Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Rock Bottom

As you can probably tell from my previous post, this stock market palaver is giving me a right kick in my rather over exposed assets. So much so that, faced with the prospect of being reduced to buying Shampagne, Boxo Cubes and Ranston Pickle from our local Aldi, I came to the conclusion earlier today that I really ought to close this blog to save money on electricity.

But they say one man's misfortune is another man's gain, and as I was meandering along the cliff top this morning, half contemplating a swan dive onto the Pleasurama eyesore as a final gesture, something caught my eye that cheered me up no end. One of those swanky yachts from the marina appeared to be stuck in our silted up Royal Harbour, and was being dragged off by the Ramsgate Lifeboat!

Of course, the council will blame poor seamanship, the tide, the wrong colour socks, anything in fact other than admitting the fact that they have allowed our harbour to become little more than a sand pit through lack of dredging. But hey-ho, I've suddenly regained the will to live! Pass the Don Perrynon!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pity I missed that!

Anonymous said...

Has anybody told Councillor "sandbank what sandbank" Latchford?

Anonymous said...

Apparently he's muzzled the Gazette so we won;t read about it in that.

Anonymous said...

What ! A tamed Thom in a Hannibal mask ?

Anonymous said...

http://www.marineenforcement.co.uk/docs/guide_to_good_practice.pdf
Have a read of this.

Lucy Mail said...

Now who are you trying to kid?
That's obviously a model boat, with a little model figure of a man on it.
The sheep on the beach are a bit of a give-away, them and the clear, blue/green water. You just don't see that outside of Australia and New Zealand!
Are you trying to pull the wool over our Marina again?

Richard Eastcliff said...

Er, good point Lucy. I should make it clear that the pic isn't of the actual incident, it's merely for 'illustrative purposes'. It is, however, our Royal Harbour entrance, it looks all luvverly-duvverly because the shot was taken in the summer.

Anonymous said...

Rumour is the yacht feller was livid. This was his inaugural visit to Ramsgate and he had just signed up for a berth.

ZumiWeb said...

On the way past the harbour this morning, the big mudflat in the centre of the harbour was very evident. When it gets too bad even for our teeny fishing boats (long after we've lost the yachts, tall ships, ocean-going emergency tug, the ferries and London Array support vessels), what'll be left? Can RNLI lifeboats be fitted with sheels for those sticky moments, or do we lose the lifeboat station too?

ZumiWeb said...

wheels, not sheels. It was the excitement, it got in to my tipyng fungers.

Michael Child said...

Ramsgate harbour when it was first built had no inner basin, even before it was completed it filled up with sand much more than had been expected. During the 1770s so much sand had accumulated in the harbour that nearly all of it dried out at low tide. In fact by the time it was finished it was almost completely useless as a harbour. To cure this problem the inner basin was built to provide a head of water for the sluice gates that flush out the harbour. This system worked perfectly for nearly 200 years so why not use it again?

I am afraid to say that I probably have the answer to my own question, that is, the lose stone blocks that were dropped into the sea to form the harbour arms for the sea would prevent this from working properly. The whole way that new port Ramsgate was built ill conceived and badly planned, it took no notice of the currents in the bay and has no sand proof membrane.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps "councillor "sandbank what sandbank" latchford could send someone an email. As long as the recipient isn't a muslim. What an old banker.

Anonymous said...

Obviosly Sandibank has more pressing things like drumming up business from China. Margate harbour, + Broadstair's is silted. TDC appear happy to let Ramsgate harbour follow suit,maybe this is due to the council's plans for raising more revenue from the ferry port, and developing it.

Anonymous said...

ECR

Not quite the usual factual stuff I would expect from your blog. The boat was a Sunseeker returning from the Boat Show, and it was pulled off by the pilot boat (after some pressure from Port Control), not the lifeboat, which suffered a damaged propeller and prop shaft. I gather they are now pursuing the council for compensation.

Yours,

'Insider'

Anonymous said...

The Gazette gets it wrong again. Even with a photo of the boat being towed by the pilot boat they still described it as the lifeboat. Amateurs.

Anonymous said...

5:15 The Gazette got it right this time, that is a picture of the lifeboat bringing the yacht in. Still no comment from "what sandbank Latchford.

Anonymous said...

Latchford is probably still persuing all the freebies he got on his recent trip to China. He could add a new department on to Sandy's carpet shop.

Head, SMEG said...

should the water ski week be changed for a sandcastle competition?