Month: August 2014

Firstly, here is the photo from Saturday of the two guys from the Border Force that chatted with me. Their wry grins come from me asking them to say “West Ham” when I took the shot. For those furriners out there, West Ham is a famous (infamous) football club in East London and not everyone’s favourite team (but it is mine and my son’s).

They, yesterday evening, HMC Seeker returned. Remember that this came in last week when HMC Valiant was in and the guys above told me that it was to shelter from the tail end of Hurricane Bertha. Well, they are here for a normal visit now!

 

The last two show the boat doing a three point turn before docking. Obviously, the one steering likes to be pointing the way out. I find it amazing how the light changes in the Wet Dock with a slight change of viewpoint!

 

There is always a really good firework display over the Waterfront at the end of the weekend. Our balcony is always full of family as we have a grandstand view of the proceedings. I collared the front corner of the balcony for my tripod and managed to get these shots. (I took a lot more but there is a lot of repetition in images)

At last, something new happening that is worth reporting on. The last few weeks have been pretty much like last year and thus there has been little to talk about. There are only so many pages I can write about Suntis or Sunsets. Still, this weekend has been very busy here on the waterfront and I hope that I have put together something that records the events. It is mostly a photo essay. The first part is a selection of the activity on the water.

 

The second section covers the sideshows and food stalls that were arraigned along Gasworks Quay. I must give a special mention to HMC Valiant which stayed for the weekend bedecked in flags. The guys of the Border Force were there answering questions and doing a few demonstrations of the launching of their inflatables from the dropped stern of the boat.

 

Lastly, in the photo run, I would like to thank they guys on HMC Valiant for answering my questions so patiently. It seems that we probably won’t be seeing HMC Protector (the latest addition to the fleet) as she is almost certainly to large to get through the Lock. Secondly, we had a visit from HMC Seeker at the same time as HMC Valiant was here. It seems that she made an unplanned visit to avoid the bad weather associated with Hurricane Bertha. Lastly, I asked why Valiant was pointing away from the Lock gates and Seeker was pointing towards when berthed. The answer seemed to be that it was at the whim of the man at the controls!

Now, we come to the video section. Firstly an apology for the sound from the Carousel. It is difficult to mask out the wind without a specialised external microphone but here goes.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5MtPA7OsQs&w=640&h=360]

Secondly, there was a tremendous light show on both Friday and Saturday night. I managed to catch Saturday’s event. I have replaced the audio because the camera was picking up not only the wind but the voices of others on balconies around. I hope you enjoy the music I have added.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ16ApIlrJc&w=640&h=360]

Fireworks tonight. I am hoping to catch them on film – if my family leave me enough room to set up the tripod!