A container crane crashing down onto the deck of a containership at Southampton dock the other day, I don’t know exactly which day but the pilot on the way out from Southampton told me it was on Youtube so here it is. Amazingly the driver of the crane survived, apparently he wasn’t in the cab at the time, which is where they spend 99% of their time, so he was lucky. The crash has caused a logistical headache for the port ships are being diverted and it will take weeks to repair. Reasons for the accident, unknown at this time…….
Source: Security camera (via youtube) footage as far as I know.
The American flagged Vehicle Carrier Courage of American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (ARC) seen yesterday leaving Southampton on a voyage to destination undisclosed, she was heading west in the English channel on the AIS at her last contact. A fairly rare occurrence to see the Stars & stripes flying on the mast these days in this neck of the woods, I even thought it was a Liberian until it passed a bit closer. The ship was once a Wallenius called “Aida” and the name has only been painted over. According to local information sources vehicles carried are often military vehicles and that is why it’s American. The website looks however normal enough http://www.arrcnet.com/.
Three warships passed our position today heading for sea all spick and span after the bad weather, there was no radio traffic and the AIS was switched off so no ideas about where they were going or what the mission was. Their silent passage was impressive with all the crew on deck and the white caps gleaming in the winter sun. A few days earlier there was plenty of chatter from one warship and the VTS at Southampton, now the other day at Rotterdam I blogged about being able to speak English on the VHF, well who better to give us a great example of perfect Queens English than the boys and girls of the Royal Navy?
Well it was English, but it must have been the competition for the most clipped and shortest time on air or they have some kind of military practice for short messages so they don’t get targeted by radio direction finders or something. There are things that are confusing when hearing such military tone and military speak ” This is coalition warship calling the vessel on a course of 225 speed 15knots in position etc. etc.” Since when have the Royal Navy started calling themselves “coalition warships”, and what happens when they use the half second grunts and bleats that are meant to be words but sound more like noises from a haggard or stall with the non-English speakers like the French? Probably more of the same back to them……
But I was happy to hear the calm and collected voice of Solent Coastguard on the VHF sounding very clear and concise, even if it was a bad weather forecast for more gales, they sounded good anyway.
“Vomit Point” and “The Vomit” are two interestingly named geographic points on the chart near St. Annes Head outside Milford Haven in Wales. They may have nothing whatsoever to do with getting sick, but I’m sure there are plenty of ferry passengers who might disagree after crossing the Irish sea being bounced around. The first question asked of visitors from England was “did you have a good crossing” meaning did you have to puke or not. Nowadays Ryanair transports more visitors to Ireland than the ferries, but the puking is still the same……
The name of the port here Milford Haven has been a cause for great amusement among some of the younger guys, they have changed the letters around a bit and abbreviated it to Milf. Heaven, pathetic really. Some people are easily amused, youth these days.
We were leaving port the other day, or evening as the small video clips will show when we had a visit from a very loud and bright flying object, they started flashing searchlights across the deck and it was all very noisy. I went to the port bridge window and there was a big Helicopter of type unidentifiable about 10 metres from me the co-pilot had a number board with “69″ on it and he was gesticulating vigorously with a flashlight at the number, the penny finally dropped inside my head and I lifted the VHF tuned to channel 69 (nothing to do with any other purported uses of this cipher combination), as I tuned in an extremely efficient British voice crackled across the airwaves, “Coastguard helicopter Whiskey Delta, on exercise, permission to place a man on deck, OVER” I gave the OK “Whiskey Delta, permission granted” thinking to myself these are the boys that could make the difference on a dark and dirty night in the North Sea, so practice away lads.
My cameraman missed the first part of the operation we were all fairly awestruck at the proximity, noise and presence of such a big machine flying a few feet overhead. There are four small sequences showing the winchman exercise with a stretcher basket and finally fly off into the murk.
The last clip is a few seconds of the Dunkirk pilot making his entrance, there was too much wind for a launch so he had to arrive by chopper. I took a photo as they flew past the bridge and blogged previously under Flying Pilots
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