Our last move was the obligatory après ship debrief, this time back in Sandown with a four-rasher bacon roll, lashings of ketchup (No brown sauce? Ed.) and a mug of steaming tea! Now that the mission is complete, I can finally let go of the daily scouring of the planned shipping departures and hopefully move on with my life.
Unfortunately since that murky night when the Polo sailed off into the dark, rival company Maersk several launched the Triple E container ships each clocking in at 399 metres and a ridiculous 58 metres wide. As far as I know none of these brutes have been into Southampton to date so the Marco Polo would have to do us for now. As far as I know the VTS port authority was given permission to dredge nearly half a million cubic meters of mud between the new terminal and Marchwood (Hampshire) to widen the channel so it can handle these bigger ships, so watch this space.
BON VOYAGE
Scott does not know this yet, but I am not done with these boats completely. Once you become a ship spotter, it’s in your blood, curdling away and now I know there are even bigger fish in the sea, I will be striving to net some of these from new angles and new perspectives. I can’t wait to be shouting ‘Aye, aye captain, ship ahoy!’, but for the meantime I’ll be keeping my weathered eyes open, me hearties. But for now it’s ‘three sheets to the wind’ and maybe I’ll spend some of my hard-earned doubloons on a cruise?