New Dover Calais Ferry Photos

The P & O New Ships Blog has been busy posting lots of pictures from the shipyard in Finland where the new Dover Calais Ferry pair of ships are being constructed.

Photo Update (Spirit of Britain) – September 2010

Ship Build Updates, Uncategorized

20/09/2010

STX Europe, Finland.  With work continuing at pace on both vessels now, I’ve decided to split the photo updates from the yard into Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France separate updates.

As mentioned previously much of the ongoing work on the Spirit of Britain involves the fitting out of the internal spaces and as these begin to take shape we will bring you more pictures of these spaces. 

In the meantime, this months updates shows the final ships livery taking shape and in reply to some of your requests, some more ‘techy’ images….. 

 

The main 'P&O' is now in place and work underway on the two blue bands that run around the vessel. Unfortunately, in this picture its difficult to see the two seperate lines as, just like when painting at home, the yard have used a masking tape type effect to keep their lines straight!

 

The view across the ship's bridge as work commences installing all the equipment required to sail a ship of this scale

 

The Engine Control Room (ECR) looks a little like something from a sci-fi film. In total there is over 700km of cabling onboard the Spirit of Britain!

 

These odd looking green tubes (6 in view) are the air conditioning units for the Spirit of Britain

 

via blog.onenewera.co.uk

I remember when the Herald, Pride and Spirit of Free Enterprise were introduced and seemed just too enormous. But these are a whole scale bigger again. Actually the maximum size possible with current ( and future ) facilities at the ferry ports of Dover and Calais.

Posted via email from Dover Calais Ferry

Episode 9 Back from France

We came back on this side of the English Channel from France after the weekend away on the Eurostar from Lille, but we could just have easily taken the slower train through the North of France and then Dover Calais Ferry across the English Channel. That's probably what I would have done if I still lived in East Kent rather than London. Anyway, I had to rush straight into doing the weekly podcast as usual, but having been away on a short break in France, I found myself singing one of the songs in French.

A couple of hours back from taking a short break in France, I still wanted to do the weekly podcast but episode 9 nearly got lost forever due a glitch with Ustream. This morning is had processed OK though, so here we have the Andy Roberts Podcast Episode 9 with some new and old songs as usual. I’m still working on the combined song about the walk and the rain, with the six string open tuned in D minor, so I had a go at that one live to kick off the show last night. There’s still more work to be done, but it seems to be a slow process with this one.

The other songs are all played on the 12 string guitar again.

So here are the links for Podcast Episode 9:

 Standard Podcast [00:29:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed using the url:

http://andyroberts.me/?feed=podcast

Subscribe in iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/andy-roberts/id378470885

You can also download the MP3 audio file which is 27.9Mb in size and 29 minutes long from this link

09 Andy Roberts Podcast Episode 9.mp3

There’s also a stored video file from the live broadcast over at Ustream.tv where the podcasting event takes place on Tuesdays at 7.00pm UK time

Video Podcast Episode No 9

Podcast Episode 9 Show Notes

Show notes and information for Podcast Episode 9 broadcast on August 31st, published on September 1st 2010.

Working Title: Changes

Unfinished work with lyrics and music by And Roberts

Biggleswade Stomp

Just a quick blast of the Biggleswade stomp by Andy Roberts and Gaseous Mass

Reason To Believe

An old favourite song by Tim Hardin, which you may know as the A side of Maggie May by Rod Stewart.

San Fransisco – Maxime le Forestier

My favourite song to sing in French, by one of France’s best loved singer songwriters from the 1970s.

Mazet – Andy Roberts

After meeting up with one of my old pals from the Cafe Mazet last week after 30 years, I couldn’t resist playing this one.

Now That I’m Living Here – Andy Roberts

Another Andy Roberts Revival song, I had to relearn the chords to this one last year but ever since have kept it high in the repertoire.

via andyroberts.me

Maybe I'll learn that other song about "The Night Ferry is taking me home again". I remember the night ferry well of course, standing on the Western Docks pier at Dover waiting for the train ferry in the middle of the night and then having to walk all round the port at Calais to catch the train to Paris at the other end. Those were the days... NOt!

Posted via email from Dover Calais Ferry

Green Ferry Trips Around the World

Sometimes the waterway is both greener and faster than the highway. Though ferries are bigger than cars and usually use more fuel, they can carry hundreds of people and cars at one time. Plus, they are also often the shortest route from point A to point B -- meaning a fraction of the mileage that would be spent in a car. In cities that offer commuter ferries to keep rush hour under control, ferries are also a solution to traffic jams -- meaning less stress as well as fuel consumption.

How Can Technology Reduce Global Shipping’s Fuel Consumption?

There are some great examples around the world so lest hope the Dover Calais Ferry can lead the way in terms of green ferry crossings.

Posted via email from Dover Calais Ferry