This month has seen another two unusual visitors to the River Thames, or to be more accurate West India Dock, London.

West India Dock has not been used for handling cargo since the 1980’s and is now used for the mooring of historic vessels, visiting warships and other non commercial vessels.

As an example of the type of vessels calling at West India Dock, Wavecrest Ltd recently handled the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior.

The first of the two recent visitors pictured above is the Logos Hope.  She was originally built in Rendsburg, Germany in 1973 as the passenger car ferry Gustav Vasa and used to operate a regular service from Malmo in Sweden to Travemuende in Germany.

Later she was sold to owners in the Faroe Islands and renamed Norrona. She operated regular ferry services between ports in the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Islands, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. She was  renamed Norrona I when her owners purchased a newer replacement vessel.

The current operators of the Logos Hope, Operation Mobilisation (OM), a Christian Missionary organisation purchased the vessel in 2004 and spent nearly five years converting her into the world’s largest floating bookshop.

The bookshop sells a very good selection of books for all ages and tastes at competitive prices.

OM estimate that more than one million people around the world visit the Logos Hope and her sister vessel the Doulos each year.

The Logos Hope will be open to visitors this weekend (27th/28th June) before sailing on Monday for her next port of call Kingstown, St Vincent.

For further information about the Logos Hope please click here.

The second of the two visiting ships could not be more different! It is the Royal Australian Navy Adelaide Class guided missile frigate HMAS Sydney.

She was commissioned in 1983 and is currently on a six month deployment with the HMAS Ballarat showing the flag around the world.

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!

Last Thursday I received the sad news that one of my aunts had passed away following a short battle with aggresive lung cancer at the age of only fifty eight.

I found this fitting poem which was written by Bishop Charles Henry Brent -

A ship sails and I stand watching till she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says She is gone

Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large now as when I last saw her. Her diminished size and total loss from my sight is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says she is gone there are others who are watching her coming over their horizon and other voices take up a glad shout There she comes!

That is what dying is. An horizon and just the limit of our sight.

Lift us up, Oh Lord, that we may see further

During the last few weeks of her life, my aunt was assisted by nurses from our local hospice, the Ellenor Lions Hospice and on behalf of the family I would like to extend our thanks for their help at a difficult time.

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!

A guest post written by: Rosie Cubbin of CS Shipping Containers

If you are thinking about moving abroad, depending on your final destination, there are a three main ways to move your home contents – by air, by road or by sea.  

If you decide to ship your items it will obviously take longer for them to arrive at their  destination although it will save you money.   When you are trying to decide which method to choose, look at all the options in terms of both cost and time.  

You can undertake the whole move yourself, or pay an international mover such as Wavecrest to take care of it for you.   Much will depend on your budget but, even if money is tight, it could be worth talking to them as there are various options available that mean you can take on some of the process yourself and keep that all important price down!

If you do decide to move your effects by sea, you will probably use shipping containers. These are available to buy or hire and are made of corten steel.  These steel containers are extremely rust resistant (very important for anything having to resist the salt in the sea).  The shipping containers can be delivered to your home so that you can pack your belongings yourself or you can have your belongings  delivered to the Wavecrest depot in Kent so that they can pack them safely in a container for you.

If you do elect to buy your own shipping container – and many people do – you may find it extremely useful in your new country.   Many people use it for additional storage space or as the basis of a container conversion.   But whatever you decide to do with it you must make sure that your container is sea worthy.   The phrase CSC plated is often used and all this basically means is that the shipping container is suitable for shipping rather than purely for storage purposes.   CSC stands for “Container Safety Convention” and the plate is usually attached to the shipping container doors, acting almost as the equivalent of a passport for the container.  Second hand shipping containers that are over 5 years old, can be tested and awarded a certificate (Shippers Own Certificate) that needs to be presented to the shipping line.

But how do you decide which size of all the shipping containers available will take all the contents of your home?  I always find that the best way is to ask Glen or Charlie at Wavecrest.   However, the standard sizes are either 20ft or 40ft and the easiest way to judge the size is to imagine that a 20ft shipping container as the size of a single garage and a 40ft the size of a double garage.   Whilst there are other sizes of shipping containers available generally these have to go as “special” cargo and therefore are often more expensive to ship.  

Once you have loaded your shipping container, it should be collected and moved to the port (if shipping) by rail or road where it can be loaded onto the ship otherwise it will continue its journey by road.  Once your goods have arrived in your new country, the container is then unloaded and must pass through customs.   Wavecrest has a wide network of overseas agents that can help you with all the necessary forms to clear your container through customs.  Don’t forget that depending on which country you have moved to it may be possible to claim back the vat you will have paid on your container.

From there on in you are on the home straight (as it were)!  It is simply a matter of getting your shipping container to your new house and unpacking.  

Bon Voyage!

Article written by: Rosie Cubbin of CS Shipping Containers why not read her Shipping Container Blog

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!

This week, Wavecrest Ltd has helped to bring the 9 metre long sea going sports fishing boat “Lily Chan” home from the Canary Islands.

The boat was shipped from Tenerife to Felixstowe stowed on a 40′ flat rack container. A steel shipping cradle had been built to ensure the “Lily Chan” was kept safely upright and as an extra measure, to prevent movement during the week long voyage , the cradle was welded to the flat rack container.

Once the boat arrived at Felixstowe, Wavecrest Ltd arranged for it to be customs cleared and then the flat rack container was moved to a depot for unpacking.

Before the “Lily Chan” could be carefully lifted from the container and transferred to a waiting specialised boat trailer for the final leg of her journey, labour had to be organised to cut the welded shipping cradle away.

Once safely loaded onto the trailer, the “Lily Chan” was transported to her new home in Hampshire and reunited with her happy owner.

Wavecrest Ltd has been transporting boats around the world for many years and would be pleased to quote for any requirements you may have. We can be contacted on Tel: 0870 720 1130, e-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!

Wavecrest Ltd has recently upgraded it’s shipping services to Namibia.

We are now able to offer weekly express container services from Tilbury to Walvis Bay at competitive rates.

All types of commercial freight are accomodated as well as personal effects and cars.

In addition to the weekly container service, we also provide fortnightly roll on/roll off sailings from Immingham as well as a new monthly roll on/roll off sailing from Sheerness, Kent to Walvis Bay.

On our roll on/roll off services we can accomodate all types of vehicles including trucks, trailers, vans, coaches and cars.

The next sailing from Sheerness is due to sail on the 20th May.

For urgent shipments, we can arrange air freight to Windhoek. Please contact Wavecrest Ltd  now for rates and further information on all our services - Tel: 0870 720 1130, E-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!

 And they say Germans have no sense of humour!

We have received news that major German shipping line Hapag-Lloyd has announced plans to increase rates on the Asia to Europe trade by US$500 per TEU in June and on top add a peak-season surcharge.

Surely this is a (not particularly funny) joke? 

We are fully aware that shipping lines in the major liner trades are making insufficient returns but this is mainly due to their own folly (as usual). Like sheep they all placed orders for ever larger ships and flooded the trade lanes with additional capacity at the same time as demand fell.

Hapag Lloyd are adopting a King Canute attitude (*)

The only thing that will cause rates to rise to a more sustainable level is if the lines make a concerted effort to cut capacity to bring it in line with demand. It’s basic economics.

(*) - for those unfamiliar with English history…. King Canute the Great, the legend says, sat on his throne on the seashore, waves lapping round his feet. Canute had learned that his flattering courtiers claimed he was “So great, he could command the tides of the sea to go back”.

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!

We are saddened to hear the recent news that one of our competitors, Eggar Forrester Agency Ltd, a well established and respected port agency company operating in the Port of London has become the latest casualty of the recession.

Eggar Forrester Agency Ltd was part of the Eggar Forrester Group which can trace it’s origins back over 100 years.

The agency division based at Tilbury had been operating since the early 1980’s and was mainly involved with handling shipments of forest products from North America.

Wavecrest Ltd  provides a 24 hours, 365 days a year agency services for vessels calling at the port of Tilbury and other berths on the River Thames as well as support for offshore wind farm and construction projects in the Thames Estuary.

Please contact us for further information or assistance. E-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk or Tel: 0870 720 1130

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!

Captain Richard Philips, Master of the US flag container ship Maersk Alabama has been rescued earlier today by US Navy special forces based aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge.

The Maersk Alabama had been hijacked by pirates in the morning of the 8th April off the coast of Somalia whilst en-route to Mombasa, Kenya.

Captain Philips from Vermont, USA who heroically exchanged his own freedom for that of his fellow crew mates had been held hostage in one of the ship’s life boats. On Friday 10th April he bravely tried to escape from his four armed Somali guards by jumping into the sea but was unfortunately quickly recaptured. 

Today snipers from the US Navy SEALs based aboard the USS Bainbridge were able to kill three of the Somali pirates and capture the fourth enabling Captain Philips to be released.

Wavecrest Ltd strongly applauds the robust action taken by the US Government and would ask that others take the same stance.

Pirates have been able to operate practically with impunity around the Horn of Africa and this has lead to significant increases in the cost of shipping to ports in East Africa, the Arabian Gulf, Indian Sub-Continent, Far East and higher marine insurance premiums.

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!

At Wavecrest Limited  we have many year’s experience of advising clients new to importing and international trade.

Over the next few weeks we will be writing a series of articles on our blog which we hope you will find helpful and informative.

Our first helpful tip: - Do not forget to do your market research before commiting to buy goods from an overseas supplier.

We are contacted on an almost daily basis by clients, new to importing, advising us that they have found a “new” product for the UK market on the web, or they can source XYZ product at a particularly low price in the Far East and are going to make a killing.

Finding a supplier on the web is the easy part but only half the story!

Have you considered the following questions?

Is anybody else already selling the same product in the UK? - we’ve probably lost count of the number of clients who were going to be the first to import mobile phone accessories, bathroom fittings, electric scooters etc

Are you actually allowed to import the product into the UK? - for example does the product comply with UK safety standards?  Do you need an import licence?

What is the duty rate applicable? - for some products very high tariffs remain in place and even anti dumping duties which make the landed price no cheaper or indeed even more expensive than home produced goods. (We will go into duty rates in more detail on a later post)

Is the product suitable for  the UK market? - we had a client that imported very good quality flooring materials from North America but found to his cost that the particular colours he had chosen , although popular in the USA, were not to the UK buyers taste and did not sell.

Who will you sell your products to? - we have had more than one clients that has imported a container of “cheap” goods and waited until it arrived in the UK before even attempting to find buyers. Needless to say the stock remained in storage unsold for many months.

We hope the above will give you some food for thought when planning your import business. Please look out for our next helpful tip which will focus on terms of sale and contracts.

If you would like any assistance with your import shipping requirements, please feel free to contact Wavecrest Ltd at any time.

Tel: 0870 720 1130, E-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!

Wavecrest Ltd is pleased to advise that they have been able to negotiate very favourable rates with the main ro/ro shipping lines operating from the UK to Kenya and Tanzania.

If you have a car, truck, bus or other rolling cargo to ship to Mombasa or Dar Es Salaam, please contact us now for a competitive quotation.

Our next available roll on roll off sailings to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and Mombasa, Kenya are as follows -

From Tilbury, UK

ETS 20th April

(Last receiving date for cargo 16th April)

From Sheerness, UK

ETS 22nd April

(Last receiving date for cargo 17th April)

For further information, please contact -

Wavecrest Ltd - www.wavecrest.co.uk - Tel: 0870 720 1130 - e-mail: glen@wavecrest.co.uk

Do not forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed!