Dover
May 17, 2022
17 May '22. HM 184. Dover - a milestone Harbour for my challenge.
The seriousness of the migrant problem was played out in front of our eyes as we watched rubber boats being intercepted and towed into Dover Harbour. The electronic chart in the "Port Control" Operations Room (photo 3) showed 5 warships at work in The Channel and the CCTV displayed migrants clinging onto an RNLI lifeboat in their distinctive orange life vests. All very sobering.
Harbour Master Steven Manser clearly has a very cool head and this permeates down to his port team as they control a constant stream of cross channel ferries plying in and out of the narrow harbour entrance.
At peak time a ferry arrives or departs very four minutes, with thick fog being the only restraining factor. Even in strong winds the ferries use massive "kedge" anchors to help them berth. Incredibly each ferry (up to 120 per day) takes as little as 45 minutes to discharge and reload 500 cars and 2,000 passengers.
Maybe there is a reason Steve started as a steward with P&O - nothing seems to phase him! Having driven the ferries himself he is now the ideal HM. Dover's stats are impressive - the busiest Ro-Ro port in the UK with £144bn of trade passing through the port which includes a third of our total trade with the EU. My crew and I were very fortunate to watch this all at work - some of it from a Harbour Pilot Boat.
With plans to make the Port "Carbon Neutral" by 2025, along with creating the world's first "Green Shipping Corridors", constructing berths for "electric" ferries and opening a massive new Yacht Marina, the Port of Dover is a happening place.
Thank you Steve for a fascinating insight - too much to write about here... but the stories of what it was really like working for P&O (!) and the day Steve had to formally "arrest" a super yacht may well appear in my book!
The seriousness of the migrant problem was played out in front of our eyes as we watched rubber boats being intercepted and towed into Dover Harbour. The electronic chart in the "Port Control" Operations Room (photo 3) showed 5 warships at work in The Channel and the CCTV displayed migrants clinging onto an RNLI lifeboat in their distinctive orange life vests. All very sobering.
Harbour Master Steven Manser clearly has a very cool head and this permeates down to his port team as they control a constant stream of cross channel ferries plying in and out of the narrow harbour entrance.
At peak time a ferry arrives or departs very four minutes, with thick fog being the only restraining factor. Even in strong winds the ferries use massive "kedge" anchors to help them berth. Incredibly each ferry (up to 120 per day) takes as little as 45 minutes to discharge and reload 500 cars and 2,000 passengers.
Maybe there is a reason Steve started as a steward with P&O - nothing seems to phase him! Having driven the ferries himself he is now the ideal HM. Dover's stats are impressive - the busiest Ro-Ro port in the UK with £144bn of trade passing through the port which includes a third of our total trade with the EU. My crew and I were very fortunate to watch this all at work - some of it from a Harbour Pilot Boat.
With plans to make the Port "Carbon Neutral" by 2025, along with creating the world's first "Green Shipping Corridors", constructing berths for "electric" ferries and opening a massive new Yacht Marina, the Port of Dover is a happening place.
Thank you Steve for a fascinating insight - too much to write about here... but the stories of what it was really like working for P&O (!) and the day Steve had to formally "arrest" a super yacht may well appear in my book!