Saterday september 8th 2007

Today i went to Antwerp to look at the ships.

I've been doing this for about 5 years and enjoying every moment of it.

When i got the the Zandvliet- and Berendrechtlocks, it was very busy.

If i see full locks with great looking ships, it usually means that it will be a good day for taking photos.

So i started the day with some nice views on the following ships:

The 3 Maj (imo: 8610904)

Soon after her there came more:

- Union Mars (imo: 9229166)

- Bastiaan Broere (imo: 8712154)

- Joanna Borchard (imo: 9113197)

And in the locks there where two other great looking ladies waiting to leave the Berendrechtlock and move in to the port of Antwerp:

Balva (imo: 8618968)

Stolt Endurance (imo: 9284697)

And this all passed by in the early morning.

So not such a bad start of the days.

Then it became a little quiet. So time to leave the inbound side of the locks and move to the other side.

There we have the famous "Pier".

Today there was a visit planned by a coach party from the UK.

A nice bunch of friendly guys and even a few women came to check out the ships around Antwerp. One of them i met on shipspotting.com and i went looking for him. It didn't took me very long before i met Andrew. He was very lucky today. He saw a few ships had worked on back home. And he was very pleased to see he could still get pretty close to the ships even there where a lot of maintenance jobs going on near the terminals where the big containerships are.
It was great to meet these lovely people. They where all so enthusiastic about the ships that came by. I hope to see these people again next year!

Meanwhile some ships came closer to enter or leave the locks:

- Elbia (imo: 8509856)

- Jo Sycamore (imo: 9198563)

- Arco Dijk (imo: 9034092)

And a nice new ship was waiting to get in to the Zandvlietlock:

Kemal Kuru (imo: 9418080)

Can you beleave she is build in 2007!

And on the other side there was the big Luna Maersk (imo: 9190781) on her way to the new Deurgackdock. The tugs are coming closer to escort her to her mooring place.

These are absolutely ships to take some photos off.

Then it was time to take a bit of lunch, but not for long, because the ships keep coming.

- Navajo (imo: 9262285)

- Wan Hai 503 (imo: 9294862)

- Grande Mediteraneo (imo: 9138393)

- MSC Grace (imo: 8918057)

- Torm Carina (imo: 9263708)

And there where two nice ships moored across of us at the Noordzeeterminal:

OOCL Montreal (imo: 9253739)

Hong Kong Express (imo: 9229843)

And that was the end of a very nice day of spotting ships in Antwerp.

I hope to give you a new impression soon.