Back on Thames Clippers!

Lockdown is easing and this weekend the weather has finally been warm and I've had my first trip on the Thames Clippers!

The river felt very quiet when they weren't running and I've missed the great view of London from their decks:

I was going from the Tate Modern (where had seen the amazing Yayoi Kusama infinity boxes) to the Tate Britain (for the Turner and the Modern World exhibition) so obviously took the Tate to Tate Thames Clipper aka RB 2.

Drone Survey Boat on the Thames

Recently I spotted what looked like a drone vessel on the Thames (above). I wasn't entirely sure what it does but guessed those two pods on arms at the top were antennas for satellite navigation, hence it could be surveying.

A bit of googling later and came up links such as this to this product page for the HyDrone-RCV which as expected is a remote controlled drone boat for surveying purposes.

As a sense of scale, here is it being retrieved:

Very cool.

Bark Europa's sail home

One of the stories to come out of Covid-19 was that of the Bark Europa. It became stuck in Ushuaia when the pandemic struck and had to sail all the way back to the Netherlands.

This is the lovely film of that epic voyage.

Enjoy!

Farewell Arthur Beale Chandler

Sad news that Covid has another victim in the shape of the ship's chandler Arthur Beale. This shop has been a spiritual home for sailors in the heart of London for literally hundreds of years.

I remember wandering over in 2014 when it had just been taken over by Alasdair Flint and having a tour including seeing the impressive basement (above) where there were tools of all sorts, just the thing that should be in a chandler.

This was clearly more than just a shop. It also had pedigree, links for famous expeditions that either fitted out there or requested gear to be shipped out to exotic locations.

Having just got back from Greenland and read Dancing on Ice (full book review here), an account of the Watkins Expedition, I was totally impressed by this telegram from Watkins himself to Arthur Beale asking for "100 foot Alpine lines" to be sent to Angmagssalik, Greenland.

They also arranged a number of really interesting talks, including:

• Alasdair's trip to Jan Mayen and climbing the mighty Beerenberg
• A high latitude forum
• Jane Maufe and the background to her book The Frozen Frontier
• Paul Heiney and the background to his book One Wild Story

It's loss has been noted by many, including Time Out and the BBC.

It will be much missed!