boom! what we've got to look forward to. Yes indeed, unless the wind gets up too much, this Sat­urday (12 Nov) at 3pm, the ex-Frig­ate F69-Wel­ling­ton is going to be scuttled off the south coast, between Island and Houghton Bays (just to the East of Tapu Ter­anga – the island of Island Bay).

There’s prob­ably going to be a heap of people going down to watch the event, so take heed of the offi­cial advice regard­ing trans­port…

Motor­ists are urged to park their vehicles away from the coastal road and take a bus to Houghton Bay. Houghton Bay School is provid­ing a lim­ited amount of park­ing in their grounds and at Houghton Bay Park as a fun­draiser for their new hall.

The Island Bay launch­ing area and car park will be reserved for police and offi­cials and closed to the pub­lic from 6am to 6pm on the day of the sink­ing. South Coast boat ramps are likely to be extremely busy and spec­tat­ors should con­sider using oth­er ramps.

Motor­ists are being warned to watch for ped­es­tri­ans between Prin­cess Bay and Island Bay, park leg­ally and keep off foot­paths and areas of veget­a­tion.

No road clos­ures are planned, but the Coun­cil will put up signs to warn res­id­ents to expect traffic delays.

For those of you head­ing out in a boat, there’s a few more things you should be aware of – head over to the offi­cial site to find out just where the best place to view from the water will be.

UPDATE: Well, it’s look­ing a bit iffy. The Met­Ser­vice Inshore Wel­ling­ton Mar­ine fore­cast (which I should have linked to in the first place, as Tom over at Wel­lUrb­an right­fully points out) has this to say about Sat­urday…

North­erly 25 knots gust­ing 35 knots, eas­ing to 10 knots in the even­ing. Rough sea eas­ing to slight in the even­ing. Mostly cloudy with brief light rain in the after­noon.

If it’s North­erly, it needs to get below 20 knots for the whole she­bang to hap­pen. Fin­gers crossed.