Wednesday 10th July – Windsurf ***** The Manor at Felixstowe – sunny periods.
Foil – 18.29 knot max , 17.17 knot ave, 14.01 knot hour, 15.77 knot mile, 52.85 km., 14.46 knot alpha.
Starboard Freeride 150 and a Evolution Freeride foil with a Tushingham Storm 6.5.
What a lovely day including lots of sunshine and a good from the SW and just for a change no rain! With low water at 8.40 I was keen to get down early to make the most of the flatter water, cloudy when we woke but the sun made an appearance as I had my breakfast and arrived at Squiz Lane at 9.10 and parked easily but camper vans seem to have found it but they disappeared fairly quickly! There was loads of container ship action on the horizon including the new eco friendly Ane Maersk (see below for full details, borrowed from a page on Facebook) My foil board was quickly set up on the beach and in-between taking pics of the container ships I took a chance with my 6.5 which proved OK for the best part of the two plus session although my 5.5 or even the 5.2 might have been better! I was on the water around ten in lovely sunshine with some really smooth water, due to the fact I was a little overpowered at times I decided to mainly stay in front of the launch beach especially as the Wadegate break was working, this is an area of flattish water out to the right of the Wategate post caused a large sand bank, always great to sail and gybe in:) I was joined on the water for an hour by local windsurfer Al Wiz out on his fin board and going well:) So a great session, nothing overly fast just fun playing with the swell with some OK gybes made better with the the out:) I did have one long downwind run saying hello to a Dutch yacht but the sea picked up big as the wind increased so beat back and headed ashore. I had a snack and checked my gps and saw I needed one more run out to Wategate to break 30 miles so I one more go, which proved a handful as I needed 5.2 now and was glad to get back to the beach, absolutely knackered.
Then after lunch Mag and I had a quick walk down to Lidl and back along coming home for a cuppa and biscuit, what a top day:)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=stephen.squirrell.1&set=a.10227955613808355
The Ane Maersk, IMO 9948748, is a page in the history books for being the first ultra large container ship to be powered by green methanol.
At a length of 350.59m with a Breadth of 53.5m and maximum draught of 18m. She has a capacity of 16,592teu which places her as an ultra large container ship.
She was built at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea.
The steel cutting began in November 2022 and 22nd May 2023 there was a ceremony for her keel being laid. As the months went on, she was launched on the 6th October 2023 and finally delivered to Maersk on the 25th January 2024 after extensive sea trials.
Maersk have huge ambitions to achieve Net-Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. To achieve this, alternative fuels would be used such as green methanol. With these ambitions, Maersk has ordered 6x 2,100teu, 6x 9,000teu and 12x 16,592teu vessels to be delivered between 3rd quarter 2023 through to 2027.
Maersk ordered 12 of the ultra large size of 16,592teu. To date, only a couple have been delivered. Ane Maersk was the first one to enter service and to serve on the AE7 loop which links Asia with Northern Europe. The Western leg of the journey takes approximately 47 days to complete before heading East back towards China. This takes up to 10 days longer at the moment due to the unrest in the Red Sea.
Maersk had managed to secure green methanol for both vessels, the 2,100teu Laura Maersk and 16,592teu Ane Maersk for their maiden voyages to Europe. All these vessels are "Methanol enabled" which means they duel-fuel and can run on conventional fuels like low sulphur fuel oil.
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