Friday 25 November 2011

MV Spirit of Adventure at Sunrise, Western Entrance, Dover Harbour, Kent, UK

A post-sunrise view of the MV Spirit of Adventure in Dover Harbour, her bow pointing through the Western Entrance towards the open waters of the Straits of Dover and the English Channel beyond:

MV Spirit of Adventure cruise ship came from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, going to Bergen, Norway. Owner: Saga Cruises. Ex-Berlin, Princess Mahsuri, and Orange Melody: Callsign 9HA2295, IMO 7904889, MMSI 248277000.
(Click this MV Spirit of Adventure text link to see the largest size)


The Western Entrance is formed by the Admiralty Pier behind the ship and the Southern Breakwater, out-of-shot to the left.

The passenger ship is shown manouevring into position prior to reversing towards CT1 (Cruise Terminal 1) on the Admiralty Pier of the Western Docks.

The photo was taken while on a cycle ride (1) at 5.34 am on Wednesday, 23rd of June 2010, from the lighthouse end of the Prince of Wales Pier.

A little earlier, at 5.21 am, the Spirit of Adventure had entered Dover Harbour through the Eastern Entrance at the end of a 14-night round-trip "Britain and Irelands Garden Coast" cruise that had begun on the 9th of June with the following itinerary (schedule):

St Peter Port (Guernsey, Channel Islands), Dartmouth (England), Tresco (Isles of Scilly), Dublin (Eire/Ireland), Holyhead (Anglesey, Wales), Belfast (Northern Ireland), Oban (Scotland), Portree (Isle of Skye, Inner Hebrides of Scotland), Stornoway (Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides of Scotland), Scrabster (Thurso Bay, Scotland), Kirkwall (capital of Orkney, Scotland), and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (England).

The Spirit of Adventure left Dover later in the day at 4.34 pm on a 7-night "Norway's Choral Symphony" cruise. Itinerary:

Bergen, Flåm (Flam), Gudvangen, Jondal, and Stavanger (all in Norway, of course!).

Captain Kees Spekman recorded the following at 11.30 pm (abridged) (2):

Glorious weather and stunning views greeted us as we approached the Dover pilot station at 05.00am. The pilot boarded and with the assistance of a tug we were berthed along the cruise terminal at 06.00am.

...The passengers disembarked on schedule and by 1.00pm we commenced embarkation for a seven-day voyage to Norway, in conjunction with National Trust and with a classical music theme.

All passengers were on board by 4.00pm. We were almost ready with the stores with only a few pallets of bottled water remaining. A short while later all was on board and we could leave the port. The pilot guided us out and soon we were on enjoying the White Cliffs of Dover on our way to the first port of call, Bergen.

At 5.15pm we held the general safety and boat drill for the passengers after which all continued enjoying the sights and prepared for the first evening on board.

Roy, our Cruise Director introduced the lecturers and musicians during the course of the evening and the Badke Classical String Quartet with special guest, viola virtuoso Simon Rowland-Jones performed their first concert.

Captain Spekman started his career as a Deck Cadet with Holland America Line after joining his first passenger ship, HAL's MS Prinsendam, in March, 1975.



MV Spirit of Adventure


Video: "Introduction - Spirit of Adventure" is presented by Chris Serle (3):


The Spirit of Adventure is owned by Acromas Holidays Ltd, formerly known as Saga Holidays Ltd (now a trading name).

Ship's details (4)

Name: MV Spirit of Adventure (ex-Berlin, Princess Mahsuri, and Orange Melody)
Ship Type: Passenger/Cruise
Operator: Saga Cruises PLC (from 2005)
Built by: HDW Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH
Year Built: 1980
Length: 139 m
Breadth: 16 m
Draught: 5.1 m
DeadWeight: 1796 t
Speed recorded (Max / Average): 16.8 / 15.3 knots
Flag: Malta (MT)
Call Sign: 9HA2295
IMO: 7904889
MMSI: 248277000

Click to see the Spirit of Adventure website and the official MV Spirit of Adventure webpage.



Notes and Sources


(1) Cycle route begins at Robsons Yard Flats in the Tower Hamlets area of Dover, then: Athol Terrace (Eastern Docks) - Seafront Promenade - Prince of Wales Pier (Western Docks) - Robsons Yard.

This is where I do my Evolution and Psychology research! (archive)

(2) Captain's blog entry for June 23, 2010 (11:30 pm)
(3) Christopher "Chris" Richard Serle (born 13 July 1943, Bristol, England) is a former BBC TV presenter, reporter and actor. Serle was educated at Clifton College and Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied modern languages. He appeared as a foil for Irish comedian Dave Allen (David Tynan O'Mahoney) in his series Dave Allen at Large in 1971, but gained greater UK public recognition as one of the presenters (along with Esther Rantzen) of the TV series, That's Life!
(4) Marinetraffic entry for MS Spirit of Adventure



The main photo first appeared at:

MV Spirit of Adventure at Sunrise, Western Entrance, Dover Harbour

Not yet uploaded:

MV Spirit of Adventure nearing Cruise Terminal 1
MV Spirit of Adventure berthed at Cruise Terminal 1

Other Dover Saga Cruises photos include:

Saga Cruises passenger ship at sunrise in the Eastern Entrance, Port of Dover.MS Saga Ruby Cruise Ship and a God of the Night, Dover Harbour

Other ships at Sunrise in the Western Entrance include:


Click to see all Spirit of Adventure and Cruise Ship photos.

Clickable thumbnails of all harbour-related photos on the main Panoramio Images of Dover website are available on this blog at the Port of Dover Page (also linked to below the blog title).

The Panoramio photos are each accompanied by a Google Earth satellite map. However, the images are smaller than those on the Images of Dover Blog and the captions are less well formatted.

Port of Dover travel and tourism in the Western Docks.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

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