Nirvana

On Wednesday 13th November 2013, the evil deed was done. Ostend Spirit, better known as Pride of Calais, was beached at Aliaga at 1200 GMT, hitting the beach at the second attempt at an incredible 19.4 knots. Her final destination on AIS was 'NIRVANA', a nice touch by her final crew.

With her passing, the wonderful Pride Twins, the 'Chunnel Beaters', the best ferries ever to sail on the Dover Strait (in my completely unbiased opinion), are gone and it's unlikely their replacements - Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France - will ever match them, either in the affection of the travelling public and ship enthusiasts or in their overall success. They are without question magnificent ships but completely soulless.
When I was a teenager - I was 17 when the twins were built - I saw Pride of Dover's photo in Ships Monthly and Sea Breezes and it had an effect on me. I was impressed by the ship's looks and immediately resolved to go to Dover and see and sail on the twins, which I did a year later. Few ships have had the same profound effect on me and, to be honest, the 'New Spirits' (I have sailed on Spirit of France) leave me cold; they can be summed up by my favourite internet word 'meh'. This might just sound as if I am pissed off because they displaced my favourites, and I am the first to admit that there is an element of that, but it also happens to be true.
I was talking with my friend Dave, who kept me updated via text when she was beached as I was at work with no internet access (and no data signal, Vodafone on the Isle of Wight are useless but I still have to pay for it!), and we said we'd wished we'd done a trip on her when she was with TEF when we had a chance, but none of us have a crystal ball of course, and the TEF collapse came almost out of the blue. There's also not having visited Dover between 2005 and when both twins were discarded, Pride of Dover in 2010 and Pride of Calais in 2012...I suppose it's a feeling akin to regretting not visiting that deceased relative or friend as often as you should have when they were alive, but life does have that unfortunate habit of getting in the way.

Here's Pride of Calais in happier times

I'll knock up a tribute photo to her, as I did for Pride of Dover last year, sometime this weekend. In the meantime you can see more about the Pride Twins here.

Edit: Here it is (click on it for full-size version)

If you're so inclined, there are some cracking, but very sad, photos on Dover Ferry Enthusiast Forums, of Ostend Spirit approaching the beach, taken by well-known local photographer Selim San. Click on the link, go to the Ostend Spirit thread (under Dover Ferry News) and they're on page 58. However, you might have to join to view the forum.

I don't know how many death metal fans are in the ranks of ship enthusiasts, but I am a fan of Swedish death metal band Amon Amarth and I think their song 'Valhall Awaits Me' ought to be dedicated to Pride of Calais/Ostend Spirit...

Farewell Pride of Calais...well, almost!

After months of will-she-won't-she speculation and rumour the former Pride of Calais, now known as Ostend Spirit, finally showed up on the Port of London departures list as departing from Tilbury on 30th October 2013 at 1100, destination - the one nobody wanted to see - Aliaga.
I asked for - and got - a short notice day off work (no, of course I didn't tell them why!), booked a return crossing for myself and my car with Wightlink on the 0600 service from Fishbourne, collected fellow enthusiast 'Slinky-Dave' Shepherd at Leigh Park and drove to Northfleet.

To cut a long story short, the ship left her berth, turned round, approached the lock, buggered about for a bit and then went back alongside with the departure aborted for unknown reasons (later we found out it was a rudder problem) so that was that. With no new departure time we called it a day and headed back to Portsmouth. The ship eventually left at 1900 the same evening, but with work the next day, pets to see to and it being dark, there was no point in hanging around.
It would have been nice to get decent photos but, if we hadn't ventured up to the Thames while we had the chance and she had gone as scheduled, we'd have kicked ourselves.
As you can see from the pics, fellow ferry European Seaway (which I was fortunate to sail on in 2005) has been keeping her company at Tilbury - and Seaway's own future is less than assured.

I have followed her on the AIS since and she has been doing speeds of up to 17 knots since leaving the Thames. There is nothing wrong with this ship and it seems criminal to send her to the breakers, which is a sentiment echoed across forums and Facebook groups.
Anyway, yesterday didn't go as planned but at least I did see her one final time - and I at least did catch up with her in her Ostend Spirit guise - and was able to say Farewell My Friend. I am running out of favourite ships...

I have got some photos of other ships seen on the day, I'll post these at the weekend.

Another going before her time? Ostend Spirit

According to rumour, which is beginning to look as if it's fact, Ostend Spirit (the former Pride of Calais) will soon be joining her late sister, Pride of Dover, on the beaches of Turkey. She's been laid up in Tilbury since the collapse of TEF in late April and, the longer she was laid up, the more likely it was she'd be got rid of.

Considering the ship is in good repair and has been looked after, this is a shame but she is only suited to very short routes without extensive modifications so very few people, if any, would want her unless they're prepared to spend some serious money on conversions.

Another one going before her time.

Here are some scanned prints of her over the years (except, for some reason, as P&OSL Calais in the appalling halfway house colours of the short-lived P&O Stena collaboration; I think she was away for a refit during the time of my visit during that period). Sadly I never did catch up with her as Ostend Spirit.

New generation container ships

Two of the huge new generation of container ships made their first calls at Southampton this week, first APL Temasek which arrived yesterday and would be departing today and Hong Kong Express (which is also the name of a Chinese restaurant in Newport, who do nice 雞肉和蘑菇蛋炒飯!*) which was due to arrive today.

APL Temasek's departure time was listed as 0700 so I decided to go to East Cowes to see her sail past, and then get HK Express on her way in.
There were sunny intervals, but it was cold so I stayed in the car, despite my original intentions to leave it in a car park and walk.

And then, after a brief wait, it was the turn of Hong Kong Express. Good-looking ship, too. Shooting into the sun a bit here, though.

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It would appear that, after securing the services of Pride of Calais and renaming her Ostend Spirit, TEF's fortunes were looking brighter. But then their website went down, their schedule went to pieces, being operated on a very ad-hoc basis and no-one could get a straight answer from them as to what was going on.
Unfortunately, things became slightly clearer yesterday when Ostend Spirit suddenly headed from Ramsgate to Tilbury, joining former fleet colleague European Seaway which is also laid up there.

It seems TEF have gone out of, or are on the verge of going out of, business. Their past it old Larkspur (or Larkslow to her enemies) broke down a while ago and has not been repaired - and, to be honest, she should have been on a beach a long time ago - and Gardenia is also old and past it. It was a lop-sided service and it seems TEF could have over-reached themselves when they acquired Pride of Calais/Ostend Spirit as she can't be a cheap ship to charter or run.

It's a shame, for the staff, the two ports and for poor old Pride of Calais, whose own future is now looking far from certain. P&O have taken her back and apparently are looking to sell her as soon as possible. I just hope she doesn't follow Pride of Dover to the beach. I hope TEF can sort themselves out soon but it's not looking good and I can't help feeling they shot themselves in the foot through poor marketing and not getting rid of old Larkspur when they got Pride of Calais.

Also, Oleander and Wisteria (the former Prinses Beatrix/Duc de Normandie) are both reported to have been sold to Russian interests and registered in the Marshall Islands. I am not the only one who is thinking 'beach'...

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*Chicken and mushroom with egg fried rice...well, I hope that's what that says and that I haven't actually said something insulting...

Calais, 2003

I have got a slide and negative scanner and have had a go at scanning some pictures from negatives. It's a bit hit-and-miss and the device is temperamental at times, due mainly to a dodgy USB port on my computer, but I tried it out with some scans of negatives from a couple of trips to Calais ten years ago (TEN years??!!). I have had a bit of trouble getting the colour balance just right as there was a green bias on some of the originals, plus dust and animal hairs had got onto the negatives, despite my best efforts, but the process is easier and quicker than using a flat-bed scanner and scanning prints one at a time. The photos are also noisy, but noise-reduction software which works really well on images from a digital camera doesn't seem to work as well on scanned negatives; this is most likely because the scanned pictures are grainier anyway, especially that from 400 or 800 ISO film, which is very evident onscreen. One thing is certain, there's no way I would ever return to using film, not unless I absolutely had to!

Sobering to think that four out of the six ships shown here are now no longer with us - SeaFrance Cezanne, SeaFrance Renoir, Pride of Provence and Pride of Dover have all gone to the great harbour in the sky, the latter two prematurely - while out of the remaining two, only Pride of Kent remains on the Dover-Calais route, while Pride of Calais is now TEF's new Ostend Spirit and, from what I have heard, very pleased Oostende are with her, too. Not only that, SeaFrance are also gone, having gone bust and their remaining ships taken on by Eurotunnel (of all people) trading as My Ferry Link.

Looking at these pictures on the computer screen highlights the deficiencies in the camera equipment I had then, you don't notice soft edges on 6x4 prints. Also, one of my old Nikon F3 or FE was definitely on the way out, judging by the fact quite a few photos are turning up 'fogged'.

It's time I made another trip down that way. I definitely plan to in the spring at some point.