Thames

Item Posted: 22/02/12 19:24

You have probably seen the Thames on my webcam which has been sitting outside my window for the last few day. She is the old Arco Thames (above) built 1973 but still going.

Red Jet 3

Item Posted: 22/02/12 19:07

Red Jet 3 about to come out the water today at Marchwood.

New Royal Navy Tankers

Item Posted: 22/02/12 17:11

The government is to spend £452m on four new Royal Navy Tankers, but they will be built in South Korea. The new generation of 37,000-tonne Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability (MARS) tankers will maintain the Royal Navy's ability to refuel at sea and will provide fuel to warships and task groups. They will support deployed amphibious, land and air forces close to the shore, will be able to operate helicopters and are planned to enter service from 2016, replacing existing Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) single hulled tankers. At over 200 metres long, the four tankers will be approximately the same length as 14 double decker buses and can pump enough fuel to fill two Olympic sized swimming pools in an hour. Minister for Defence Equipment Support and Technology, Peter Luff, announced that Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) is the Government's preferred bidder for the deal. The MoD said a number of British companies took part in the competition, but none submitted a final bid for the build contract. As a result, the decision was made for the tankers to be constructed in South Korea by DSME. However, UK companies will benefit from £150m of associated contracts including the provision of key equipment, systems, design and support services. The tankers are part of a multi-billion pound investment programme for the Royal Navy, which includes Type 45 destroyers, Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers and Astute Class attack submarines, employing thousands of people in the UK.

Condor Vitesse

Item Posted: 21/02/12 12:10

New look for Condor Vitesse now using Poole because of problems at Weymouth.Just about to go through Poole Harbour entrance on the 20-2-2012.

Severnlink wants to get going again - but not with our old ferries.

Item Posted: 19/02/12 17:30

Plans for a ferry service between south Wales and Devon could still happen despite setbacks, it is claimed. Severn Link had hoped to start the route between Swansea and Ilfracombe in 2010, and sea trials had been carried out on the catamarans - our old Wightlink ones - which were sold and are now with a Russian operator in the Black Sea. Issues over landing facilities and the withdrawal of an investor led to delays, leading to the sale of the vessels. The original plan was for a ferry link between Swansea and Ilfracombe, but a service between Cardiff and Minehead was also being considered.

Twitter feed

Item Posted: 19/02/12 07:38

You have probably noticed that under the maps I now have a Twitter feed. For those of you who have not sussed it yet it is like a message board where people can post snippets of interest. Just got it going but it seems to working at the momenet - fingers crossed! The whole idea of this is that YOU can post your own messages here for all to see. All you need to do is to sign up with Twitter (just search for Twitter on Google) - it takes less than a minute and of course it's completely free. To post a message, just click on 'reply' under any message - type what you want to say and tweet it. You can include links in your message. It will appear on the site within about 20 seconds. You can also just open Twitter on your computer, sign in, and send your message to @solentships77. If you have just taken a picture that is news worthy, you can post it here directly without sending it to me first by e mail and waiting for me to post it. All you need to do is to sign in on Twitpic (just search Google for Twitpic) and send your picture up. Just make sure you include the word @solentships77 in the picture comments. PLEASE DO NOT BE SCARED OF YOUR COMPUTER - WHY NOT JUST GIVE IT A TRY AND JUST SAY HELLO OR SOMETHING.

Cumberland arrives at Portsmouth

Item Posted: 17/02/12 18:04

Vortex arriving at Portsmouth with Cumberland this afternoon. Photo by Gary Davies at http://www.maritimephotographic.co.uk

New Maritime Photographic Web Site

Item Posted: 17/02/12 13:04

Gary Davies at Maritme Photographic has his new site and blog up and running. There is information and super pictures in his blog and some super pictures and 360 degree panoramic views and lots of other local ship pictures etc. Keep an eye on my twitter feeds for his site updates. --- http://www.maritimephotographic.co.uk

Jan V on Huelin Channel Island srvice

Item Posted: 17/02/12 11:42

Huelin Channel Island Service --- Huelin Endeavour is laid up for the winter - Huelin Dispatch has gone to Norway and Jan V is mainting in the service at present. The Huelin Endeavour, has been plying the Avonmouth to Warrenpoint route for a month or so.

Work begins on second carrier

Item Posted: 17/02/12 06:52

Work has begun at BAE in Portsmouth on the second of the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, The Prince of Wales. The shipyard's owners say no decisions have been made over the future of its staff. The two ships survived the government's defence review and are costing about £6bn. Portsmouth's share of the work is helping to sustain up to 1,500 jobs in the city.

Vortex arrives with Cornwall

Item Posted: 15/02/12 18:44

Vortex arriving at Portsmouthtoday with Cornwall. Cumberland hould be here on 17th Feb. Photo by Kev Shaw.

New ships on FAL1 service

Item Posted: 14/02/12 16:13

It looks like two of the new ships on the new FA1 service are the Al Qibla and Al Riffa 140,500/12 Qatar flag. The Al Riffa is due on 25th May and Al Qibla on 4th June

Type 22's for disposal at Portsmouth

Item Posted: 14/02/12 16:02

The Westcountry's last two Type 22 frigates are leaving Devonport Naval Base for the last time this week destined for the scrapheap. The former warship HMS Cornwall was this morning due to be towed up to Portsmouth Naval Base and another frigate, formerly known as HMS Cumberland, is expected to follow on Friday morning. The two vessels were part of an entire fleet of four Devonport-based Type 22 frigates, which were controversially scrapped as part of the Government's Strategic Defence and Security Review. Neither vessel has been sold and will be laid up in Portsmouth for disposal, either for sale or for recycling. ---- Tug Vortex is towing the 2 type 22''s to Portsmouth, they set off with the first one this morning (Cornwall), due at OSB 1600 tomorrow 15th Feb.

Not good for Star Reefers

Item Posted: 14/02/12 15:59

Star Reefers’ loss in the third quarter widened to $14.1 million from $3.7 million a year earlier as the Norwegian refrigerated ship operator faced plunging spot freight rates and high fuel prices. The Oslo-listed company whose ships do a regular service to Portsmouth, was also hurt by a collapse in Ecuador’s banana exports and increased competition from ocean container carriers. Conventional reefer ships faced “aggressive” pricing by container carriers seeking additional cargo volumes for their excess capacity, Star Reefers said. Banana exports from Ecuador and Central America have been “in a state of collapse” since April due to weak economies, early hot weather in the Mediterranean and political disturbances in North Africa which squashed demand for perishables. While there is “reasonable” demand for the most efficient conventional reefer ships, many less efficient vessels “face a daily price-driven battle with container lines who seem motivated only by market share,” the company said. The specialized reefer fleet will emerge smaller and more focused after the crisis, Star Reefers said.

Air Ships for Royal Navy?

Item Posted: 13/02/12 15:28

The Royal Navy is considering the purchase of British-built airships, which can be used for surveillance and the resupply of Navy vessels. The modern-day Zeppelins are to undergo testing in the United States. They can remain airborne for three weeks at a time while surveying the Taliban over a vast area, and can carry a 50-tonne load, which would enable them to transport urgent equipment parts out to ships. Commanders are also considering using them for counter-piracy operations, because they can carry 150 commandos along with their boats. Travelling at more than 90mph, the airship is almost three times faster than many vessels, and can go several days without refuelling. With a mixture of 60 percent helium and 40 percent air, it is less vulnerable to enemy fire than the hydrogen-filled German Zeppelins in the First World War. Tests have shown that bullets and even missiles can pass through the balloon without igniting the gas mixture. The airships will cost £60 million each and can be flown remotely as a drone.

Ship Webcam

Item Posted: 13/02/12 11:14

I have changed the shp webcam computer to try and overcome the obscure intermittent freezing of the Shipcam. It is now on an old HP computer on XP (which has been running 24 hours a day for the last five years!) instead of a newish DELL running Vista - a combination which is a bit c**p. Will not be buying another DELL There have been reports on Firewire driver problems with Vista so I will welcome any reports of picture freezing. If all fails I will have to buy another computer.

Why not use my RSS facility?

Item Posted: 12/02/12 12:32

It seems that many people check the news each day. Sometimes - like now - there is not much news about so you will see no new news items. My news has an RSS facility. By using a simple RSS reader program - there are loads of free ones - you will be automatically be notified when I post a new item. Most programs notify you with a small popup and sound alert. Search google on how to subscribe to sites with RSS. --- my RSS feed web addresses can be found on ---- http://www.ship-tracking.co.uk/News/rssfeeds.html --- Another thing I don't understand is that with all the people using the site - 7,000 page views yesterday - the chat room facility is never used. Is it because all you ship people are don't like contacting people with an interest in shipping? During your computer session why not leave the chat room popup open to see who logs on.

Government running out of money for defence projects

Item Posted: 10/02/12 11:01

Britain’s biggest defence projects have become unaffordable – that is the warning from the Commons Public Accounts Committee. It says in the last financial year alone nearly half a billion pounds of extra costs were added to equipment programmes. And the MPs warn that slowing down delivery to try to rein back costs is adding even more to an already massive bill. The committee highlights the Nimrod surveillance aircraft - scrapped at a cost of almost three-and-a-half million pounds - and new aircraft carriers, where the cost has jumped nearly three billion pounds. It also cites the example of the Astute nuclear attack submarines, a programme running two billion pounds over budget because the MOD significantly underestimated how much would be needed to buy complex new equipment. Perhaps we won't be getting all the ships we thought.

Cruise Ship Webcams

Item Posted: 10/02/12 10:23

I've added some cruise ship webcams to the site. Now you should be able to see the position on the map, listen to the ship on the radio, see the ship pass on the shipcam and see the view from the ship bridge. This should be interesting for the P & O and Cunard cruise ship events this year. Not all cruise ships have webcams but for those that have I will include them when they visit here.

New wind farm support vessel

Item Posted: 08/02/12 11:44

P&O Maritime, together with South Boats Special Projects Ltd., announces the delivery of the latest addition to the P&O Maritime crew transfer vessel fleet; ‘Chinook’ This multi-purpose crew transfer vessel was designed by Incat Crowther, Australia and built by South Boats at Cowes. The vessel has successfully completed sea trials and has been delivered to London Array offshore wind farm. .

Water injection dredger at Fawley Power Station

Item Posted: 07/02/12 07:39

The water injection dredger ‘ODIN’ will be engaged in dredging the Fawley Power Station intake channel, 0.5nm to the north west of Calshot Spit in Southampton Water, for a period of approximately 3 weeks commencing on or after Monday 6th February 2012. Water Injection Dredgers pump high pressure water into the mud or sand bottom and stirs it into slurry, which is then carried away by the natural current. Dredging operations will take place between 0700hrs and 1900hrs local throughout the period and mariners should expect to pass the dredger between these times in the vicinity of the cooling water intake channel between the Fawley Power Station and the main navigational channel, by Calshot Reach in Southampton Water.

21-gun salute will be fired by the Royal Navy at Portsmouth

Item Posted: 06/02/12 11:17

A 21-gun salute will be fired by the Royal Navy on Monday 6th Feb to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s ascension to the throne. The saluting gun at Fort Blockhouse at Gosport – at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour – will be fired at 12 noon by four specialist gunnery instructors from HMS Collingwood at Fareham. The custom dates back to the early days of sail when ships visiting foreign ports would discharge their guns before entering to prove they were empty and that the visit was peaceful. The portable 19th century gun at Fort Blockhouse has been firing salutes since it was acquired by the navy in 1957.

Fire crew attand HMS Edinburgh

Item Posted: 06/02/12 07:43

Six fire crews were sent to HMS Edinburgh at Portsmouth naval base after the ship’s engineers discovered smouldering in the insulation surrounding the refrigeration store. Alongside the ship’s company, they cooled the immediate area to stop the fire from spreading any further. Hampshire Fire and Rescue said there was no need for the crew to be evacuated. The fire was in the insulation material surrounding a cold store area.

Britannia at Cowes

Item Posted: 05/02/12 12:58

Britannia tied up at East Cowes. On King George V’s death in January 1936, what should happen to his massive and famous J Class Yacht ‘Britannia’? He’d left instructions that she was to ‘follow him to the grave’. Stripped of all her spars and fittings, her hull was towed out from Cowes and sunk off St Catherine’s Deep, somewhere west of Ventnor and south of the Needles, on July 1st. The remains of her hull are there to-day, rotting in a deep watery grave. Nobody is supposed to know the exact location, though fishermen from the island have snagged nets on her. An exact replica of her hull was built, between 1993 and 2009, at a frozen shipyard north of the Arctic Circle, in Russia’s port of Arkhangelsk, and financed by a Norwegian magnate. Since then she’s been overwintered in Northern Norway. From there, and in January this year her hull has been on a final leg of her journey, trekking west and south – to Cowes. As you might expect, after Artic winters and battered by storms on her way here, the hull looks the worse for wear. Local Anthony Churchill tells us, by the end of this week – weather permitting - she will at last reach her new home, alongside in Cowes, all 40 metres (120 feet) of her. The plan: for her completion to commence, and for the Trust that now owns her, to invest in fitting-in new deck ware, restoring her interior, her mast, rigging and sails, back to what they were in the Classic Days of Cowes Yachting. The goal: for her to become a flagship for charity, reaching out to underprivileged children, war veterans and to be used as a fundraising venue for upcoming charities in the UK and across the globe. Head of the Trust, Scott Ward, says “The hull needs a good brush up and tender care, but we hope to introduce her to you all in a few weeks, once she is out of the water and looking her best”. More details to be announced at the ‘Cowes Yachting’ lunch, on February 6th at the Royal London Yacht Club.

Britannia at Cowes

Item Posted: 04/02/12 14:49

Danasund and tow passing Ryde at 14:40 4th Feb.

Free tickets to SeaCity proposed

Item Posted: 03/02/12 17:46

Plans to give Southampton residents free tickets to a new museum have been criticised by opposition councillors. The proposal for the SeaCity museum should not be a "priority" as the council faces making £76m cuts, the Labour group said. But, the leader of the Conservative-run council, Councillor Royston Smith called it "a good investment". The authority said it would cost it about £80,000 in lost revenue. The £15m museum still lacks £5m in funding. Under the scheme, every household in the city will receive a family ticket, worth about £25, to visit the council-owned museum. Councillor Richard Williams, leader of the Labour opposition group, said it could cost up to £2.5m if everyone eligible took up the offer of free tickets.

Liverpool to become turnaround port

Item Posted: 03/02/12 16:26

Cruise liners could be based in Liverpool from May after a cash row was settled. ---- The city had received £9m in government grants to revamp the Pier Head to allow ships to visit. Now they have agreed to pay back the cash after rival port Southampton claimed it was unfair for Liverpool to receive public money. Liverpool council leader Joe Anderson said the repayment would allow it to bring cruises to the city. The council had initially offered to return £5m, used to build the city's liner terminal, to the government but was told it needed to offer more. Southampton council leader Royston Smith said he would not be content until European finance the city had received is paid back. Civic authorities in the two cities had been in conflict when Southampton claimed the grant was a subsidy that gave Liverpool an unfair commercial edge in the cruise liner trade. Public funding of the Pier Head development, including the cruise terminal which opened in 2007, was made on condition it was only used for cruise stop-offs, not "turnarounds" - voyages starting and ending at Liverpool cruise terminal. If Liverpool pay back the money, they will be competing on a purely commercial basis and everyone will be content ” Councillor Royston Smith Leader, Southampton council At present, cruise ships only dock at Liverpool's terminal after starting from a different port. The new plans would allow it to become a turnaround port. In return for lifting the restrictions, Liverpool Council offered to pay back £5m of the government grants used to build the terminal - the project received £9m in government funding and a further £8.6m from Europe. Mr Anderson said the repayment could allow cruises to start and end at the city within three months, as the government had agreed to allow the plans to go ahead once the issue of the grants was dealt with. He said the council would pay back "whatever the [DfT] panel decides" but did not expect it to be the full amount.

Illustrious departs for colder weather - if thats possible!

Item Posted: 03/02/12 16:24

Illustrrious shown here leaving Portsmouth this afternoon for cold weather training north of the Arctic Circle for eight weeks - culminating in the multinational Exercise Cold Response - preparing for her role as the UK's high-readiness helicopter and commando carrier. On her way north during the build-up to the exercise HMS Illustrious will train with Army Apache helicopters and Royal Navy Sea King Mk 4 helicopters. Cold Response will demonstrate the ship's ability to operate as part of a multi-national amphibious force and offers arduous training in the depths of the Arctic winter. The NATO exercise, led by the Norwegian armed forces, is seen as vital in ensuring UK troops retain their ability to deploy worldwide. They will also hone specialist warfare skills while supporting and strengthening the NATO Alliance. HMS Illustrious will embark Lynx and Sea King helicopters during the exercise along with a company of Royal Marines from Plymouth-based 42 Commando. She will work alongside the UK's amphibious assault ship HMS Bulwark and warships from other nations including Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. The UK's Royal Marines will be joined ashore by landing forces from both the Netherlands and the United States.

New container ships fpr Southampton

Item Posted: 03/02/12 08:45

UASC is joining forces on some CMA's far east services, this means the FAL 1 will be comprised of the following 8 x CMA CGM vessels, (3 x Andromeda Class of 11000teu) (5 x Christophe Colomb class of 13000teu) 2 x UASC vessels (13000teu) Umm Salal class, possibly Ain Snan & Unazah which are very close to delivery (pic attached) 1 x MSC vessel (13000teu) MSC Capella currently undergoning sea trials,(ais attached) she is a sister ship to MSC Benedetta (pic attchached) MSC Capella looks like the 1st MSC vessel to call and the updated schedule currently shows and eta of 28th May. The three Andromeda class vessels will be phased out by the end of 2012 and will be replaced by 3 x 16000teu vessels, CMA CGM Vasco De Gama, Zheng He, Marco Polo these were originally sisters to Christophe Colomb but have been "jumboized" and are 40 mtrs longer.

Bore hole operations in Portsmouth

Item Posted: 02/02/12 09:06

Borehole works in support of the Capital Dredge programme for the new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers will commence on the 04 February 2012 within the Dockyard Port of Portsmouth. 27 borehole samples will be taken in the Approach Channel, Harbour Entrance and Harbour. DEEP DIVER 1, a Jackup barge (40m Length by 20m Beam, which recently arrived at Southampton with tug MTS Vengeance) will conduct the borehole operations. Each bore hole will require DEEP DIVER 1 to remain on station for approximately 48hrs. The first five boreholes will be sunk in the approaches to the harbour in order to familiarise local mariners with the rig. Whilst works are being carried out in the harbour entrance the small boat channel will be closed. Traffic management during this period will be enhanced by the Ministry of Defence Police supported by the Volunteer Harbour Patrol. Mariners are required to contact harbour control for traffic clearance on VHF Ch11 before transiting in and out of the harbour when the rig is working in the harbour entrance. Priority will be given to large vessels that have to commit early to passing through the entrance. ------- The tests will pave the way for major dredging work in a couple of years’ time allowing the 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales safely and easily enter harbour. The two flagships are 10,000 tonnes heavier than the last traditional-style carriers to serve the Royal Navy – HMS Ark Royal and Eagle, which paid off in the 1970s – and much larger than any current warship based in Portsmouth. The existing channel used by ships needs to be widened and deepened to accommodate the new carriers. The berths in the base itself need to be excavated and a suitable turning circle provided in the north of the harbour – the draught of the sisters will be 11 metres (36ft). Survey work was carried out a decade ago – not least on the wreck site of the Mary Rose to ensure that everything of historical importance had been recovered from Henry VIII’s flagship. In addition a detailed environmental analysis of the harbour and its approaches was carried out in 2004, while the bridge simulator at HMS Collingwood has been adapted to test the new route to prove the carriers can enter or leave harbour in a range of tidal and weather conditions; so far more than 180 simulated arrivals and departures have been conducted. Queen Elizabeth is due to be launched in 2014 and will arrive in her future home two years later; the Prince of Wales is due to join the Fleet towards the end of the decade. Next year work will begin to replace telephone cables between Southsea and the Isle of Wight, followed in 2014-15 by major dredging work. Capt Greenlees said around 3½ million tonnes of seabed needed to be moved. Deep River will drill 27 bore holes to a depth of 32 metres (104ft) along various parts of the proposed route. The rig will be brightly lit and will be operating 24 hours a day. .