Three large, bright orange shipping containers which were blown into the water off a wharf at Wellington's CentrePort are likely to remain in the water this evening.
The three empty containers were blown into the water this afternoon, and while two were now tied up near Clyde Quay Marina, the third continued to float about Wellington Harbour.
Two of the containers were about 12m long and one was about 6m long. All three were blown off the south end of the container terminal.
"What we are working on right now, is how to get them out of the water," Harbourmaster Mike Pryce said.
"It's too windy to use a container crane so we can't lift them up so we are looking at various other plans."
Mr Pryce said while winds remained strong, getting them out of the water was "high risk", so the priority was ensuring they were secure for the time being.
"If they bump along something they are obviously going to cause some damage if you leave them there for too long."
Mr Pryce said it was rare for containers to be blown into the harbour.
"I can't remember the last time, I think last time two blew off a container ship, but I can't recall them blowing into the harbour off the wharf before."
