was talking about the Japanese fishing ship that ran aground on Clifton 1 beach in the early hours of Saturday (apparently due to some thick fog we were experiencing).

Here’s a pic from Bjorn’s Instagram stream:

Taken around 11am on Sat. As you can see it was still very misty at that point.

We actually ended up in a Clifton 1 beach facing apartment on Sat eve for a birthday party and got to watch them trying to tow the ship out.  The efforts were totally unsuccessful as they only had one tugboat and it would seem that the ship had properly gotten sucked deep into the sand ensuring that it didn’t want to budge.  As the tugboat tried to pull it out, the chains straightened & tightened and then we heard a massive bang.  It kinda sounded like a piece of the ship had broken off.  Luckily everything was cool, but the ship was still sitting pretty.  A few minutes later, it looked like they had given up.  They probably decided to go back to the drawing board, realising that they definitely needed more reinforcements.

Anyhoo… that’s all exciting and stuff and all the Clifton residents are seriously pissed etc.  Big news for Cape Town.  BUT, I saw a much cooler thing on the way back to our car after the party.  Someone had cleverly changed a sign indicating that the road narrows due to some construction going on into a “Hi” sign.  Check it out:

Come on, doesn’t that just make you smile?

Yes, it’s totally silly and doesn’t quite match up to a shipwreck – I know.  But it sure did make me laugh.  And because laughter is good for the soul, I had to share.  Hopefully it has brightened up your Monday a teensy bit.

xxx