On 11th August, the Greenpeace seagoing motor yacht Esperanza made a return visit to the port of London after a long abscence.

Once again, Greenpeace asked Wavecrest Ltd to look after the arrangements for the Esperanza’s London visit and to assist with the smooth transfer of crew members and stores to and from the vessel.

The Esperanza boarded a Port of London Authority river pilot at Gravesend and steamed upriver to West India Dock, arriving at the locks  just in time for high water.

There is a very large tidal range on the River Thames, sometimes as much as seven metres difference between high and low water so this had to be carefully judged.

The Esperanza quickly locked into West India Dock and moored alonside Thames Quay. A lot of specialist equipment and additional volunteer crew members joined the vessel in readiness for her next campaign mission – Beyond Oil.

The Esperanza was not open to the public and she sailed from West India Dock just over twenty four hours after arriving in the Port of London.

Destination (so far) unknown.

You can follow the voyage of the Esperanza on Twitter – @gp_espy

On 15th June 2010, Wavecrest Ltd took on it’s first ever apprentice.

Luke is 18 years old, lives locally in Gravesend and will be working in our warehouse as part of his year long NVQ2 in warehousing.

Luke worked with us last year on a four month work placement from the local college and has taken to his new apprenticeship like a duck to water.

He has already assisted with the loading and unloading of a number of containers as well as preparing orders for despatch from the warehouse.

Wavecrest Ltd has recently signed up for Twitter.

If you would like to follow us, please click here to link to our Twitter feed.

Yes, you heard me right!

The two 550′ tall chimneys at the derelict Lafarge (formerly Blue Circle) cement works which tower over the River Thames in Northfleet, Kent are due to be demolished on 28th March 2010 by controlled explosion.

If you are a UK resident you can enter a competition now to be the lucky one who presses the button and sets off the explosion and topples the two giant chimneys.

The competition is being run by the Ellenor Lions Hospice, a charity who offer palliative care in the North Kent area for children and adults suffering from life shortening illnesses.

To enter the competition, please visit the Ellenor Lions competition web site here!

Good luck.

Photo by Sara-Joachim

Wavecrest Limited are pleased to announce the commencement of a fortnightly part container load service from the UK to Walvis Bay, Namibia with a transit time of around 18 days.

This complements Wavecrest’s current full container load service from Tilbury and ro/ro services from Sheerness and Immingham.

The part container load service caters for both commercial freight and personal effects shipments.

Goods may be delivered into Wavecrest’s receiving depot in Gravesend, Kent or alternatively collections can be arranged from all parts of the UK at competitive rates.

In Namibia, Wavecrest works with a very well established local agent able to assist with import clearance formalities etc.

For further information, rates and bookings, please contact Wavecrest Ltd on Tel: 01474 331146 or e-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk

Wavecrest Ltd has many years experience in moving cargo to Africa and provides regular ro/ro and full container shipping services to Walvis Bay, Namibia.

Walvis Bay, Namibia is an important transit gateway to other landlocked African countries such as Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as to neighbouring Angola.

Ro/ro services are operated from Sheerness on a monthly basis and from Immingham on a twice monthly basis. All types of rolling cargo are accepted including cars (from Sheerness only), vans, trucks of all descriptions, trailers and coaches.

To save on shipping costs, trucks and trailers can be loaded with cars, personal effects etc (at owner’s risk) provided they are correctly secured for sea transit.

The next ro/ro departures are as follows -

Mv “Green Cape” – sails Immingham 17th February. ETA Walvis Bay 12th March

Mv “Palmela” – sails Sheerness 25th February. ETA Walvis Bay 11th March

Mv “Golden Isle” – sails Immingham 1st March. ETA Walvis Bay 22nd March

In addition to our ro/ro services, we also offer a regular full container service from Tilbury to Walvis Bay for personal effects, cars and commercial goods.

Due to the large volume of containers that we ship to Namibia each year, we are able to offer very competitive rates.

The next container departures are as follows -

Mv “Green Cape” – sails Tilbury 17th February. ETA Walvis Bay 12th March.

Mv “Golden Isle” – sails Tilbury 1st March. ETA Walvis Bay 22nd March.

We have a very reliable well established agent in Walvis Bay to assist with local Customs clearance formalities.

For further information about our services, quotations or bookings, please contact Wavecrest now on Tel: 01474 331146 or e-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk

Wavecrest Limited are pleased to advise details of their next two ro/ro sailings from Sheerness, Kent to South and East African ports.

MV Grand Sapphire – Sailing Sheerness 28th January to Mombasa, Kenya, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and Durban, South Africa

The last delivery day for this sailing is currently the 26th January so if you need your car, truck, bus, coach etc shipped to South Africa, Tanzania or Kenya, please contact us ASAP for a booking.

MV Grand Pearl - Sailing Sheerness 14th February to Mombasa, Kenya, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania & Durban, South Africa

The last delivery day for this sailing is currently 11th February.

For rates and bookings, please contact Wavecrest Ltd Tel: 01474 331146 E-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk

Further reading…..

Ten things to do before you export your car

Wavecrest Limited would like to take this opportunity to wish all it’s customers, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

2009 has been a particularly challenging year for everyone involved in the international trade and freight industry, and we are very grateful for the continued loyal support we have received from our long standing customers as well as to the new customers we have more recently welcomed “on board”.

Our office and warehouse will be open for business from 29th December – 31st December.

If you wish to make a booking for our forthcoming sailing from Sheerness to Walvis Bay or have any other sales enquiries, please feel free to contact us by phone – Tel: 01474 331146 or e-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk 

(Picture by Turtlemom_Nancy)

Wavecrest Limited are pleased to advise details of their next two ro/ro sailings from Sheerness, Kent to Southern and East African ports.

MV Grand Sapphire – Sailing Sheerness 22nd December 2009 to Mombasa, Dar Es Salaam and Durban

The last delivery day for this sailing is Friday 18th December so if you need your car, truck, bus, coach etc shipped to South Africa, Tanzania or Kenya, please contact us ASAP for a booking.

MV Sunlight Ace – Sailing Sheerness 10th January 2010 to Walvis Bay, Namibia – Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania & Mombasa, Kenya

The last delivery day for this sailing is Thursday 7th January.

For rates and bookings, please contact Wavecrest Ltd Tel: 01474 331146 E-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk

Further reading…..

Ten things to do before you export your car

Last week Wavecrest Ltd was called upon to ship a vintage Ford Model A car to the United States for expert renovation.

Unfortunately for reasons of discretion we are not at liberty to divulge the name of our client but let’s just say he is a member of a European Royal Family….

The car was collected on a covered transporter and delivered to Wavecrest’s warehouse facility in Gravesend were it was immediately loaded into a 20′ container.

Great care was taken to ensure the car was safely lashed and secured in the container.

Wavecrest has been handling shipments of vehicles both in containers and using roll on/roll off ships to worldwide destinations for over fifteen years now. During this time we have handled every conceivable vehicle from vintage cars and motorbikes to second hand trucks and coaches.

If you would like further advice regarding shipping a vehicle, please contact Wavecrest Ltd on Tel: 01474 331146 or e-mail glen@wavecrest.co.uk

You may also be interested in the following post….

Ten things to do before you export your car