Month: March 2014

Mother’s day is a family day so here is our Waterfront family.

Allen Gardiner moved today. Getting ready.

Coming Out.

 

On the move through the lock.

 

Check out the middle photo 0 what is missing? Trimilea isn’t there!

But she did come back from the refuelling area, further into the dock, later.

I was explaining to my mother-in-law about Trimilea and read to her the comment of the guard boat at Dunkirk – Trimilea is a Dunkirk little ship. I always choke up when I read this and I could barely read it today. On arriving at Dunkirk – the following exchange took place:

“”I cannot see who you are. Are you a naval party?”
“No Sir, we are men of the crew of the Ramsgate life-boat”.
“Thank you and thank God for such good men as you have on this night proved to be. There is a party of fifty Highlanders coming next.”

IO got up early yesterday to a very misty start to the day. I was fascinated how The Mill was rising out of the mist.

Then, I couldn’t resist the usual reflection scene.

Then, this morning started out really bright and sunny. I went off to the Model Railway show in Clacton. When I got down to the car, I found these two sitting there. They weren’t phased by my presence or by the car moving off.

Later in the day, HMC Vigilant arrived. The sun was a right on her as she came in so this was taken just after she had turned ready to berth down at Gasworks Quay.

She was welcomed by the Sea Cadets jolly boat.

Earlier in the day, Pink Cloud went out. Now Pick Cloud has been berthed up by Spirit Yachts all winter and this is the first time that I have seen here move. I like the ripples following her out.

You can track Pink Cloud from this LINK

The old friend is Thistle – the Thames Barge. One of the delights in the summer is the coming and going of all the Thames Barges and we have missed their going back and forth during the winter. It is good to see Thistle back. We look forward to seeing all the others. It looks as though she has had a lick of paint!

 

Also, we have had a couple of the Port work boats moving around today. One is a regular and the other – well, we haven’t seen it before. First the regular:

 

Then, the new one for me. This one looks as though it works hard for a living:

It’s a lovely day, today (wasn’t that in a song?) and I just caught one of the small Spirit Yachts boats going out.

I bet they are going to have a great day out there.

I did find out a bit more about the newcomer to the Wet Dock. If you didn’t see Day Jay’s comment on the post, well here it is:

“The newcomer berthed across from you is a privately owned American designed Noordhavn 62 “Andromeda” …. in Ipswich for some ‘cosmetic’ work I understand.” Here is a page about it offering charters. My thanks to David for contributing to the blog.

Lastly, as it was such a nice day, I took a shot out to the Commercial Port.

There are two ships in the vicinity of Griffin Wharf:

 

The one furthest away is the H&S Wisdom which is a Dutch registered boat of 1,842 tons deadweight whilst the nearest is a regular visitor – Arklow Flair, registered in Ireland and having a deadweight of 4,500 tons

How do I know – well the two Scout adventure boats are back and being readied to go out.

This is good to see. One of my club friends is a Scout Leader in Stowmarket and was telling me a couple of weeks ago about their trip. Evidently, last Summer, his troop went on an evening jaunt on one of these. They went up and down the Orwell and all for £6.00 per head – bargain!

Having berthed outside in the Commercial port for a few times, Alert came back into the Wet Dock yesterday.

She went out this morning. She looks a bit devoid of buoys at the moment, though.

A newcomer berthed over from us. However, she is moored so that we can’t see her name so I can’t tell you anything about her. She is quite big for a private boat though.

You know what I said in the heading about Spring. Well, it comes and goes with increasing frequency. I was sitting in my hobby room putting the blog entry together when I heard a sudden rise in sound from outside and a quick call from my wife. She had a couple of sheets airing outside and the wind had suddenly got up.

 

You can see how grey and dark it became (check out the photo before these. The wind is howling and it looks like rain! So that’s Spring then?

The geese have settled in for the rough time but seem quite content.

As there was a Border Force boat in the Wet Dock, I thought I might go and have a chat. Maybe I could find out if the HMC Protector is coming our way?

First off, I got a shot of HMC Seeker, tied up along Gasworks Quay.

 

I managed to hav e a word with one of the crew who told me that HMC protector was currently in The Thames but should be appearing here in Ipswich in a few months time. Best that I keep my eyes open then!

As I was around, I took a nice shot of HMS Trumpeter, moored in her usual berth.

She comes and goes quite regularly and is often down in Portsmouth. As I understand it, HMS Trumpeter is the training vessel for Cambridge University Royal Naval Unit (Cambridge URNU). She was built by Vosper Thornycroft and commissioned in 1988 and is a P2000 Fast Patrol Boat. (information supplied by The Royal Navy. See their page on Trumpeter HERE)

I then pointed the lens across at the Fairline facility. Their little array of expensive yachts is always good to look at and dream.

 

Lastly, I thought I would show you how the new building works on the other side of New Cut were getting on.

 

Maybe our resident engineer on the site might give us a technical update?

I have often mentioned the arrival and departure of the Border Force cutters that berth up on Gasworks Quay on a regular basis. Back on 26th May (in my old blog) I had a picture of HMC Sentinel arriving in the wet dock.

Yesterday, our Home Secretary, Theresa May, launched a new cutter – HMC Protector. According to the following report, this is to replace HMC Sentinel which has been withdrawn from service.

You can read more about it, here.

The following image is used courtesy of HM Government web site (let’s hope I don’t get into trouble for using it!).

I am looking forward to seeing this visit Ipswich. Mind you, recently, it has been about 50/50 whether these ships will come into the Wet Dock or tie-up just outside on the north bank of the Commercial Dock.

This type of shot always makes it look as though the sky is aflame. Fortunately, it is only the Sun!

Things are looking as though we are into the best part of the year.

We have Sunday visitors and the swans.

and geese.

The Allen Gardiner is going out with some passengers on board so their season is getting under way. Mind you, the boat is still showing as “Allen Gardiner – Durban”

 

Today, we noticed this little van parked below and the handler with his Border Collie.

I have never seen a USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) Dog Unit before

We got up this morning to find visibility heavily reduced. If fact, we couldn’t see the ground from our balcony. The camera can see through mist a bit better than the naked eye so here is a shot out of the Hobby Room Window

 

Mind you, it turned out really nice later with a clear sky and lots of sunshine. A perfect spring day celebrated by a newcomer to the Wet Dock. This is the Belgian Tug Albatros.

 

This is the details given on the Marine Traffic web site:

 

You can find out more about Albatros’ travels by looking at the Marine Traffic web site