Comments on: All I Need Is a Tall Ship…

By: RogerW

RogerW — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:15:15 +0000

Ah… but there’s another irony. Although there are references here to over a dozen boats, the number of actual ‘tall ships’ that ventured further upriver than the barrier, was no more than four.
That’s right. Four.

By: Margaret Mills

Margaret Mills — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:08:42 +0000

Sooooo disappointed after leaving home at 8.30am and travelling to Greenwich, securing a vantage point and waiting. The jobsworth of a harbourmaster needs shooting! The number of tall ships and their size and the depth and width of the river are all details that he should have known and any change to the publicised arrangements should have been made known weeks ago. What an embarressment, What sort of message does this send out to all our visitors. Bun fights and bakeries springs to mind. An apology and explanation from the PLA is needed as a common courtesy for tall the disappointment

By: Otter

Otter — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:24:53 +0000

Meanwhile fourteen of them snoozing gently off Woolwich this morning.

By: Janet Gyford

Janet Gyford — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:52:04 +0000

Hi, thanks for putting this fiasco online, it seems to have been having a low profile !

To add insult to injury, we were told by the officials at Woolwich when we got there (too late) that the turn-round had been because the harbourmaster had banned the fleet from coming further, because there were too many of them to turn round.

We and everyone else, and all the web sites, knew how many (about 16 boats) days and days before. So how come he didn’t ? Or if he did, how come his ban wasn’t passed on to everyone, including the web sites, the newspapers, local radio etc etc days before. And how come the large crowd of tourists, visitors, children, coach parties etc were not at least told when they arrived at Greenwich ?

As an English person I was downright embarrassed and upset for the overseas visitors who were there. Some spent the whole of a precious day of their visit there. They must have thought that if we can make such a terrific mess of a few boats sailing up the river, how can we organise the Olympics ?

By: IslandDweller

IslandDweller — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:05:41 +0000

I would not pretend to be a twitter expert, but yesterday I discovered the Port of London Authority feed. It has useful stuff about river activities, and that alerted me that the flotilla would turn by Blackwall, so I was able to jump on a Boris bike at Island Gardens and zoom up the Isle of Dogs and get a good view.
Their feed is
https://twitter.com/londonportauth/

By: Marion wilcock

Marion wilcock — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 23:49:19 +0000

Not all the people on the boats today were well heeled. For most of us it was the chance of a trip of a life time. A one off special event. You may have been disappointed, but not so much of those of us on the boats expecting as promised a majestic sailing of tall ships with a flotilla of small boats into Greenwich. Instead, without warning, apology or explanation the boats turned round and trailed back to Woolwich.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:19:07 +0000

Ah Phanty you should have come down to the Barrier, they had ice creams as well!