St George's Day ships

It's been two weeks since I got home from my trip Down Under (a few more photos from there will be added in due course) and I've been largely holed up at home, suffering the duel afflictions of Being Skint - which is closely allied with the one called Out Of Work - and Post-trip Blues.
In an attempt to banish the latter affliction I decided to nip over to Portsmouth to photograph Cap Finistere, which I had only distant photos of, and Etretat, the former Norman Voyager, which entered service with Brittany Ferries while I was away. The forecast was crap but bugger it, it was high time I left the house. I also arranged to meet my friend Slinky-Dave, which gave me the opportunity to give him back his hoody and tripod bag he left in my car after that ill-fated Tilbury trip last October.

I know that these ships are probably chapeau ancienne to most locals but, distant views of both (Etretat in her former guise) aside, they aren't to me.

First up was St. Faith

Then Cap Finistere

Etretat was not far behind

At least Etretat's wavy blue hull (left from her LD Lines days) makes a change from the largely - boring - white that ferry companies, and cruise lines, tend to go in for these days.

The rain at least had the manners to hold off until we'd got our photos.

Commodore Clipper

Moving swiftly on from the sad events of late, I was in Portsmouth today and photographed Commodore Clipper, a cute little ship I am quite fond of, as she left Portsmouth this morning.

 

 

After photographing her I went to the South Coast Ship Show at the Holiday Inn, just up the road and got three more models to add to my collection, a QE2, Queen Elizabeth (1940) and Hamburg (ferry).

I managed to do a 'random gravity check' on my way there which meant a trip to A&E when I got home, luckily there's nothing broken but I do have a badly bruised elbow bone and nerve - and a bruised ego to go with it - meaning I have to keep my arm in a sling for a few days. There's nothing like going A over T to make a person feel like a complete prat, especially when sober!

Wind Surf and other ships at Portsmouth, 7th September

Wind Surf, a five-masted cruise ship, was in Portsmouth again yesterday (Saturday, 7th September) and, because I missed her previous visit, I went over to see her departure. For a change, and so the light was more in my favour, I decided to go over to Gosport Marina, rather than to the Round Tower, so this meant taking the Wightlink Wight Ryder service from Ryde Pier rather than my usual method of the hovercraft to Southsea - it makes more sense to use the Wight Ryder service because the Gosport ferry pontoon is next door; out of the Harbour Station and turn left.

The nice thing about the Wight Ryders is the fact that they have an open deck which passengers can use in all but inclement weather or after dark, whereas the old Fastcats had no such facility. The Wight Ryders are slower but that's not a bad thing on a pleasant(ish) day when you're not in any hurry and great for taking photos.

There were a few ship movements in Portsmouth, including Normandie Express, on one of her last trips before her winter hibernation...

...the local pilot boats...

...local ferries...

...refrigerated cargo ship Crown Opal, with another load of bananas and other fruit...

...and local bunkering tanker Whitchallenger, which supplies fuel to the ships in ports along the South Coast.

Finally, half an hour later than scheduled, Wind Surf began to move. For once I didn't need to look at the AIS app on my phone to see if a ship was moving because we could plainly see her masts above the buildings of the dock yard. She was supposed to depart at 1700 but, presumably because of Crown Opal's arrival, had to wait and left at 1730, which was cutting it a little fine for my 1815 ferry back to Ryde bearing in mind I had to get back across the harbour.
Here she is, sailing out of the harbour with a backdrop of threatening clouds; the weather has changed to more seasonably unsettled and with temperatures cut in half to a chillier 15-18°C from highs of 31°C last week.
Wind Surf is a seriously pretty ship. Maybe, one day, with fossil fuels depleted, all cruise ships will look like this?

Once she was out of the way, I hurried back to the Gosport ferry terminal to catch the incoming Spirit of Gosport and made it to the Wightlink terminal with a couple of minutes to spare.

I hadn't been to Gosport in years, it's probably been at least 21 years since I was last there - when I was in the navy - and it reminded me of why I don't like the place. The waterfront has been tidied up and a marina built but, as far as I'm concerned, it's not that much of an improvement on the place (and the new marina has destroyed feeding places for winter wading birds). I much prefer staying on the Portsmouth side and going to the Round Tower and Southsea, but the light is generally unfavourable from there in the afternoon.

St Helen was on the Odds and Evens.

As we left, and as the light was beginning to fade Bretagne arrived from St Malo with some impressively coloured clouds in the background.

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The plans for the coming weekend have changed slightly. We're still doing the trip but the ship we were supposed to travel on to Morocco and back has been switched to another route, to Algeria (which requires a visa to visit and, from what I understand, isn't the most sensible country to visit), so we have Vronskiy, better known in these parts as Brittany Ferries' Duc de Normandie, instead. I'd rather have travelled on Sherbatskiy, the former Oleander (which began life as Pride of Free Enterprise) instead but we will - I hope! - still at least get to see her because she's still sailing from Almeria. Still, it'll be interesting to see what the ex-Duc de Normandie is like, the last time I travelled on her was around 22 years ago. What else we get to see, I don't know, but it should be an interesting trip.

A day on the Solent

Back in June I was supposed to join the Thames Ship Society's (TSS) Solent cruise, but circumstances dictated otherwise and I had to change my plans. I emailed Dave Smith, the TSS membership secretary, as he was the only person I had an email address for, and he arranged for the ticket to be changed to the second Solent trip, on August 10th - thanks Dave. The June trip had been blessed with hot sunny weather and I was afraid the August one would be the complete opposite but, although it was overcast at first, the day turned out to be mostly sunny and warm.
I left my car at the park and ride at Somerton and caught the bus down to the Red Jet in time for the 0915 departure. It was a little earlier than I'd intended but I had arrived at the car park at the same time as the bus.

I arrived in Southampton in time to see Grande Napoli depart, along with a knot of TSS members who had either arrived early or who were staying in the area. It was nice to renew acquaintances with people I had not seen for quite a few years - I think my last TSS trip had been in 2005.

The trip, on Blue Funnel's Ocean Scene, departed from Ocean Village at 1200. Usually the schedule is sail up to the container terminal and the western docks, then heading down the Solent to Portsmouth Harbour before returning to Southampton in time to see the cruise ships depart, if any are in. This time was different, in that we went straight to Portsmouth first, which was done so we could hopefully catch the cruise ships further up Southampton Water nearer the docks.

Here are (most of) the photos, so this is a long post.

Tanker Lady Hilde was on her way to Fawley, in a yacht-infested Solent

As were Sarah Wonsild...

...and Kuala Lumpur Express...

...both photographed against the light.

Portsmouth was busy

HMS Duncan

HMS Illustrious

HMS Westminster (left) and Iron Duke (right)

This unidentified Type 42 is being stripped, presumably ready for a trip to breakers.

Poor old Endurance has been laid up awaiting her fate, since an engine-room flooding incident in 2008; she was brought back to the UK on a heavy-lift ship in April 2009. The navy are still deciding whether to scrap or repair her.

Another reefer, Ivory Girl, was on her way into Portsmouth as we left

As was Normandie Express

On our way back to Southampton, we passed close to the tanker berths at Fawley

Selini was at Hamble

As we approached Southampton, the cruise ships were preparing to depart. Crown Princess was first, followed by Independence of the Seas. We missed Marina's departure because we were in the container terminal but saw Queen Elizabeth leave later.

It was at this point that I got stung by a wasp. Of 64 people and one wasp on the boat, who did it sting? I felt something crawling on my shoulder under my t-shirt and, thinking it was a spider for some reason, I hit it. Big mistake. The bugger stung me and in doing so signed its own death warrant.

Schippersgracht, which we'd passed earlier in the afternoon, on her way into Southampton (my photos were rubbish) was preparing to depart.

Next to her was California Highway

Qingdao Tower is still in the docks, sitting rather uncomfortably alongside huge piles of scrap

Into the container port, where NYK Helios, Kuala Lumpur Express and Fritz Reuter were waiting.

The container port is number one performance-wise in Europe and 20th best in the world and, with the expansion of the terminal, as well as the dredging and widening of the Solent shipping channel from the docks out to the Nab, it means the modern big container ships can call here at all states of the tide.

Glovis Champion was another of the car carriers in; Saturday always seems to be 'car carrier day' at Southampton.

There was a bit of a chuck-out in progress because Leo Spirit was also leaving, ahead of Queen Elizabeth

Once Queen Elizabeth had passed, we returned to Ocean Village where the cruise ended at 1800. It had been a nice day, wasp sting aside!
I caught the 1845 Red Jet back to Cowes but, because vehicles were banned from Fountain Yard after 1000 during Cowes week, I missed the bus and had to get a taxi to the park and ride, which was a nuisance because it cost me an extra fiver. A reminder of why I hate travelling on buses, and a petty aggravation I could have done without, but getting a taxi meant I could be home before the next bus arrived.