Back On The Briny - yet again, April 2019. Part 1

[The Stationmaster]

Yes, we were back on the briny again in April having booked for a week of 'East Coast' on THV Patricia on her first week of the passenger season for this year.  The expectation was join and disembark at Harwich so we obviously were unlikely to get too far from there giving the likelihood that we would spend most of our time in the area between there and Margate and inwards towards the Thamnes Estuary and the boundary with the London port authority's buoyed area.   But a couple of weeks before we were due to sail Trinity House called and offered us an extra week at a sort of discounted price which, although it involved moving to another, smaller, cabin it would have been rude to refuse.  

 

On booking the second week we were told we'd now be disembarking at 'an East Coast port' but the subsequent joining instructions said we'd be disembarking at Harwich however 6 days before we were due to join the ship a 'phone message advised that we'd actually be disembarking at Blyth.  These changes are absolutely typical of what can happen when you take a voyage on Patricia and, as we were to find out, things were far from finalised by TH's advance plans.  And we also found out that - as is sometimes the case - the term 'East Coast' is also another rather flexible expression of where the ship might be going and what it might really be doing.

 

So sort of prepared for 14 days instead of our usual 7 plus a new, lighter, camera to reduce the (my) porterage load caused by having to take extra clothes we duly went aboard at Harwich on 17 April.  As can be seen from the views of Felixstowe below it was a far from clear day when we set sail that afternoon heading for the Sunk Anchorage just off Harwich.  But beg fore we could leave the TH jetty the MS Misana passed inbound from Rotterdam to Parkeston Quay under Charter from her Finnish owners to Stena for vehicle ferry work.

 

 

Once we got underway the view of vessels on the Felixstowe side (only just visible in the picture above of the Misana) was somewhat misty to say the least hence the identity of this Maersk Line container ship (box boat) lying alongside on teh main quay could no be ascertained from the photo.

 

 

And things weren't any better when we passed this China Shipping Lines ship which was working at the new deep (16.0 metre) berth at felixstowe which was dredged out to deal with the largest container ships currently in service.

 

 

And visibility out on the anchorage the next morning wasn't much better as Stena's MS Somerset passed us outward bound for Rotterdam,

 

 

Although the Sunk Inner light float definitely looked a lot clearer once we had closed in to get a workboat across to her to allow the electrical technicians to carry out a component change to get the telemetry back into working order.  This incidentally is not a light ship in the traditional, and usual, sense of the term but a float with a different and smaller hull shape.

 

 

From there we carried on to do what I had thought we would be most likely to be doing during that week - dealing with buoys in the general vicinity of Harwich (and in full sight, when the mist allowed) of land.

  First to be tackled was the Dynamo buoy - seen here after being lifted onboard andwaiting for work to start while its sinker and anchor chain was winched aboard for checking.

 

 

From Dynamo we carried on to deal with Trinity buoy, a south cardinal buoy seen here in its natural element. The cones on the top of cardinal buoys can be arranged in far different permutations which refer to the four cardinal points of the compass (north, south, east & west).  the  shipping must stay to the side of the buoy indicated by its com nes thus ships should stay south of a south cardinal buoy.  The buoys are distinguished from each other at night be differing codes of white flashing lights.

 

 

Finally we dealt with what most people would probably recognise as a shipping buoy - a very ordinary looking one and it would be rude to forget it so here is Black Deep -

 

 

All of which will hopefully make a bit more sense when seen in the context of a couple of charts.  First the routes out of Harwich/Felixstowe and not marked in this scale in the Trinity House jetty but it lies at the confluence of the Parkeston Quay and Felixstowe dredged channels.  The Sunk Inner light float is down near the bottom right hand corner.  So we didn't go very far to get there on our first night at sea.

 

 

And it wasn't much further to our three buoys as here you can see Trinity and Black deep lying aln most ina line south of the Sunk Inner light float.

 

And then what?  Well that was work done for the day so on to an overnight anchorage before our next task - in the English Channel.  Yes, as usual 'East Coast', or wherever was subject to pretty liberal interpretation and that was, for various reasons, going to happen several times over during our fortnight aboard.   so next will be a visit to an anchorage which Nelson knew well, but first to try posting this lot.

 

[The Stationmaster]

And so to Day Two (not that there is likely t be a post for everyday of our voyage ) which found started with us safely anchored in the ancient anchorage off Deal known as The Downs - an important anchorage for the Royal navy, as well as merchant ships. back in the days of sail.  Our day started with a nice view of the town and beach (we shall be returning to see a bit more of it at a later date) before we set off for the MPC buoy.

 

 

But first to get out of The Downs and away to the TSS (see below).  The Downs is a sheltered anchorage because it lies between the Goodwin sands and the coast and this screen view shows Deal at bottom left on the land and the patch of white water (i.e. it is deeper) between the shallows (blue and green) of the Goodwins and our ship right at the bottom off Deal.  The shallower water is is pom lacres navigable fr smaller craft when there is a high tide so access need not necessarily be via the white coloured area.

 

 

The next problem for our Captain was to get to the MPC buoy (an abbreviation of its full name of 'Mid Pas De Calais') because as its name implies it is really in the middle of something - in this case the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme) which separates from each other ships  going in opposite directions in the Channel.  So to get to it there is no alternative to crossing one 'lane' of shipping.  And this is what it can look like - with us up near the bottom v corner of the black rectangle at top right of the screen near the TSS boundary (the broken line) various other ships underway (the green triangles with radar predicted courses ahead of them) and out destination near the bottom at the end of our planned course.  Note also at top right the Sandettie light vessel - it will appear later in our story

 

 

 

Having got there the buoy had to be lifted for servicing and cleaning and ir t was wa hat is known as a Class 1 buoy - which means it weighs somewhere between 12 and 15 tons and will have an 8 ton sinker to keep it in position.  But first the ship has to be manœuvred into a suitable safe position to lift the buoy and kept there to make sure the buoy goes back in the right place.  Here is our Captain of that particular week using the DP (Dynamic Positioning) system to close iin on t a suitable spot to  lift the buoy -

 

 

And while all that is going on the cross-Channel ferries continue there plying across the TSS lanes as here with the DFDS ship 'Dunkerque Seaways' crossing our bows heading  for Dover from Dunkerque

 

 

Class 1 buoys aren't just heavy, they have a tube on the bottom to help stabilise them and this has to be accommodated in a special tube on the ship's deck to enable them to be worked on at normal working heights.  Here is the MPC buopy on its way back to the water after servicing and showing just how much of it is hidden beneath the waves 

 

 

 

This is what it looked like 'up close and personal' while stowed in the handling tube on the deck - this b view was taken from the monkey island on top of the ship's bridge (effectively four decks above the fore deck where the buoy is standing) and hopefully helps illustrate the size of one of these buoys.  the cross on top of the buoy indicates that it is a special mark - in this case it sits between the two main TSS lanes to mark the division between them.

 

 

 

Here you can see part (about half) of the 8 ton sinker which has been winched up for examination

 

 

Then it was time to thread our way back through the southbound TSS lane to get to our next overnight anchorage - off Folkestone

 

 

And there we are

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Robert]

The Downs are still used by the cross channel ferries in storm conditions when Dover is closed.

 

I've spent time steaming around in circles in a force ten gale.  When we left Calais, Dover was open, by the time we were half way across, it wasn't!

[drjcontroller]

The first thing that went through my head when I saw your picture of the Trinity Buoy that you posted yesterday was.....The Wicker Man !

[The Stationmaster]

So back to sea, or rather the coast off Folkestone for the night, and the next morning saw us heading for the Varne light ship where the Ro-Ro ferry 'Opaline' passed us on cross Channel charter work

 

 

 

The Varne lightship work occupied around 4 hours and in all of that time I was unable to get a decent angle for a photograph as the sun persisted in staying in the wrong place.  Also unlike our previous visit to the Varne, in 2014. there was too much of a sea to allow us passengers to take a photographic trip in the workboat so I had to be satisfied with a less than ideal set of shots from Patricia.  The state of the sea and wind also prevented any buoy working taking place after the lightship had been dealyt with so it was an easy journey back to a relatively early anchoring off Folkestone for a second night. 

 

 

Just for comparison here's a 2014 view from the workboat, on a very glassy sea, showing both the lightship and Patricia in the background.  Far better visibility too than the longer range light mist we were encountering during most of this week this year

 

 

And for something a bit different here area couple of views of the Elder Brethren's lounge (now aka 'the passenger lounge') on Patricia.  Complete with the 'homesty bar' in the background of the first view - looking towards the Port side of the ship 

 

 

 

The following day, Sunday, took us back to the Varne Bank with the ambitious target of lifting and servicing 5 buoys around the bank - which lies in the southbound lane of the TSS and presents a considerable hazard to medium and large vessels - as this view of a simplified chart indicates (the depths are in metres).   You can see that the bank extends southwestwards from the lightship with cardinal buoys all around it to warn vessels to keep clear.  After a successful 7 hour day (it was Easter Sunday as it happens)  dealing with all five buoys we sailed back northwards to spend the night off Deal once again with a plan to service some buoys there the following day.  Incidentally things like weekends and Bank Holidays are irrelevant when the ship is working - each watch comes aboard for a three week stint and every day of that period is a work day, they then get three weeks off (unless they happen to be on courses etc).

 

So back to Deal but first a few views - in what amounted to very poor bright light for long range photography - of some ships making their way down the Channel.  First the vehicle carrier 'G Poseidon'

 

 

Now the small container ship BG Sapphire which was probably on a  UK/Ireland feeder service

 

 

The bulk carrier 'Rila' at that time several days out of Riga on a voyage south.  sorry she appears to be going uphil but somebody moved the ship I was standing on!

 

 

The self-discharging bulk carrier 'Golden Grains, a ship launched as recently as 2018

 

 

And Grimaldi's 'Grande Atlantico' combined container/ro-ro vessel working one of their true 'liner' (i.e scheduled throughout) services at the time of this picture enroute down Channel from Hamburg to Lexioes in Portugal on the second leg of a voyage which would take her down the African coast over the following two months.

 

 

And a view the next morning, with some early haze, of the pier at Deal

 

 

Now a look first on a paper chart - the old fashioned way of doing things - and then the comparable scene on a modern electronic course plotting screen our planned early part of the day from the anchorage off Deal to service three buoys inside the Goodwins then head north eastwards up the Gull Stream to regain open water for the voyage back to Harwich (via another call on Tuesday morning at the Sunk Inner light float to changeover an electronic component).

 

 

 

 

The previous might there had been an incident involving illegal immigrants in the vicinity of the MPC buoy and after bthey had refused to board a French vessel for return to France they were finally taken aboard a UK vessel.  Probably as a result the UK Border Force 'were about' and here is there patrol ship making its way north in The Downs 

 

 

But next morning we were back in familiar surroundings standing off the Sunk Inner light float ready for the ETO to do his stuff

 

 

Followed by the familiar sights of the Harwich approaches such as Stena's 'Stena Hollandica' arriving with the overnight sailing from the Hook

 

 

The container ship 'Berlin Bridge' heading for the open sea with the Pilot boat following as they pass the light float

 

 

And the chemical tanker 'Fure Valö'

 

Before the Pilot boat 'St Cuthbert' headed towards us

 

 

And more to come as we arrive at Harwich and explore part of the town before our second week aboard 'on the East Coast' complete with an emergency call out while 'Storm' Hannah was doing her worst.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2019 by The Stationmaster

[john dew]

Hi Mike

 

Thanks for posting. I always look forward to the annual account of your nautical adventures.

 

A question, unrelated to GWR signalling, that I have always wanted to ask you. Have you any idea of the origin/reasons for the difference between European and North American channel marking........over here we repeat the mantra "RED right returning"  ie when approaching a harbour the buoy is  kept on the Starboard side.......in Europe it is the reverse. No idea what happens in Australia.......pretty sure Hong Kong was what I loosely call "European practice"

 

Apologies for veering slightly off course.

 

Kind regards

 

John

[The Stationmaster]

44 minutes ago, john dew said:

Hi Mike

 

Thanks for posting. I always look forward to the annual account of your nautical adventures.

 

A question, unrelated to GWR signalling, that I have always wanted to ask you. Have you any idea of the origin/reasons for the difference between European and North American channel marking........over here we repeat the mantra "RED right returning"  ie when approaching a harbour the buoy is  kept on the Starboard side.......in Europe it is the reverse. No idea what happens in Australia.......pretty sure Hong Kong was what I loosely call "European practice"

 

Apologies for veering slightly off course.

 

Kind regards

 

John

One reputable maritime source suggests that it was purely because the US wanted to be different and not follow the same convention as Europe.  There are two conventions in respect of buoyage - IALA A and IALA B and the differences between them, and which sort is in use where, are explained on this page on the 'net (although the explanation of Special Marks does seem to be a little at variance with usual practice, for example MPC is a Special Mark buoy and marks the centre of the TSS in the Channel as does, for further example, buoy F1 at the eastern end of the Channel and  which can be seen in my rather poor photo below (my excuse is that it was about half a mile away when i took the photo) 

 

http://safe-skipper.com/an-explanation-of-the-iala-maritime-buoyage-systems-iala-a-and-iala-b/

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Great write up and photos Mike. All we need is a photo of you as Captain Birdeye!

Baz

[woodenhead]

What an odd site we have, we have a 'Stationmaster' who is all at sea and a 'Captain Kernow' who never leaves land.

[Joseph_Pestell]

20 hours ago, Robert said:

The Downs are still used by the cross channel ferries in storm conditions when Dover is closed.

 

I've spent time steaming around in circles in a force ten gale.  When we left Calais, Dover was open, by the time we were half way across, it wasn't!

 

You were lucky! When that happened to me the ship just held its position off St Margaret's Bay. Only time that I have been close to seasickness.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Always enjoy these little excursions round the coast with Stationmaster. Would like to do this myself but no way that Mrs P will sign up to it.

 

Met a very interesting guy last week on the vineyard tour. He is now an international consultant advising how to make the best use of ports. With some super computer gadgetry, they can model exactly what the draft will be at any time/date in any port around the world which will often be a bit better than the official figures for that port. They can thus load ships a bit heavier. For each extra centimetre of darft, the extra load on the ship can be worth tens of thousands in extra revenue!

 

Before coming a consultant, he was a pilot at various locations around the world and before that a ship's captain. One of his more interesting gigs was sailing a small coastal oil tanker from Grangemouth around the Scottish coast to deliver oil to whisky distilleries. He built up a fine collection of rare single malts.

[Pacific231G]

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

What an odd site we have, we have a 'Stationmaster' who is all at sea and a 'Captain Kernow' who never leaves land.

Stationmasters can have  a connection to the sea. Before the war, so long before I was born, my paternal Grandfather was the GWR Station Master at Aberdovey (Aberdyfi) where the Railway owned the small port and the short branch leading to it. I never knew him but my grandmother told me that as Station Master he was also the Harbour Master. I don't know if that was literally true but given that by then the port was probably well past its peak it's possible.  She remembered the port's main trade being cattle boats from Ireland.  

 

From an operational modelling point of view, it's interesting that such small rail served ports often handled goods that travelled only a fairly short distance by rail- coastal shipping rates being far lower that railway mileage charges. These have always fascinated me and I'm old enough to remember seeing a lot of rails on quaysides in small ports but unfortunately not to have seen them actually in use. I don't think anyone summed them up in model form better than John Ahern with Madderport.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Pacific231G

[Robert]

2 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

You were lucky! When that happened to me the ship just held its position off St Margaret's Bay. Only time that I have been close to seasickness.

 

I can imagine!  It's amazing how quickly the English Channel can turn very lumpy.  Being in the shadow of the Goodwin Sands can help quite a lot.

[The Stationmaster]

So now to our arrival at Harwich on the Tuesday of Week 1.  Passenger changeovers take place on wednesdays (normally) and on this particular week there was also a crew changeover so we went into port on the Tuesday to give the offgoing watch a chance to finish squaring things up before changing over the following day - we passengers of course simply lost a night at sea althoug we stayed aboard for the night in piort.

 

The run into Harwich Haven Port can be very busy as there is shipping to/from Harwich (Town) - which is limited in extent and tonnage, c vessels heading  to/from the Rivers Stour and Orwell, again restricted in size and tonnage, vessels to/from Parkeston Quay (aka 'Harwich International' for passenger traffic), and a variety of vessels to/from Felixstowe on the opposite bank which are mainly container ships of all sizes plus ro-ro ferries.    The Harwich Haven Harbour Authority is responsible for safe navigation on 150 square miles of river, estuary, and seaward approaches including 42 miles of deepwater approaches and more than 40% of UK container traffic passes through Harwich Haven.  In 2017 (the most recent figure I can find) there was a total 0f 13,752 vessel movements involving 4,819 vessels. (which might exclude those below a certain tonnage perhaps?).  In other words it is a busy place for shipping and a great place for ship watching.

 

So as we approached the Main Channel we were passed by the DFDS ro-ro ferry  'Britannia Seaways' which was probably arriving from Rotterdam and was to berth at Felixstowe.

 

 

Next up was BG Freight's container ship 'Andromeda J' outbound

 

 

Then came the small tanker 'Ozden S', also outbound

 

 

'Teddy' a small tug, seems to divide its time between Harwich and various locations in its home country of the Netherlands - seen her by the deep water container berth

 

 

And then MV 'Britannia Seaw ys' once more - manœuvring towards its berth on the Felixstowe side of the channel.

 

 

General cargo ship 'Aal Kobe'

 

 

Maersk Lines 'Maersk Hangzhou' on the final container berth with the River Orwell visible in the left background

 

 

Midstream there were 3 moored lightships and here are two of them.  No.20 (first image) is basically non-operational and retained 'just in case while the vessel carrying the 'Sandettie' name was the replacement for the  vessel currently on station - and we'll be seeing a lot more of her later on.

 

 

 

 

On the Harwich side was the Severn Class lifeboat  'Daniel L Gibson' with sister boat 'Albert Brown' largely hidden behind it  on the other side of the RNLI pontoon

 

 

There is also preserved Light ship No.18 on the Harwich side and open to the public

 

 

And photobombed by a seagull - a view towards the old quay and Harwich T town with the High Lighthouse showing in the background

 

 

And now to get railways (almost) into the scene in this view over the Trinity House jetty towards the 'preserved' train ferry berth and the berth itself in greater detail

 

 

 

To come is a brief jaunt ashore before we rejoin the ship  for Part 2 of this tale and further time 'on the East Coast'. (or maybe that might be 'the north coast'?)

 

 

 

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

And now a brief run ashore while the 'customer service team' busily got on with cleaning and restocking the passenger cabins on our intermediate Wednesday.  Harwich is a fascinating place witha lot of older dwelling houses but almost no retail presence at all - what of that which does exist (beyond a couple of convenience shops) is just round the bay at Dovercourt.  But suitably clad in PPE, and with a gate key to get us back in, we set off along the TH jetty with a view for once of our own ship

 

 

Then to some of the sights of Harwich and its maritime history starting with the High Lighthouse built in 1818 to replace an older structure which was on top of the nearby town gate (now long gone and the High Lighthouse itself became non-operational in 1863.

 

 

There is also a Low Lighthouse, which formed a leading mark with the High Lighthouse, also built in 1818 to replace an earlier structure and like the High Lighthouse taken out of use in 1863 when the approach channel was altered.  it is now a small museum but was closed the morning we visited

 

 

Another preserved building, although resited from its original location, is the treadmill worked crane - also closed the morning we were there!

 

 

The town also boasts some fine looking houses, possibly once in official use when there was a naval dockyard and base there? -

 

 

But their outlook would perhaps be best described as 'suits shipping enthusiast'-

 

 

 

And it's not too difficult to find your way back to your ship

 

 

And even in port with a view up the river Stour, note Parkeston Quay on the extreme left, you can still find a nice view as the sun begins to set in the evening sky

 

 

 

 

[DaveF]

 

 

Harwich has changed a lot since I used to visit between 1974 and 1980 when I lived in Essex.  Much of the town used to look rather run down.

 

Back then the Trinity House ship was the previous Patricia.

 

David 

Edited May 8, 2019 by DaveF

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, DaveF said:

 

 

Harwich has changed a lot since I used to visit between 1974 and 1980 when I lived in Essex.  Much of the town used to look rather run down.

 

Back then the Trinity House ship was the previous Patricia.

 

David 

Some of it still does look run down Dave, particularly what was once obviously the main shopping street which is now a desert of unused commercial premises in far from a good state.  But most of the much older domestic properties seem well looked after and the Harwich Society seems to have done a lot to highlight the town's history.

 

I'm not sure quite when it will be as I have a couple of days out coming up but Part 2 will be open before long dealing with out second week aboard Patricia.  And, again, where we did and didn't go plus that emergency call-out which took us out  from a nicely sheltered anchorage into the full force of 'storm' Hannah on the East Coast.  Can't have been too much of a storm as some of us slept through it.  

 

But before we get to that here on the left is the third lightship moored at Harwich - this one is an operational spare ready for immediate use to replace a vessel that has been damaged or has to be taken out of service at short notice.  On the right is the new Sandettie light ship with MSC Perle in the background.

 

[The Stationmaster]

Part 2 will be found here - more ship pics for those who like them, including a couple of dredgers and fruit juice tanker (!).