Fifteen kilometres of heavy port traffic, with container ships turning, bulk carriers reversing, ferries out to get us, and just unpleasantly blustery conditions, were all we had to endure, or more correctly; enjoy, until we were back in the centre of Ghent.
There’s something about the scale of a 5,000 ton ship turning in one’s direction that does cause a little consternation among at least one of us aboard, the other keeps reminding her that the ship’s captain really wants to avoid the paperwork he would have complete as much as we wants to avoid him hitting us and so far we have avoided going bump by very large margins.
There's so much variety to observe in the industries as we pass, although attempting to take photographs with a little boat being blown towards obstacles real and imagined is somewhat fraught with difficulty. There’s a strange blend of new and old; a nuclear reactor and wind turbines line the banks beside a derelict power station. Container ships are loaded calmly and efficiently by cranes which are designed for the purpose while the giant grabbers that are used to unload many of the bulk carriers appear anachronistic at best.
How much fun would it be to be the operator of those cranes? I’m sure it would be a bit repetitive, but with all that expertise, think of the fun one could have with those mechanical claw machines in every cinema lobby. They'd be depleted of chocolate in a minute!
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