Brugge to Tees

We arrived in Brugge on Sunday. It is approached from the sea through the port of Zeebrugge and then down a canal where we berth just before the city of Brugge. It's about a 30minute walk from the ship into the centre.
The Captain went up into Brugge to have a look round. It's a lovely city, hubby and I have visited once. More recently I have seen it as the star of the film 'In Brugges' starring Colin Farrell, an actor who is very easy on the eye! I have seen this film a few times now, which as a non film person is quite an achievement.
Captain came back very happy. He'd taken a few photos of the lovely buildings and then had come across a big group of people gathered in the square. On closer inspection he found that the subject of the attention was a group of British 1970's cars, Capris, Cortinas, escorts. More photos were taken of these.

Discharging ashore

We commenced discharging our cargo at 5am on Monday morning, just as it was getting light.

Prior to discharge



The bucket wheel in the middle of the photo turns and discharges
the cargo onto the discharge conveyor belts.



Looking down the canal to Brugge.

Cargo discharge took about 5 hours and then we set off back down the canal again. We stopped at a berth in Zeebrugge to load fresh water, we were getting low and we don't go to many berths where you can easily take fresh water. This done we set off back upto a dredge area near the Humber Estuary. We washed and cleaned out our hold because the next cargo was a sand cargo to Tees.

Sand cargoes don't usually take very long to load so in no time at all we were on our way north. It was lovely clear night on the passage up the coast. When I came on watch at 4am it was already beginning to get light.

We passed Flamborough Head, Filey Brigg, Whitby and I took some lovely early morning photos of the sun shining on the land but with the moon faintly visible. As if it didn't quite want to go to bed yet!

Good morning



We  anchored for a few hours before the pilot came aboard and we sailed up the river to our berth and we discharged our cargo of sand.