4 August 1991 was a dramatic and fateful day on the Eastern Cape coastline with the sinking of the MTS Oceanos on the Wild Coast close to Coffee Bay, east of East London. What does this have to do with Port Elizabeth, you ask? After all 571 passengers on board was rescued, some of the lifeboats floated south-west along the ocean currents with one of them washing up on the coastline at Schoenmakerskop. I got to visit the lifeboat for…
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…
A couple of container ships moored in the harbour as viewed from the harbour wall side
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.
A kelp gull taking it easy and enjoying the view on Kings Beach with a ship berthed in the Port Elizabeth Harbour in the background.
A navy ship busy leaving Algoa Bay while a number of big ships wait in the background to enter either the Port Elizabeth or Coega Harbours.
I know I've done posts about the Sundays River Ferry before, but it stays one of my favorite attractions and activities in Port Elizabeth. I enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of the cruise down the river, the chance of seeing birds or water monitors along the river bank, the company of owners Les and Maggie and to climb to the top of the dunes at the turning point. Really a wonderful experience and you will definitively see it again in future.
Security at the Port Elizabeth Harbour gets very sticky when they see a camera which means that you don't often see pictures of things happening in there. But every now and then you get an excuse to take one in which gave me the opportunity to snap one of the Port Elizabeth Harbour tugs guiding a container ship into place next to the container terminal quay.
The Ibhayi, one of the Port Elizabeth harbour tugs, busy pushing a container ship into position at the container quay in the harbour
During the last week or two we have had two cruise ships visit the Port Elizabeth harbour on cruises along the South African coast. Usually the locals have to look at the ships from afar due to strict harbour security (too strict some days if you ask me). I had to do some work quay side for the MSC Symfonia and as I never go anywhere without my camera I took the opportunity to snap this picture.