A phantom ship in Algoa Bay? No not quite, but wouldn't it have been awesome (and life changing) if I did capture one? The rainy weather around town the last couple of days meant that I could barely see the harbour from Shark Rock Pier at Hobie Beach the other morning. This ship kept of disappearing in the mist. Like a phantom ship...
Better late than never. The South African Navy recently did a joint exercises along with the navies from India and Brazil along the South African coast. Part of the exercise took place in Algoa Bay and the ships spent a couple of days in the Port Elizabeth Harbour. The ships were open to the public on the Saturday, but unfortunately I had a prior engagement and couldn't go. I did get a peek at the ships from the Humerail shopping centre…
Whenever there's a storm brewing the fishing boats catching fish and chokka out in and just outside Algoa Bay sails into the bay to find shelter and ride it out. The other day I got the perfect scene with a yacht sailing past a number of fishing boats and a couple of big ships in the background waiting to enter the Port Elizabeth Harbour. The gantry cranes right in the back are at the Coega Harbour on the other side…
A couple of yachts and fishing boats lying side by side on the Port Elizabeth Harbour.
This container ship sailing into Algoa Bay towards the Port Elizabeth Harbour looks just like a phantom ship in the haziness of the other day.
The Port Elizabeth Harbour plays hosts to massive car carriers like this one several times a week. Both General Motors and VW have big export contracts which means that cars manufactured in Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage goes all over the world through the PE harbour.
A big container ship entering the Port Elizabeth harbour as seen from the pier at Hobie Beach
Sticking to yesterday's harbour theme. The left hand boat (the yellow one for those who don't know their left from their right) is the harbour pilot boat while the right hand one is one of the Port Elizabeth Harbour's tugs. The pilot boat takes the harbour pilot out to the big ships. The pilot then steers the ship into the harbour and not the ship's actual captain. The tugs are the boats that push and pull the big ships into…
One of the comments on my previous post, Chokka Boats at sunrise, came from Barry. He's comment was as follow: "Thank's for the photos of the surrounding areas- great for the tourists. But in addition to the postcard shots, how about some "real" shots of the city itself? Surely the industrial areas, suburbs and city centre are what a city is all about?" So in response to this, I want to make a statement and then a promise. Statement: I…
A couple of chokka boats at anchor in Algoa Bay at sunrise. Chokka is the squid that calamari is made from and the coast around Algoa Bay and St Francis Bay are the main fishing grounds in South Africa for it. Locally it is known as white gold. The chokka boats normally come into the bays to shelter against strong winds before heading out again.