Sunday 8 November 2009

Euroferries Ramsgate to Boulougne ferry service, update from Tenerife

HSC Bonanza, ready.
Dear Michael: Finally I went to the dock (Los LLanos), to know what was going on. Nobody was near the catamaran, outside, who could inform about (only amateur fishermans).
The starboard side is finished (fresh) also, 1400h. She could depart tomorrow morning. The voyage will take 2 and a half days, so if all is in accordance betewen Euroferries and Olsen, she will arrived long before next saturday. Saludos de Antonio desde Tenerife.

25 comments:

  1. Sorry, but it ain't gonna happen for next Saturday. Besides, the vessel is now scheduled to leave Santa Cruz on 22 November for Los Cristianos. Fred Olsen appear to have given up the ghost on chartering it to EF.

    I guess EF could charter another catamaran at short notice though.

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  2. Please note, the vessel's details on the Localiza Todo website have a "?" against its destination.

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  3. 10.38 With respect my information is the voyage Tenerife - Ramsgate will take aprox two and a half days, with a stop in Vigo (or Lisbon).

    This information comes from Antonio Sáez who works as an engineer in Tenerife, it is the best I can do.

    The other day I posted pictures of the Port side newly painted, only to receive comment that somehow the Starboard hadn’t been shown as some sort of deliberate attempt to conceal something.

    Now to me painting a 4 metre high logo on the side of a ship suggests permission from the owner and that a charter is in place.

    It is also my understanding that the tax free shop in Port Ramsgate has been refurbished, this comes from someone who went and looked at it.

    I have to admit I am beginning to wonder what the motive could be of anyone saying that a ferry service that is very obviously reaching the final stages of preparation isn’t.

    I find it hard to imagine that a rival operator would bother with this sort of thing, has anyone any ideas what the motives could be?

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  4. Michael, your "man in tenerife" says the starboard paintwork was "fresh" at 14.00 yesterday. The vessel could hardly set to sea with a wet painted side, perhaps there have been delays, next week should reveal all.

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  5. Michael, no doubt in the fullness of time all will be revealed - truthfully this enterprise would be best left on the shelf.

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  6. Readit I have personal experience of the commissioning of vessels for sea click on the link for an example http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2007/12/friggin-in-rigging.html logistically it is a very difficult thing and the most minor problem can lead to delays.

    All of the indicators based on fact that I have, suggest that they know what they are doing and are going to produce a ferry service on schedule.

    The information I have about the previous delays suggest that these were not of their making, but pertain to the surreal behaviour of our council, something no one would normally expect.

    15.34 I would say best for who? Is a very pertinent question here, certainly not best for Ramsgate’s economy. Best for Dover perhaps, best for the channel tunnel operators maybe.

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  7. My only concern Michael, is that they painted it in the spring for a start in March and then another start in August and then painted the Euroferries out again. Painting it again is thus not conclusive evidence that it is on its way; just an indicator that it might be.

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  8. In order for such a huge logo to be painted on a ship,a design would have to be commissioned. This design would be best carried out in a medium such as photoshop. The resulting photo could be used for advertising. Did anyone ever witness the previous livery in real life?

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  9. Oh my God ! are you in receipt of a brown envelope ?

    Open your eyes - 10 months after the first announcement.

    I think you should question the motives of a proposed ferry. Are you forgetting all the untruths that have sprung from Euroferries Ltd. ?

    Better a disappointment now than a tax payers bill further down the line.

    You say "I have personal experience of the commissioning of vessels for sea", then you should be in a better position to do the sums.

    Go figure.

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  10. Bertie you would need to ask some of the councillors what happened to delay it then.

    16.47 Oh you mean the council risk losing port fees that they wouldn’t have got anyway, if there had been no ferry service.

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  11. Port fees involve port staff and other sundry expenses.

    Customs, pilots, security to name but a few.

    By your assessment TDC should just pay, pay, pay afterall they are going to create huge employment in Ramsgate.

    Talk about naive ... you would be good as EFL's PR.

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  12. Readit the ? appears on many of the vessels.

    Michael, who is paying for the required 'works' in the port ?

    You and me, buddy.

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  13. 18.22 perhaps the other boats do not know their final destination either.

    Spending our money on Ramsgate!
    That will be a first - cant have that can we.

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  14. 17.07 No new staff taken to my knowledge.

    18.22 I gather that Euroferries put up £750,000 for the works.

    Readit I think you may be getting the idea.

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  15. 750K !

    Can you see anything that warrants this kind of spend, by contrast I heard that they haven't put the money up anywhere.

    Only time will reveal the truth.

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  16. Sorry 19.31 the 750K was just a bizarre error on my part, something to do with children and cooking.

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  17. I usually blame the cat for my errors !

    So, there hasn't been investment, by ECR's photos this morning doesn't look like it.

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  18. Bit of a moot point that 10.22 I spoke to on of the Gazette journalists about the picture of the Tax Free Shop in the paper and was assured that it is current and genuine.

    Frankly all my normally reliable sources say that the ferry service is going ahead and on schedule and so I am sticking with that point of view.

    Oh and here is the turkey and ham pie I was cooking that distracted me http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts11/id28.htm

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  19. I understand your point of view - if the photo is the one being used to advertise see
    http://ademdjemil.co.uk/blog/?p=1881

    and right click to properties you will see that it is dated 11th September ..... That suggests work was done before then, a panel on the left of the doorway says Duty Free.

    I will keep mu opinion to myself.

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  20. sorry my error ! I see now that it is of course Adems today ....

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  21. The shop sign also says Tax Free, I understand that these days it's Tax Paid ....... as stated on their website.

    Does anyone know if this is what it looked like when operated by another company.

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  22. Michael, I am trying to remain positive about an increasingly gloomy situation. but one thing occurs to me when looking at the picture of Bonanza's stern.

    The car deck is open, does this comply considering that all the local ferry disasters have been attributed to water-tight doors not been shut before embarkation.

    Speed One had a tailgate arrangement.

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  23. Norman Arrow has the same, so I suppose it must be okay, although LD have pulled her for the winter.

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  24. Apparently there is a useful guy at the port who will let you have all the info you need 572107, he likes to drink loads of tea and needs to be warmed up a bit otherwise he sounds like a traffic warden.

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  25. Well TDC have a got into the panto season early there is a real Mr Grumpy on 572107.

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Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.