Month: March 2022

I have been asked about the council notice that I mentioned when I was last doing the blog. This notice was displayed on a lamp post by the Aurora carpark and indicated that the whole site was designated for flats. Here is the image that I posted at that time.

I was a bit sceptical at the time because I knew that there were difficulties if they moved inside the port. Well, I get an e-mail back then from the local Holywells district councillor who told me that the was just the council informing the residents of the “town plan”. Now, having been a parish councillor for 5 year in the past I should have remembered that every parish, town, etc. has to have a plan, which states how they would like it to be. This notice is just that – sometime in the future, maybe!

Suntis and the weather

Suntis is back. I haven’t photographed her for a long time so here is how she looks nowadays. Not much different. actually.

It has been very cold today and we have even had some snow. We are expecting 3C/36F later and it was 0C this morning. I had to go out this afternoon and when I got back I was parking the car and it was extremely difficult to open the doors due to the high winds – 30mph!

It can be seen better in this little video:

Firstly, I have redone the flyer that I produced a couple of years ago. This is going out to all mail boxes in Capstan House. If anyone wants a small supply to give out then please contact me through the comments box below.

Secondly, I have recovered one of the domain names that I was trying to use some weeks ago. You can now access the blog on two URLs:

https://www.waterfrontblog.co.uk

http://www.ipswichwaterfrontblog.co.uk

I have spent a lot of time with Black and White film recently so I thought that it was time to show some of the digital stuff that I took on my trip round onto the Island.

First off here are a couple of panoramas that I made. These involve taking multiple photos and rotating the camera, hopefully, along the same plane. These are then put into Adobe Photoshop and knitted together.

First up is a panorama of the whole of the Orwell Quay side of the Wet Dock.

Secondly is a panorama of our apartment complex at Orwell Quay.

This could be the last you see of the complex for a long while as it is due to be wrapped in plastic prior to the cladding being updated!

OK, so next we have a nice little image of one of my favourite cars – a Caterham Seven. This one stands out being in bright yellow.

Next, we are a bit further along by Wherry Quay near to the “Bistro On The Quay”.

My next shot is from the Island across to the Customs House – which is the offices of Associated British Ports (ABP) – the owners of the Port of Ipswich.

The Thames barge “Victor” is in its normal berth but, unusually, has its masts dropped.

Here is a shot of the apartment complex at the end of the Wet Dock – at St. Peter’s wharf. Here you can see what a sorry state “The Mill” is in. Maybe, someday, when it comes out of administration it will be refurbished and tidied up. The Winerack really shows it up as that is a splendid building.

Lastly, I am including an image of one of the heritage cranes that are down at the lock end of the Island. This picture shows what a sorry state these cranes are in. I can see it happening. No-one will repaint them so they will continue to rust until ABP decides that they are a hazard and, due to lack of maintenance, they will be taken down. I am not sure what can be done to stop this process.

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Well, we had a little family reunion yesterday with myself and wife, mother-in-law and two daughter’s (Wendy and Debbie) with Debbie’s husband, Nick. A nice little group that included Debbie’s two dogs – golden retrievers called Bert and Ernie (remember Sesame Street?).

The bright weather – albeit cold out of the sun – enabled me to get a couple of nice photos out over the water.

First off, these two unusual boats have been moored up for a while.

Secondly, there was a really nice view of the lock gates and the heritage cranes.

One thing that I did notice, not having been doing this blog for a couple of years, is how dilapidated the two cranes have got. There are very large rust areas on both cranes. This is sad. Is no-one going to look after them? If not, some time in the future, I can see ABP talking about removing them because of their state when it would have been lack of maintenance as the root cause!

I took a tour around the Wet Dock last weekend and went across to “The Island” as the other side of the dock is called. It was an island many years ago and has the wet dock on one side and the Orwell River running through the New Cut on the other side. It only ceased to be an island when they closed off the Stoke Bridge end.

One of the features of the other side of the dock is the Fairline Yachts facility. Their super yachts are built at their Oundle factory and then shipped to Ipswich where their customer service depot prepares and tests them for handing over to clients. This transfer often causes issues on the A14 as this article in the East Anglian from October 2020 illustrates.

On the slightly technical side, the following three black and white images were taken with my circa 1987 Canon EOS650 on Ilford HP5 black and white film. I then developed the film myself and scanned them using a clever little device that lets me take a picture of a negative with my mobile phone (which has a 48 mega-pixel camera!). Anyway, here are the photos.

I had a chat with one of the workers there and I can tell you that the largest in the photo costs a reputed £2,500,000 whist the smallest is around £460,000! I won’t be getting one until I win the EuroMIllions!

I was around the Wet Dock yesterday as well. It was a lovely sunny day so I took the following to show the Fairline facility in all its glory.

Lastly, just for those of you who have been here over the life of the blog, I came across Song of the Whale. Remember her? A full description is on the Marine Conservatory web site. Well, she is currently at home and not scudding around the South Atlantic.