Month: December 2018

It hasn’t been a full year for the blog but this is mostly due to my rotten legs. Anyway, 2019 will be a very good year and I will get more to say about the Waterfront. As it is, have a great Christmas and a very happy new year.

I took two photos of the tree outside the University. One in the daylight – ho humm.

This didn’t look too great so we went around after dark.

That’s better.

There are some historic names for the wharfs along the Ipswich waterfront as can be seen in this image:

 

What we now call Orwell Quay is actually three wharfs.  Anglo-Norden usually unloads Suntis on Eagle Wharf but, as I understand it, they have the right to unload at Gasworks Quay  as well. They don’t often do this as it is more complicated for them. I was told that they have to use Gasworks Quay occasionally to retain the right. I am not sure of the correctness of this but I have been told the story on a few occasions. We have been living on the Waterfront for six and a half years now and, in that time, they have only used this quay once.

On Saturday we noticed that the were putting out their large blocking units amongst the cars parked along under the balconies of Capstan House. We were worried that they were going to trying stop the parking there, as they have done on Eagle Wharf for some time. I worked out what was happening when Suntis came in and moored further down outside the Aurora.

On Sunday, a notice appeared on each car warning that the vehicle should be moved as they would be “offloading a ship between 2nd and 4th December. Parking here will cause an obstruction. Please be advised that we will remove any vehicle that is causing an obstruction.”. By Monday morning there were only two cars left there and they seemed to have been ignored (see my note at the end of this).

Anyway, Monday dawned and off they went with one crane and fork lift trucks busily running back and forth. They had barricaded the whole of the waterfront so that pedestrians couldn’t get in the way.

This one was actually running backwards with its load. I had a chat with one of their staff, whose job, it seemed, was to direct pedestrians through the maze and he pretty much confirmed what I thought. Anyway, here is a shot of the activity taken on the Waterfront itself.

This is a view that we don’t normally get as the stern of Suntis is normally way down Helena Road and I can’t walk that far, unless I have my chair. I will add that the bollard with the cone seems to be stuck and hasn’t been dropped down for months. This has caused some issues for the fork lift trucks when manoeuvring with piles of wood (and for the funfair rides at the end of the Maritime weekend).

It was raining during the day so a shot from our window finishes off.

Just a final note to say that I was tempted to leave my car there with my blue badge showing. It is illegal to move or disable a parked car when showing a blue badge, no matter where it is parked – for obvious reasons. I would have loved it if they had towed my car away!