The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories
Director: CAMP
Duration: 01:00:00; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 170.621; Saturation: 0.125; Lightness: 0.377; Words per Minute: 83.400
Summary: This film was mostly shot using a small camera attached to a telescope. It was filmed over the course of one year from a single location, the National Coastwatch Insitution (NCI) in Folkestone, by volunteer coastguards.
From CAMP's text in the Folkestone Triennial catalogue:
What could it mean to extend “watching the coast” to “filming the sea”? Are there any National Sea Film Institutions? There should be.
Because on the one hand, as the anthropologist Michael Taussig describes it, the modern sea
is an image, a wallpaper backdrop for a Malibu or Folkestone lifestyle. On the other hand, in mostly invisible movements, the seas transport more than 90% of all global trade. So from any given coastline, the sea is an image, and it is not, too. Images of the sea remind us of this situation precisely: that what you can see is always just the surface, the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
One eye or two? The inorganic, technological eye not only extends, but exacerbates human vision (i.e. could also make it worse). In a way, every optical instrument produces a new visual “medium”, like painting or television. A telescope is a medium. So is radar. So is a wink. Such mediations and their effects are parasitically exchanged with other mediums such as film or photography. For instance note the 18th Century seaside Camera Obscura, outside which people would often line up, and then pay good money, just to see an image of
the very same outside they just walked in from. Such power is not only a technical matter (it is), but also a matter of context: the lines were longest when there were lovers on the beach.
For the NCI Folkestone, the usual area of interest is the immediate vicinity of Copt Point, a “blind spot” for Dover Coastguard. But binoculars don't have speed limits, or built-in censors. In other words, what can be seen is somehow uncontrollable. It will include banana carriers and gin palaces and local fishermen that one knows. The open sea makes it impossible to watch only protectively, it asks us to watch longingly, embarrassedly and helplessly too.
There is a room behind the film that you see here, full of voices, radio, and conversations. As the nature of watching shifts, sound does too, and we hear the overlap and struggles between different “sources”: coastguard radio, AIS, google searches, personal memories, shared humour, BBC radio.
In the so-called “big society”, volunteers will self-organise to do what the state now does. Education, basic services, and policing. But surely one of the preconditions of voluntary work is to be able to determine one’s own sense of what duty is: and in which way one chooses to become part of the images one sees, or films.
more:
http://camputer.org/event.php?this=countryoftheblind
The Country of the Blind & Other Stories
Characters
Trevor Hughes TrH
SirTony STH
Kieron K
Jen J
Bev Bev
Graham Pay GD
Eric Harris Eric
Numbers refer to orig. clips with short new GMA ref title added.
folkestone
TrH: This is the Viking Princess leaving harbour, at... what's the time Kieran?
Kieran: 10 to 12
TrH: 10 to 12?
Kieran: 11:50
TrH: It's about the seventh boat out this morning, so obviously they've decided today is the day to go out.
[Radio]
K: There's a fire down in the warren.
TrH: Hmm... Excuse me guys, fire down in the warren. Turn this off now, just...
TrH: Right this is the fishing boat Seashell...
TrH: Oh, looks like it's about to latch on to one of it's... one of it's erm.. pots, and pull it up, oh good!
TrH: Struggling a little, it appears...
TrH: Whee!... Little swell there...
TrH: Looks as though they're hauling in net... isn't it? They wouldn't have a net out there... would they?
GD/Eric(?): Should be a pot...
TrH: Yeh, I was going to say... perhaps it's just line they're pulling in...
GD/Eric(?): There's some pots there, line to the pots...
TrH: Yeah.
GD/Eric(?): Lobster pots.
TrH: I'd have thought so.
TrH: Lots of line, not much pot at the moment.
TrH: No quotas for lobsters are there?
GD/Eric(?): No, no! Mainly Cod and Sole in the Eastern Channel.
TrH: So what are they not protecting?
GD/Eric(?): Non-quota?
TrH: Yeah, non.
GD/Eric(?): Lemon Sole, Red Mullet, and things like whelks, crabs, shrimps, scallops...
TrH: I like all of those, except the Crab.
GD/Eric(?): The name for Lobster comes from the Old English word for Locust and Spider... basically they're giant insects from the Jurassic period!
TrH: ...Jurassic Pot?
TrH: Presume there's something in the pot, he's sitting down, doing something with it... standing back up.
TrH: Ooh, looked like a lobster
TrH: Right, that looks like they got a lobster there.
TrH: Whee... !
Radio: 16:40 is the scheduled arrival, is that right?
TrH: Chucking out tiny ones, he's already got the pot on board...
TrH: Doesn't look like there are any more...
[RADIO]
TrH: Right, looks as though that's done... let's go on... away we go dum de dum dum dum...
Andy: And here's the biggest boat in the harbour. They're both on deck there, that's father and son. They're both called Peter.
Andy: There's young Peter. Peter senior has just gone into the wheelhouse.
Andy: It's the third-fourth generation fishing out of this boat, that is these two. And the Rowena ofcourse is named after thier nan, cause they're very superstitious sailors. Or fishermen.
Andy: They're hauling up the pots now.
Andy: And I think these pots look like they've got crabs. They're discarding a bit of old bait there.
Andy: Peter is just on the galace there. They take about 40 pots at a time.
Andy: And they lay 'em out on the tide and go back on the next tide to pick 'em up.
Andy: She's just under 12 metres. Like many of the fishing vessels, she's had a piece taken off the stern or the bow to comply with the fishing regulations.
[RADIO]
TrH: Hi. This is Trevor Hughes and Sir Tony Hutt, here, on Friday the - whatever date it is - 21st. This is the fisheries protection vessel, sort of the... patrol.
TrH: Down here is a fishing boat that I think it was having a look at. Oh I can't find it!
STH: It's turning.
[Laughter]
TrH: Alright, it's turning around now, it seems to be pursuing this little fishing boat.
TrH: So with a bit of luck it'll ram it and board it - and that will obviously make for some good photography.
TrH: He's enjoying a bit of breakfast.
SFC it is.
TrH: Right so this is the boat that the Fisheries Protection Vessel is having a look at, and it's the Orca. It's about five degrees outside, four and a half degrees outside, so it's perishing cold.
TrH: They're picking up their nets, the Fisheries Protection Vehicle is making its way towards them... whether it's going to board them or ask to see their nets remains to be seen.
TrH: Okay, part three of this particular saga, the Fisheries Protection Vessel is there, the Orca is just down here. I think he's having a look to see whether...
STH: ... he's even having a scuffle with something in the water inne', or he was...
TrH: Doesn't look as though they are going to ram and board, pity.
STH(?): Looks as tho they're discarding fish there with the waves.
Andy(?): Lot of birds about there 'ent there... a lot of birds about.
Andy(?): Speaking of discards; on the dock just yesterday I heard that there was 400 stone of Plaice put back in the channel. That was down at Rye. Why keep fishing for 'em if they're discards? Well the fish don't know they're discards. It's ridiculous, having all these dead fish all around in the channel.
I'm surprised to see ship - little boats - in the mouth of the harbour.
- Well... they go fishing in wherever they are. They put pots down there.
Do they?
- Yeah.
You don't want to get the line caught in your rudder, do you...
- No.
You see technically this harbour's been declassified... no ship now can come in here, 'cause it's been declassified. So technically it's not a harbour.
TrH: So that boat is Genesis, Small Fishing vessel.
TrH: Is this the Fisheries vessel, this one here?
[RADIO]
STH: Well I know nothing about it, no it won't on my watch! ... Let's have a look, the 24th you say? Let's have a look see what we've got... 24th...
TrH: And here we have a Folkestone Fisheries vessel, making its way very fast back to harbour, obviously it's tea-time...
STH: No there's nothing, nothing showing for the 24th...
STH: ... No there's nothing...
TrH: I think it's the Patricia this one, but I need notice of that ...
STH: No... I know nothing urgent, the cliff hasn't collapsed, or we haven't been hijacked... Righto then, that's alright, no problem.
STH: No, fair enough, righto then...bye.
STH: Oh that was the Immigration, Hello Terry! That was Immigration, apparently they had a message from someone from here, but nothin' in the book!
TrH: Oh right, what yesterday?
STH: No the 24th...
TrH: SSStStStstatistics
[Laughter]
STH: I'd have to look that one up on the computer!
[Laughter]
TrH: That's Genesis, heading back, it's in the harbour...
STH: Bombing it in there look at it?
TrH: He is, yeh, he's going for it... weee...
TrH: There's a few people fishing there on the pier...
- They're Anglers, fishing.
TrH: Turning in the harbour... and that's the Bouy Beau... putting out a lot of smoke, it's obviously expecting some sort of attack!
TrH: That's not Godwin - oh no, the Goodwin diver!
TrH: And coming out to... the lovely Rowena.
... And Relentless there in the foreground.
... HL16, that's Patricia.
... And the Peter Paul!
It looks like that clock has been repaired.
- Hmm?
Looks like the clock has been repaired. It now says 20 to 5.
- It's 10 minutes past 6. It's behind time.
TrH: Basically we've got foul weather outside, it's raining, it's a force 6 out there as you can see from the flapping flag.
TrH: I just really wanted to pan in on the harbour... and show you... what the weather was like when Mahatma Gandhi arrived here in about 1953 I think it was?
Bev: '63 you mean? 1963...
TrH: Why do you say '63 Bev?
Bev: That was the year everything happened! Kennedy was shot, Marilyn Monroe... you remember that?
TrH: Well I think Gandhi came in 1953, correct me if I'm wrong, by our regrettably deceased boat train from Boulogne. And he was greeted by thousands of people when he got off the boat train and then made his way up to London to see the Prime Minister.
TrH: There's the tower and lots of people were standing and waving along that bridge...
Bev: Didn't he escape from his train on his way back? Or am I getting confused? In Marseilles or something, on the return journey?
TrH: That I've never heard of Bev... escape?
Bev: Maybe that was in '63?
TrH: It could be... but anyway. He then, in his dhoti and his sandals as always, pouring rain, umbrella, getting soaked, got on to the train to London and departed over that railway bridge, which hopefully you can see there. But it's a bit grey and miserable today, so if you wanted to see Gandhijan getting off the boat, if you go to PatheNews.co.uk, put the search in for 'Gandhi', then you'll see him.
Lov: Ahha they're fishing off the harbour wall - a bargain at four or five pounds a day for a permit - very close to our Folkestone sign; which I shall ... drop down to... here where let's see ECHO - NOVEMBER - ORIENT EXPRESS - TANGO - SIERRA - EMPIRE - KING - LOVIBOND - OBSOLETE - FISHING.
All the judges came 'round there... and all the flowers were plastic.
- Oh I remember that.
Yeh, the judges were mad about it, and eventually they basically gave them something diff...
- I think they got a shock out of it.
[Laughter]
I think that's what...
I wonder what the (?) think of that. As long as they don't look at that and think it's their long lost aunty.
Sunny Sands.
2... 3 now?
- Ya.
...young lad and an older guy
- Ah yes I see a third now. Bombed(?) up in surf.
J: It's a very blustery day... this is Jen. And just a couple of people, not enough to swim.
- Paddle.
J: Paddle.
[laughter]
TrH: There's a force 4 out there. We've had storms, it's about to get worse and lo and behold there's a canoeist in the harbour who's - canoeist / conoer... Okay it's a kayaker...
TrH: Here we go, right. He's about to get a wave... weee. Oh come on you, get it right!
Lov: A measure of just how windy it is out there, there's a pair of magpies here and you can see the wind getting up their feathers, and they're just being blown about, they can't stand still, they're being blown away.
Lov: There should be a better view of that... now there're all along the coast with them. The spray splashing up the Warren, big spurts of spray.
Lov: Whoops... and we'll get round Samphire and we'll run out of visibility completely, there's nothing to see over there at all, can't see Dover... just gone!
Lov: Now this is looking out of the north window, towards the Warren. Not a very sensible move really because what we've got is an on-shore breeze, like between Gale force 8 and severe Gale force 9. They're fairly sheltered from it where they are there, but you can see what it's doing to the water up against the wall. And it's a rising tide as well, will be high in about three quarters of an hour. And may be dramatic, but it's also damn dangerous down there.
TrH: Right, we're about to experience some fairly rough weather, it's about force 4 or 5 at the moment and it's likely to go up to force 7 to 9 and slightly unusually, we're getting a ferry going past us, on its way I think to sort of seek safe haven just round the corner... So it's deviating from its normal route between France and its coming from Dover over towards Folkestone.
FP: The ferry is...
TrH: Right... Can't tell you which P&O ferry it is I'm afraid at the moment because it hasn't got its AIS on ...
[RADIO]
dover
TrH: That's the European Seaway coming into Dover. You were a P&O guy, weren't you Andy?
Andy: As a matter of fact I was! Also so was my brother.
Andy: I was out at Australia at the time at (?) and they asked us to come back to man the (?) which was their first ship out of Dover. But then later on I was on the Herald which was my last ship, fortunately I wasn't on her the day she went down, but I never went to sea again.
TrH: During the Maning strikes?
Andy: Yes, a lot of us never went back to sea after that. It affected a lot of people down here big time. And there's also strong rumour now in Dover that there might be another strike. ...(?)
TrH: And...
TrH: This is the Saga Ruby ...
[RADIO]
TrH: ... is turning in the inner harbour, about to go on its cruise.
[RADIO]
TrH: Doughty and the Dauntless tugs helping her turn as we speak. Quite rough conditions as you can see.
[RADIO]
[RADIO: ...stand by outside the harbour, wait outside please to the west of the entrance. I have one cruise ship passing. If you can copy that in about 10 minutes time...]
[RADIO: ... The Saga Ruby has completed her turn, pointing to the western entrance. So once she's clear... back to the bay.]
TrH: Okay the Saga Ruby is now pointing in the right direction.
[RADIO: ... please wait outside to the west of the entrance. I have one cruise ship to depart. I will call you back.]
TrH: Okay. And... a boat out here is being towed... hang on a bit, otherwise you're going to hit the cruise ship that comes out. So Saga Ruby having stopped, and here comes the ferry.
Well they waited ten minutes, they've got really tight turn around times.
[RADIO: ... further west, thank you.]
TrH: I think it's the Berlioz.
That's the P&O's rival company, Sea France, it's actually owned by the French National Railways.
TrH: Saga is a cruise ship for the older fifties, so it suits most of us up here on Folkestone Coast Watch.
[RADIO]
TrH: Ya, it's already on it's way.
TrH: Have you been on a Saga cruise Ken?
Ken: Yes. Not on a Saga cruise...
TrH: Not on a Saga cruise, right.
Ken: But my cousin has been on two of them, she came back off the first one and she couldn't book another trip because they were already booked up. They're very popular...
TrH: Very popular the Saga cruises. They look after their clients don't they?
Ken: Saga Insurance, Saga Life Savings, Saga... it makes sense for them to look after their people.
Ken: No it's probably the last of us pensioned ones. The next lot will probably have to stay and pretend that they were on a cruise.
TrH: Do we know where they're going?
- No, we've got no detail on them.
TrH: No AIS from them?
...
- Bergen. Norway.
TrH: Right. It's going to Norway. So it's going to do the Norwegian fields trip presumably. It's not going out very fast at the moment.
- It's doing 4 knots at the moment.
TrH: About 4 knots... yes, I can walk that. No probs. ...(?) at walking speed.
TrH: You can see one at top deck waving goodbye to their relatives... Oh no you can't. It's my imagination getting the better of me.
[RADIO: ... Pride of Burgandy...]
- He's forgotten where he's going, doesn't know which way is up now.
TrH: Okay, Saga Rose leaves for harbour, heading for the Norwegian fields... amid open seas.
Jen: ... some lovely markings. Do we know what it's called?
- Norwegian Sun.
Jen: Norwegian Sun. That's why it's got a picture of the sun on it.
J: Do you remember how many passengers?
...
- ... and Mary Seller's house, their headquarters, right in the middle of the west end... (?) a little cottage.
- ...subscription is somewhere about 15 pounds.
MSC Orchestra heading down channel for La Caruna...
- Last time she was in Dover, according to the BBC's website, six men posing as passengers were caught carrying 35 kilograms of cocaine. It says it's the new trend for "drug couriers" due to "the popularity of cruises with UK holiday makers".
TrH: Graham says this is the Emma Muersk, the largest container ship in the world!
GD: Yes.
TrH: And Graham have you been on it?
GD: No!...
TrH: Graham hasn't been on it... but he-
GD: No, not that lucky yet! I will, when I get on there...
TrH: This is the same Emma Muersk which caught fire before it was even finished?
- Yeh [laughs] Before it even set float...
TrH: And Roger saw it's maiden voyage, no Graham saw its maiden voyage...
GD: I‘ve got this picture of its maiden voyage, going down channel...
Oh right!
GD: Two years ago December the tenth I think it was it came up...
TrH: Okay. December 10th, 2008.
GD: Going to Felixstowe.
TrH: Going to Felixstowe... fulla' christmas presents made in China!
GD: SS Santa, they called it!
- 398 metres...
TrH: 398 metres!
- Can hold 14700 containers...
TrH: 14700 containers - that's a lot of christmas presents! [laughs] SS Santa!
GD: Holds half a billion bananas....more than 500 million bananas in a single trip.
TrH: How many did y'say?
GD: A rather lot of presents.
TrH: We're about 500 million these days aren't we here and on the continent?
- Mostly here ... [laughs]
TrH: A present for every single goodly citizen of Europe, approximately.
TrH: And what precisely did the good ship Muarsk take back with her then, Graham? Roger?
GD: Nuclear waste, maybe! [laughs]
- Not nuclear but a lot of stuff for recycling...
TrH: Can carry recycling too!
- Yes that's the biggest one.
TrH: It's 16.1 nautical miles away so it's not a bad magnification! Yeh no they can hear this.
TrH: So we have the Emma Muersk, so a bit hazy I'm afraid. There's another boat passing on front so let's get that. Gosh you can actually see the size of it because there's another boat directly in front of it that looks as though it's er...
- The other one in front of it is...
TrH: It's dwarfed the other one.
- These things are all very well but where do you find the bloody cursor...
TrH: We don't know what that one is, for the moment...
Lov: Ten minutes to one in the afternoon. This is a video of an Algerian amphibious war ship passing the station in the south west lane, followed by a submarine which is also believed to be Algerian and is formerly a Russian K class submarine, according to the coast guard, although we had a bit of trouble trying to identify it.
Lov: Smooth pan a little bit to the left where we should find the submarine close behind... There it is! There goes the submarine on the surf down the English Channel.
Lov: I suspect that is the entire Algerian navy [laughs] we've seen this morning, it's almost as big as ours. My goodness me! Colonel Gadaffi must sleep easily in his bed with that little lot out there.
- Sure you haven't got your Libya and your Algeria mixed up Andrew?
Well, I believe that the Sultan of Brunei has supplied them both with secondhand warships...
Lov: Okay it's five and twenty past three on the afternoon of monday the 13th of August, passing in front of us is the Royal Fleet Aux Fort Victoria. Yes ugly brute isn't she?! Certainly a member of the Royal Navy.
Lov: Somewhat surprisingly she shows up on the AIS which is what gave us the identification. Because looking in the Jane's Fighting Ships there was no reference to her, which seemed a little odd, because she is armed, and she's a member of the Royal Navy, so it's a bit strange that she doesn't show up as a war ship.
Lov: We have confirmed that this is Belgian Naval support vessel called the Stern, you say? S-T-E-R-N?
- S-T-E-R-N yeah.
Lov: Which I think is 'star' in anybody's language nowadays.
Lov: 04963 on it's bar number. It's passing the watch station, at not more than 1 mile, heading south-west.
We've got a beam trawler there, just off Dover, hopefully, if we play our cards right we should have the most extraordinary rainbow, come on. I can't see it through the viewfinder, but its there look, it's right behind it! But it's not showing up on the screen...
Lov: We’ve got a beam trawler there, just off Dover, hopefully, if we play our cards right we should have the most extraordinary rainbow, come on.
Lov: I can’t see it through the viewfinder, but I'm sure it's there. Yeh it's there but it’s not showing up on the...
[RADIO]
Lov: Yeh it’s there, but it doesn’t show on the camera, it just doesn’t show on the screen... it is extraordinary isn’t it? Just doesn't show. But it's there.
- Perhaps you'd like to sing Somewhere over the Rainbow.
Lov: Some-where... na...
Lov: This is the three mast sail boat, the Shabab Oman, S H A B A B O M A N heading to Vigo doing 5.4 knots down the channel on Tuesday 31st of August.
[RADIO]
TrH: (?) and backed by more magnificance.
[RADIO]
TrH: And this is the COSCO Indian Ocean and registered in Hong Kong due in Suez on the 19th July, she's a very large cargo ship...
J: Actually Bev looking here, she's 348 metres long to be precise, but also 46 metres in width - which makes her a contestant in the Olympics, isn't it! Apparently COSCO stands for China Ocean fishing Company. Didn't know that.
J: And she's moving at 17 knots. Hope nothing falls off.
- Yes!
[RADIO: ... vessel's in good working order and free of defects. Over.]
J: There we have it, another pile of boxes on it's way south.
[RADIO: ... Mexico. Our last port was Antwerp, Belgium. We don't have any dangerous cargo on board. Total crew on board...]
Remebmer (?) bay a couple of years ago? All those containers on the beach. Ofcourse if it happened here, this stuff would end up in France, wouldn't it?
We have this... went past and couldn't get it. A bit frustrating!
J: Do you know anything about this ship...?
D: John will tell you in a minute... Ann, Which ship is that in front of us?
John: Which one is it Derek?
D: The one right out in front of us John, can you see it?
John: Well there's a whole clutch of them at the moment!
J: It's the long, the sort of dark reddish, that one.
John: She's a cargo ship...
J: Yep
John: The... Kirti? K I R T I ?
J: K I R T I - the Kirti.
John: And it's destination is Nouadhibou...
J: How do we spell that?
John: N O U ...
J: N O U...
John: A D ...
J: A D ...
John: H I B ...
J: H I B ...
John: O U.
J: O U. Where's that then?
John: God knows!
J: There's some pictures here of what seems to be a ship cemetary in Mauritania.
That's the Bell tower in Calais... or the top of it anyway. A few more church spires, and the ferry. Oil tanks. You can't see the land itself at all beyond the horizon. And an oil tanker. And soon you'll get the windows. Yep, there they are.
Here's the beginning of the cliffs of France and (?), about there. That's where the old refugee camp was, and now they say a new wave is due. Papers this morning are blaming the latest naval raids over Libya.
Here's the land bridge over to Dover, with their white cliffs on the other side. The chalk is almost all the way in between.
That's (?) green there. And there is the Varne lightship in the foreground, which is actually 12 miles away from the French coast to give you some idea.
Another boat carrier.
French call it the Canale sur la Manche and famously named all their boring machines after women. Brigitte of course, Catherine, Pascaline I think... can't remember the others.
Here's the Varne Lightship which is about to be eclipsed by a large container ship. Bev, do you know anything about it?
Bev: Well it says here that it's the CMA CGA Butterfly. CMA CGA is now the 2nd or 3rd largest container line in the world. CMA were founded by a Lebanese refugee in Marseilles in the 1970s - Jacques Saade. CGA was a maritime company run by the French government. CMA bought CGA in 1996 for not a lot of money.
Bev: I think they're still awaiting the outcome of a corruption trial also involving Presidents Chirac and Hariri, the one who was assassinated in Beirut.
And that's the Varne, it's only 2 or 3 metres deep at that point. They say it's an island.
Bev: Is it an island if you can't see it? Or how would we know?
You might wash up on it on a stormy night...
This is the heavy lift ship (?) just going past off o' Copt Point carrying what looks like a drilling platform.
We're just taking a quick video of this airbus one for a friend in India.
- Yes. You got him?
- There's a plane on board, right? Or is it just the wings?
TrH: Right I'm recording this because at the moment there's been an argument between the Pride of Canterbury there, and the - what's it called Roger?
- Motor vessel Courage
TrH: Motor vessel Courage there going from er east to west is it? Yeah, he's going from east to west. Courage is going east to west. Motor Vessel Courage thinks it's going to hit the Pride of Canterbury there. Pride of Canterbury is continuing to go straight towards Dover...
TrH: ...and they're getting a bit upset with each other because he wants the Pride of Canterbury to alter course.
[RADIO]
TrH: They are coming together and both of them are saying they're not going to change coarse...
TrH: Oh my god they are getting quite close aren't they! Wow! Oh my god!
TrH: Well I've now got the two in the same picture together. I think the Pride of Canterbury is going to go to the stern, so I don't think there is going to be a collision but...
TrH: I don't believe this!
- Is he going to...
TrH: Well I don't know, this is... huh!
TrH: Right well it's either bang now! Or, he's had to take evasive action I think. Wow! The Courage has had to move out of the way and the Courage says that the Pride of Canterbury should have moved out of the way. Well they didn't hit each other...
[RADIO]
TrH: An official complaint is going to be made against them.
[RADIO]
TrH: Right, well, fortunately there wasn't a crash PHEW! Exciting wasn't it?!!
[RADIO: Sir, the course you are steering may have placed you in contravention of rule 10 of the collision regulations. Do you understand that, Sir?]
TrH: It's a couple of thousand pounds fine isn't it?
- Ten thousand...
TrH: Ten thousand pounds.
- And loss of ticket.
TrH: Lovely!
Lov: Yeh, well here we have the Red Kite, quite a big sailing vessel, we're describing it as a Gin Palace with sails! They're just about to spill their gin we think. It's blowing up some, it must be nearly five now, it's... ten past one on Friday the 20th of August.
Lov: There it is. It's doing thr right thing now, it's making the right signals and it is recording now. Let's go around to the rainbow then again. There's the rainbow.
It's got a bigger memory card from my camera.
TrH: Sail boat sailing by the mouth of the harbour. On a nice clear day on the 23rd of July.
TrH: What's this boat, Bev? Is it fisheries protection?
Bev: UK Border Angency...
TrH: UK Border Agency. This is the one that's just .... Right. Formerly Customs and Excise. Looks as though it's just escorted a French boat and is now heading towards Dungeness.
TrH: Okay, this is the Seeker. That's a water cannon up the front... and into that birth there is reversing. Probably is a more technical sea-term.
TrH: The Anglican Monarch ... just there, which as you can see is a much larger vessel.
[RADIO]
TrH: It's a Coastguard tug as you probably know, and when it gets its line aboard a vessel its in... that's in difficulty, all of a sudden it becomes a private vessel and discussions about salvage then take place with the skipper. That's roughly right, Eric, isn't it?
Eric: Roughly, yes, yes.
[Laughter]
TrH: Prefecture Maritine. Costs split with the French, and now we hear our government wants to get rid of it; "waste of public money" apparently!
Eric: They talked about 17,000 pounds a day, if it's working.
TrH: All the papers say it's future will be debated in parliament next week.
Lov: Sunday the 5th of September at 20 past 10.
Lov: Dave Watkins died a little while ago and in accordance with the family's wishes, they were saying that his ashes had to be scatted off Copt Point this morning.
[RADIO]
Here are some close up shots of the survey vessel The Explorer. It appears to be taking... the depths above a range of rocks below Copt Point. She's been in and out of the area for several weeks. Not too long ago they appeared to do a survey of the depths within the harbour.
[RADIO, announcement]
We have an invasion of ... the local seagulls! Don't know where they're coming from, but there's about 300 odd. And there's nobody feeding ‘em and they're not frightened of anybody, there's dogs walking past. So, we don't know why they're here, or where they come from! There certainly is a mixture of all types of gulls.
- I think the dog's a bit uncomfortable!
- Yeh!!!
TrH: Okay Trevor Hughes here, updating you on the Roman dig. It's quite a lot on the Canterbury Christ Church University site because they're partly involved with this.
TrH: And they are asking for volunteers to sift through that spoil. ... To see if they've missed anything.
TrH: Anyway. Archibishop of Canterbury returning to base. And we can see the exposed Roman stone there. First discovered in 1923 I think, somebody was walking along and there had been a recent cliff fall. They did some geo-phys surveying the other day. There's supposed to be lots of Roman properties there. Obviously a lovely place overlooking the sea.
TrH: Has he found something? Apparently they found quite a lot of stuff that hadn't been found in previous digs.
TrH: Good 'ole Archbish.
TrH: So presumably in about a week's time they're going to put it all back again.
I tell you, that coffee's lovely!
- I know, I made it.
It's the best coffee I ever had.
[Laughter]
Lov: Where are you?
Lov: "Below me, always below me is water.
Always with lowered eyes do I look at it.
Lov: It is like the ground, like a part of the ground,
a modification of the ground.
It is bright and brilliant, formless and fresh,
passive yet persistent in its one vice, gravity;
disposing of extraordinary means to satisfy that vice -
twisting, piercing, eroding, filtering.
Lov: This vice works from within as well; water collapses
all the time, constantly sacrifices all form, tends only to
humble itself, flattens itself on the ground, like a corpse,
like the monks of certain orders.
Lov: And always lower; that could be its motto; the opposite of excelsior."
That's a poem called Seashores, written by a Frenchman anyway, a man called Ponge - and this is Andrew (?) reporting from the NCI at Copt Point this very fine Sunday the 16th of March 2011.
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