harbour

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Dolosse

Harbour walls and breakwaters all over the world make use of dolosse to create that barrier between the ocean and land.  A dolos (plural dolosse) is a concrete block in a complex geometric shape weighing up to 30 tons.  The new Coega Harbour in Port Elizabeth made use of 28 000 dolosse in the construction of its breakwater.  The dolos is named after the knucklebone of a sheep.Dolosse were developed in East London in 1963 by one-time East London Harbour Engineer Eric Mowbray…

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11/05/2013
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Tugs at rest

The Port Elizabeth Harbour tugs and pilot boat at their moorings, waiting for the next ship to escort into or out of the harbour.

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07/05/2013
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Harbour wall view

Bet you've never seen the harbour wall from this angle (unless you saw the other post I did of the harbour wall a month or so ago).  The Port Elizabeth Harbour wall is supposed to be off limits to the public, but there were no signage nor fencing up when I walked right onto it the other day.  Even the nearby security guard just looked at me and didn't ask me to leave.  So picture taken specially to share with you. 

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02/05/2013
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Queen Mary 2 visiting Port Elizabeth

Yesterday (Monday 8 April 2013) was a big day in the history of the Port Elizabeth Harbour.  Big being the operative word.  It was the day the the largest ocean liner ever built visited the city.  And one big ass ship she is.  The Queen Mary 2 entered the harbour at just after 7am for the day with passengers going on excursions around the city and out to Addo Elephant National Park and other nearby game reserves.  I was fortunate that working in the…

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09/04/2013
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Jellyfish at Fence

The surf spot at Kings Beach next to the harbour wall is called fence.  Apparently years ago when there wasn't as much sand against the wall the place used to cook as a surf spot.  Today its but a shadow of its former self.  So where does the name come from?  There was a big fence that ran along the harbour wall to stop the fishermen getting up onto the wall from the beach to go fishing.  The fence was about 200…

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05/04/2013
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Ships in the harbour

A couple of container ships moored in the harbour as viewed from the harbour wall side

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31/03/2013
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Kings Beach

Kings Beach is a beautiful piece of white sandy beach stretching from the harbour wall up to McArthur Pool.  With the royal visit to South Africa in 1947 the royal family also stopped in Port Elizabeth.  The train they were travelling on was parked just above what is now the Kings Beach parking area and apparently part of the beach was fenced of for the use of the royal family.  The princesses went horse riding and the king went for swims…

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26/03/2013
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Harbour and Campanile

Looking across the Port Elizabeth Harbour from the harbour wall to the city centre with the Campanile just to the left of the middle of the picture.  This is a view of the Campanile that not a lot of people have seen.  The Hill Presbyterian Church can just be seen on the left edge of the photo.

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15/03/2013
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Harbour wall

Many years ago people could fish off and walk on the Port Elizabeth Harbour wall, but this changed with the upgrading of security protocol at harbours a numer of years ago.  Big Huge Humongous was my surprise when I went for a walk on Kings Beach all the way to the harbour wall for the first time in a very very long time.  Getting to the wall I found no barriers, no fences or even signs stating that one isn't allowed onto the wall. …

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14/03/2013