Month: July 2014

My Mother-In-Law has just moved into the eighth floor of our apartment block but she is on the north side.

These are some views from her balcony. Firstly a panorama

 

 

Lastly the Stavros S. Niarchos has returned to the Wet Dock. It was here for a time last year. For details, check out the Wikipedia entry

It has been a really nice couple of days here on the Waterfront. Warm and bright – a bit too warm if you really want to know. But last night, the commercial port looked really nice in the dark with all the lights ablaze. I took two photos. One was taken on the automatic setting. This made the lights blur somewhat but gives a very nice impression.

 

The second one was taken on a manual setting to try and reduce the glare. I leave it to you to decide which you like.

As time goes on it is becoming more difficult to find something interesting to talk about as so much that happens on the Waterfront is repetion.

Still we had a couple of nice views of the top of the two legacy cranes in the Wet Dock. The other evening both had a bird sitting on them with its wings open. The first was a cormorant and the second was a seagull. It was around dusk, hence the dark sky.

We missed one that was just past our balcony as we came in. I didn’t have the camera handy. This was Reminder of Harwich. Here is a stock picture from National Historic Ships web site.

 

We have seen two more come in. One was Kitty.

 

The other was Hydrogen. This came in and about 10 minutes later went out and round down the New Cut!

 

My guess is that they will all be gone very early tomorrow morning as the races start at 8am. I will likely miss them but I will try to see them out.

These take place on Saturday 5th July. The races start at Pin Mill and they race out of the Orwell estuary to the sea and back. The best place to watch is the viewing area at Landguard Fort just by the Port of Felixstowe. You will get great views of these traditional barges under full sail and racing. Details of the races can be found on the Pin Mill Sailing Club web site.

The first race starts at 8am, due to the need for high tide. Unfortunately, this year, we cannot be there so I will miss the usual photo opportunity. We are seeing a bit of a build up of barges in the Wet Dock. Our regulars include Mellisa (a regular winner of the race), Victor and Thistle. We have been seeing Hydrogen more frequently lately. Today, however, we had a rare one arrive. This was Repertor of Harwich. Built in 1924 it was the first of a fleet of steel constructed barges. She is a past winner of the staysail class and also has won the overall pennant for the fastest finisher irrespective of class. She wears a Bob with a white fish (Pollock) emblem and a black P on a red ground.

Here she is in all her glory. We wish her well in the race.