Thames in Central London 21st March

Not so much a trip to see ships as seeing some ships while taking my son on a boys day out around the capital.  We normally stick to the tube but I fancied trying a Thames Clipper service and we opted to hop on at Embankment.  Our vessel was the Typhoon Clipper and I was very surprised at how good a vessel she seemed on first impressions.  Very comfortable on board with a decent rear platform
for photographing passing vessels, although there is a low roof which restricts photos to the rear.  As usual the river was busy and as the tide was at low water space was a little restricted as we backed away from the piers at the Eye, Millennium and Tate Modern.

I struggled to get too many decent photos what with the number of fellow tourists and keeping my other eye on my 3 year old.  But amongst the spots was the Skate IIE work platform, fitted with a substantial outboard and transmitting AIS so a vessel as far as I was concerned!

Plenty of authorities buzzing around as usual but very difficult to get an isolated shot of any one vessel.  I did manage to get the Police Launch John Harriot IV going against the tide with a couple of very bored officers at the helm.

As we left Tower Bridge I was pleasantly surprised at the acceleration and speed of the Typhoon Clipper as we headed eastwards.  The website of the operator lists the top speed of that particular craft as 28 knots and it certainly felt like it, especially with the tide out and the river banks close by.  I would recommend a trip for those who have never been along the river and at £5.30 for Embankment to Greenwich via the Eye, its not bad value either although I am guessing getting a prime spot for photos may be tricky in the summer months.

Falmouth 11th Feb 2010

I was blessed with getting work finished early so enabling me to get to Falmouth in glorious sunshine with plenty to see.  First things first and a trip to Castle Drive and an Oyster ice cream from the van parked above Pendennis Shipyard.  Luckily I wasn't too distracted to spot the RFA Argus come into the dock attended by three tugs.  Apparently she is in for 3 weeks for maintenance. 

This was my third trip to Falmouth and it never fails to have something interesting about to snap and once again it didn't disappoint as moored off of Carrick Roads was the heavy lift ship Falcon.  She was loaded with the Safe Bristolian, an accommodation block bound for Stavenger.

Plenty was laid up in Fal Bay with a couple of ships bunkering with the Lizrix.  As usual the sun prevented any decent photography so all I was able to capture was the SD Neon heading out towards Plymouth.

Each time I've been to Falmouth I've meant to visit the creeks of the Fal to get some close up shots of the ships laid up waiting for business and this time I've managed it.  Its not easy to find but a visit to the Smugglers Tavern at Tolverne is well worth it.


View Larger Map

The light was still good enough to get the Santa Guiliana and four of her sister ships squeezed into the river.  If you get the chance it is an amazing sight and this photo doesn't do it justice.

Handily on the way back from here you can either get the King Harry Ferry back to Falmouth/Truro or if it floats your boat then there is a great pub with brewery attached just a couple of mins up the road at Philleigh.  If you like your real ale then The Roseland Inn has three beers brewed next door.  I had the Cornish Shag, very, very nice!  In the summer all three beers are on.

Gravesend 18th Feb 2010

Another trip way out east!  Not my normal haunt I must admit but I had a morning to myself and now that the train service is fast I can be in Gravesend station at 7:48am which gave me 3 hours to relax by the Thames.

Things didn't go quite to plan though, stepped out onto the rivers edge and couldn't see Tilbury!  Could have disappeared for all I could tell, the fog was so thick.  Ships contacting VTS were reporting visibility of less than a cable.  First along was the Dagmar Theresa outbound for Amsterdam.  I was only 200 yards away but the best picture I could get was far from perfect.

The tide was out and just turning so all was quiet for an hour or so. Time to sample the local Asda again for breakfast. There is a burger van called the luchbox in the car park at the same retail park
View Larger Map but I fancied my breakfast sat in the warm rather than sat on a curb.  And to be fair, at £4 for 3 sausages, 3 slices of bacon, tomatoes, scrambled egg, 3 hash browns and a coffee its not bad!

Back to my perch on the shore, just off Clifton Marine Parade and it was busy, busy for the next two hours.  The replica paddle steamer Elizabethian was headed up river and struggling against the tide looking rather out of place with the modern ships laid up in Tilbury dock.

Time for something a little different.  I'd noticed a lengthy oil slick drifting down river all morning and it seemed to be coming from the barge Nortech 3 moored alongside just west of Gravesend pier.  Evidently I wasn't the only one as the oil spill cleanup vessel Recover followed the slick slowly, pausing to check out all of the vessels along the slicks path until it found the Nortech 3.  There then followed an exchange between the Recover and the crew on the Nortech.  'Nothing to do with me Gov' seemed to be the response, although the source of the oil soon disappeared.

Plenty more was going on as 3 unmarked boats, 2 Ribs and a small cat then came up river at an extremely fast pace.  I seem to remember that they were police boats from a TV series a while ago but can anyone confirm that? 

I was trying to make the 11:13 back to St Pancras but had to stay as the Norking was on its way through Tilbury lock with the Aasvik and Eglantine slowing down to let her out first as the three made their way down river.

So what started as a disappointing day actually ended up being an interesting morning.  Ok, it was raining/snowing, I almost slid into the river on the sheets of ice on the dock and I got eyeballs like saucers staring into the fog but it was well worth the trip.

I forgot to mention that I was entertained most of the morning by a few clowns who sounded like they were loading stone onto a barge somewhere on the river and chatting on the radio.  Most of the stuff I overheard contained a least one of the following words....w****r, c**t, mug, f**ker etc.  Wonder what the other vessels who were listening in to that were thinking!

Gravesend 11th February

My first post! Been meaning to get this blog going for some time, but time is at a premium and I've spent what little spare time there is hunting ships.

Traveling time to Gravesend from my home near Oxford has been dramatically cut since the introduction of the Javelin High Speed train from St Pancras. What used to take 3 1/2 hours now takes 2 so I got a bit more time on The Shore than usual. Saying that, its only my second visit to Gravesend so most of it is all new to me!

Arrived just before 8. The last time I visited I figured out the route from the train station to the Tilbury Ferry, through St Georges shopping centre (passing Simply Spuds which does a good cheap cup of tea/coffee), down a few flights of stairs to the ground floor, through St Georges Church and further down the hill till you see the Tilbury Ferry sign.

The bulk ship Zagreb was on Tilbury Power Station but nothing else was moving so I walked along to The Shore. It was chilly to say the least with plenty of ice about as well as a northerly wind so I battened down the hatches (2 hats/gloves/scarf) and waited to see what would turn up in the glorious morning sunshine. First to round the corner past Grays outbound was Trans Fjord (9034743) on her way to Rotterdam. All of the crew I spotted had a cup of tea in their hand and I was already thinking a quick trip to the Asda cafe might be in order.

Before that though I overheard on VTS that the Cembay (9183465) was outward bound for Bremen and I managed to snap her just before a small procession of smaller vessels made their way seaward. The Port Health
Authority vessel Londinium III, survey vessel Yantlet and the tugs Sea Challenge II and Argonaut all followed the Cembay past me. Apart from a sudden cloud over the Cembay, all of the vessels were looking good in the bright sunlight.

Just to the south of The Shore (it's a road as opposed to the actual shore itself!) is a retail park on which is a 24 hour Asda. I was thoroughly frozen and only fortified by a coffee I'd paid in blood for in London so I decided to get some brunch from the cafe within Asda itself. The price for scrambled egg on 2 toast plus a latte was just £2.65! Not bad I thought, but then it arrived at my table. Two slices of white toast (well I say toast but I think they were merely passing acquaintances with the toaster as they were still white), both soggy from water in the egg, and the whitest scrambled egg I'd ever seen. At least it was hot....

Back to the shore. Just passing Grays, outbound, as I arrived was the Eli Knutsen (9409261) on its way to Le Havre. She looked very clean in the bright sunlight, that was until the P&O ro/ro Norqueen fired up her engines in the dock and covered the river in yellow/black clag. She has certainly looked cleaner, and by the time she made her way out of the lock at 10am the exhaust had calmed down, a little at least. That was almost it for the day but just before I made a hasty retreat to Gravesend station I was just able to catch the container ship Orion lightly loaded inbound.

I enjoy visiting Gravesend, really! The light is normally very good for photographing throughout the day and there are a few sheltered spots giving good views of passing ships. Some locations give you a chance to take a photo without the clutter of the multitude of cranes/pylons/chimneys/warehouses interfering in the background.

I'm still in the process of building a site to host all my photos as well as an in depth guide to my favourite locations. This blog will just be a record of my trips out, as much to prompt my memory as much as anything else!