Just pictures

AntarcticPilot said:
View attachment 107345
A photo I took one day at work!
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It was actually the first day I was in Antarctica - I was amazingly fortunate to arrive on one of the rare days of beautiful weather. A long time ago, now - February 2005. That, or others like it, have been the background image on my PC for years.

For those interested, it's looking north from Rothera Point, Adelaide Island. And the penguin is real; I didn't Photoshop it in despite appearances!
 
tillergirl said:
A typical 1980's image off Bradwell

Dsc00850a by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

Dsc01114a by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

One ship of 6 I think there were.
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Can remember a similar situation in the mid 1960's due to a dock strike. We sailed out of Queenborough and round many of the anchored ships before returning to our mooring. Whilst having a meal on board, there was a bump alongside and we had a police launch alongside. We had been seen sailing close by and they thought we might have been smuggling something from one of the vessels. When they saw 3 children (I was one of them) they realised there was nothing untoward. Made our day though.
 
Concerto said:
Can remember a similar situation in the mid 1960's due to a dock strike. We sailed out of Queenborough and round many of the anchored ships before returning to our mooring. Whilst having a meal on board, there was a bump alongside and we had a police launch alongside. We had been seen sailing close by and they thought we might have been smuggling something from one of the vessels. When they saw 3 children (I was one of them) they realised there was nothing untoward. Made our day though.
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Reminds me of an incident that happened in about 1960, when I was about 9. One evening at home, after my brother and I had gone to bed, there was a knock at the door and the police came in and wanted to see my brother and I. We were duly brought downstairs (it was early enough that we hadn't gone to sleep), and the police took one look at us and lost interest. It turned out that there had been thefts from other boats on the River Ancholme, where Dad kept our boat. They had a description of two youths, and somehow (no doubt "information received"!) knew that two boys were associated with the boat on Mum and Dad's jetty. But of course, they realized as soon as they saw us that we were far too young to be the youths in question. I think they asked us a couple of questions, but it was apparent they took one look at us and scratched us off their list.
 
This morning at Cuxton.

141337816_10221994382906202_1068066037349490863_o.jpg
 
In the 60s there were a lot laid up in the Blackwater. We had a very interesting talk at the club a few years back from a barge skipper, whose name I'm afraid I forget, titled "It wasn't always Summer" It was an account of a trading trip from the East Coast to London in Winter. He illustrated it with some amazing winter scenes, including a couple of aerial photos taken in the 62/63 winter of the Blackwater, covered in ice, but with black tracks of clear water created by the anchored ships. He told us that that Winter some barges had been trapped in ice in the Wallet in no wind, and just drifted up and down with the tide until the ice broke and they were able to sail. It sounded horrendous.
 
Leighb said:
In the 60s there were a lot laid up in the Blackwater. We had a very interesting talk at the club a few years back from a barge skipper, whose name I'm afraid I forget, titled "It wasn't always Summer" It was an account of a trading trip from the East Coast to London in Winter. He illustrated it with some amazing winter scenes, including a couple of aerial photos taken in the 62/63 winter of the Blackwater, covered in ice, but with black tracks of clear water created by the anchored ships. He told us that that Winter some barges had been trapped in ice in the Wallet in no wind, and just drifted up and down with the tide until the ice broke and they were able to sail. It sounded horrendous.
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Always worth remembering that most places at 50-60 degrees N or S are MUCH colder than the UK - we have an anomalously warm climate, as does most of Europe. All of the USA except Alaska and a lot of Canada are further south than us, and major snowfall is a regular occurrence! But occasionally that shows - I just checked the lowest temperatures recorded, and there was a spell in about 1982 when the temperatures went below -20 degrees C in many places; amply low enough to freeze seawater. It's getting less likely, providing that climate change doesn't divert the Gulf Stream - which is a possibility.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Always worth remembering that most places at 50-60 degrees N or S are MUCH colder than the UK - we have an anomalously warm climate, as does most of Europe. All of the USA except Alaska and a lot of Canada are further south than us, and major snowfall is a regular occurrence!
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I lived in Minnesotta for a brief period and sailed on Lake Superior. I remember my skipper from Duluth (46degN) saying they had this great snow clearance progam each year. They called it July.
 
One of the last, if not the last, of the ships laid up in the Blackwater in the 70s and 80s was the Aro, a hideous old Liberia-flagged tramp. She laid out in the river for well over five years, and during a hooking trip, I rowed a tender round the old tub, and prised a whopper barnacle off her rudder, at least two inches long. There was an article in the Essex County Standard when she was finally towed away to Battleship Beach.
 
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