VALENCAY ENTERS THE HARBOUR
A sunny summer scene
By Andy Gilbert
Valencay arrives on a sunny afternoon.
Kind permission of Alan Richardson
I'm a regular on www.shipsnostalgia.com and one of my fellow posters recently added this super photo to the site which I post here with his kind permission.
The scene is our sandy West Beach, and the year is somewhere between 1968 and 1976. Beyond the people happily playing on the beach, the car ferry Valencay is backing into the harbour. She's displaying the two black balls from the aft mast, signifying that she's going astern. The rear doors to the vehicle deck are already open, a sight that would be gone forever after the Herald of Free Enterprise tragedy.
And of course, those on the beach are happily ignoring the dire warnings of the waves that the incoming and outgoing ships would produce. We loved them!
The Health & Safety people would blow a gasket today, wouldn't they? Open ferry doors, people actually on the beach, in the water. Whatever next? The doors I can agree with, of course, but let's get people back on the beach where they belong!