TALL SHIPS

Today was the start of the Tall Ships festival in Hartlepool and the main blip is the arrival of Bima Suci, a ship from Indonesia which arrived with all flags flying, a gamelan orchestra playing and the ship's company dancing on the bowsprit and perched aloft all through the rigging. Eek! I took this as I walked home from the choir's spot opening the entertainment on one of the stages beside the dock. I think we did quite well considering we were competing with the arrival of some of the spectacular ships which made our audience rush away to watch, and which all arrived to great fanfares of klaxons, hooters, sirens and horns from the other ships already there. That and and constant ominous loud squeaking from the stage canopy and rigging. We definitely weren't the main attraction.
Extras are kittiwakes nesting on one of the dock buildings - I think they must be nearly ready to go. They're certainly very crowded. Then a general view across the dock from beside the stage and a figurehead from one of the ships.
That's it for me now as far as the festival is concerned. Tomorrow I'm cleaning and packing and then away on Saturday when everything is likely to get really busy.