Ferries cAsh In!

Just a quick reminder to anyone out there who may have been stranded by the ongoing ban on flights that there's still room on our lovely ferries if you need to get to the continent.

LD Lines say they have capacity for cars in both directions between Ramsgate and Ostend.

Click here for more

You Put Your Ferry In, Your Ferry Out, In, Out, In, Out, And Then Send It To Dover

Well I needn't have worried about all the roadworks on the Thanet Way holding up the hordes of happy Easter travellers heading for our lovely port to board the new superduperferry. It's currently operating out of Dover.

Apparently one of LD Lines' other vessels bust a bowsprit or something, so they've diverted the Ostend Spirit to the Dover Boulogne run. Just when you thought they might be making hay in Ramsgate, what with SeaFrance on strike and Operation Stack in place, they send it to Dover. Kuh!

It's unclear how long it'll be known as the Boulogne Spirit, but at least it demonstrates that, whatever the joint venture arrangements between LD and TransEuropa are, LD get first dibs. It's also left me wondering why more than half a mill of our taxpayers sovs were spent dredging the port for the Ostend Spirit when it's only managed a few trips out of Ramsgate. Rumour is that Thanet Council, who run the port, wanted some, er, financial reassurance from Eurof*****s before they lifted a finger (quite wisely in my opinion). But did they get any guarantees on the Ostend Spirit? Or have they reverted to their old bollock-dropping routine with this one?

Click here for Ostend Spirit's current position on marinetraffic.com
Click here for Dover movements on marinetraffic.com

Now you see it... Ostend Spirit in Ramsgate last week
(Photo: Ashley Baldry)

RoRo Your Boats

Reader Scott writes:

ECR - I was taking the dog for a walk on the West Cliff this morning and spotted both the TEF Larkspur and the new LD/TEF Ostend Spirit in port. I thought you might like this snap I took with my mobile phone. Keep up the good work. Scott.

Thanks Scott. As you can see, the Ostend Spirit in the background dwarfs the Larkspur. But both are put in the shade by our beloved council's Great Wheelie Bin Pile, which you can just see the tip of in the foreground.

Hopefully the port and the town will be busy over the forthcoming Easter break, although if the state of the Thanet Way is anything to go by most motorists will probably give up around Whitstable. Why it required resurfacing, lord knows. Perhaps some public sector accountant's spreadsheet needed balancing before the financial year end.

Anyway, it's yet another planning triumph for Kent Highways, the people who have so far blocked off Boredstares shopping streets for a total of one whole year since 2005!

Ostend Spirit - First Ramsgate Photo

Reader Ken has sent me this photo which he took about an hour ago of the Ostend Spirit in Ramsgate. It should be chuffing back to Belgium about now, ready to return to Ramsgate with its first paying passengers tomorrow morning.

It may only be a conventional craft, but it got here a lot quicker than that blinkin' fast ferry!

Full Steam Ahead!

Belgian reader Frank writes:

LD Lines' Ostend Spirit is due in Ramsgate 1900 tonight, Friday, for berthing trials, with a Ramsgate pilot aboard. If all goes well she will sail at 2030 back to Ostend and go into service with an ETA Ramsgate 1100 Saturday.

Until dredging is completed her Ramsgate calls will be timed to occur around high water.

Full Steam Astern?

Tucked away in the Giant Panda of the Exchequer's Boneless Budget Box just now was the announcement that ports involved in the fart farm industry will be getting 60m smackers! Hurrah!

Perhaps some of it will come Port Ramsgate's way, what with Thanet Offshore Wind and London Array being based here. It could even help offset some of the local population's increasingly expensive cider and ciggie habits!

Meanwhile reader Ian writes:

I have been following the story of the launch of the new LD Lines service to Ostend on your excellent blog. [Aw! Me blushin' Ian!] But I have heard that there needs to be more dredging done in Ramsgate to accommodate the Ostend Spirit and that the lorry park is still closed because of the potholes (I have attached a photo). I also gather that the manager in charge [Brian White, Director of Regeneration and Planning Services, and pro-tem Harbour Master] is away on holiday. With only three days to go to the start of the service this does not bode very well.

Er, well Ian, our beloved council does have a track record of killing the golden goose. But I'm sure everyone is crossing everything and that it'll all turn out OK in the end.

Meanwhile P&O announced today that they'll be sailing to Zeebrugge out of Dover from April. So it looks like the Belgian connection is hotting up!

That's The Spirit!

I'm indebted to those splendid chaps at the Oostende (Ostend in old money) Ferries Forum for these glimpses of the Ostend Spirit, the new LD Lines superduperferry which is due to enter service between Ramsgate and Ostend this coming Saturday, 27 March.

I'm told it's hard to get any closer to the vessel, which is currently undergoing preparations in Ostend. But these pictures certainly give you a sense of the scale of the thing. It's several orders of magnitude larger than any of the current TransEuropa tubs, and probably at the very limit of what our lovely port can handle. Let's hope the dredging's been done properly!

Of course, in her previous incarnation as the Prins Filip she used to ply the Ostend Ramsgate route in the 90s, so we know she'll fit. It's just that, thanks to our beloved council, a lot less water has flowed under the bridge since then, if you get my drift!

Ferry Excited!

My spies across the water tell me that preparations are well under way for the start of the LD Lines ferry service between Ramsgate and Oostende (Ostend in old money)! Ostender Frank writes:

As you might know the ex Prins Filip is now back home at the port of Oostende. She is getting a beauty treatment at this moment. She was the Norman Spirit of LD lines and now becomes the Ostend Spirit, she remains flying the British flag but has changed homeport.

Instead of Southampton it's now ...... RAMSGATE! She must be the biggest vessel ever with Ramsgate as homeport. Signs that things are improving in Ramsgate... lol

However Robert, another Ostender, sounds a small note of disappointment:

I see that the NEW passenger ferry are starting from Ramsgate this week! BUT only if you are in a vehicle, no foot passengers. LD Lines’ tourist fares on the Ramsgate - Ostend service will be available for cars and passengers, cars and caravans, motorhomes, motorcycles and for added on board passenger comfort facilities include cabins and sleeper seats. LD Lines’ launch offer starts from £24 single for a car and five passengers, subject to availability.

Well, let's hope everything's ready in our lovely port for the big ferry's big day!

Real Deal

Unlike some ferry companies I can't mention, LD Lines seems like a proper, reliable outfit and are forging ahead with advertising their new service between Ramsgate and Oostende (Ostend in old money).

48 sovs for a car and up to five passengers return seems like a snip. In fact by going direct to the LD Lines website I shaved another three quid off that. For comparison I tried booking Norfolk Lines from Dover to Dunkerque (Dunkirk in old money) with five people and a car, and they wanted £27 more!

LD Lines have also constructed a full page on their website about the delights of the Millionaires' Playground, so it's just possible we could get some visitors from t'other side in return, a stark contrast to the tourism-job-sapping Manston - Edinburgh flights.

And while we're on the topic of deals, don't forget that Ramsgate's very own Eddie Gilbert's, easily the best fish and chip shop in Thanet if not Kent or indeed the entire world, is currently offering free chips with every large portion of fish to celebrate National Chip Week. The offer ends tomorrow, so hurry! Sadly LD Lines have left EG's, Age & Sons and many other top Ramsgate eateries off their website, so they need to pull their finger out there!

Click here to book LD Lines Ramsgate Ostend
Click here for Ramsgate page on LD Lines website
Click here to read more about free chips at Eddie Gilbert's
Click here for more about National Chip Week on Guardian blog