(Our Part of) Victoria Harbour

I've always found it difficult to convey to people the joy in 'boat-watching' and how much Hong Kong is suited to the subject. Victoria Harbour is the place most people think of when they imagine Hong Kong harbour; that frantically busy stretch of water between Hong Kong Island and the mainland of Kowloon. Of course for most people the famous green and white 'Star Ferries' come to mind or maybe the huge passenger ships tied up on Kowloon side, but the statistics tell us that an average of 600 ships visit the harbour – every day!

The variety of ships is incredible. I've seen a sailing junk (the only one left, a tourist reconstruction), sampans; cruise ships; oil tankers; cargo ships; fishing trawlers; police boats; pilot boats; fire boats; warships; dredgers; tugs; lighters; barges; motor launches and junks; garbage-collecting boats; sailing yachts; speed boats; ferries; hovercraft; hydrofoils; jetfoils; launches galore; catamarans; trimarans and so on...

My in-laws live east of Victoria Harbour with an open view of part of the harbour. Thankfully, immediately in front of our block of flats is Quarry Bay Park, a large recreation ground with an all-weather football pitch that is in use from 7am to 11pm. More importantly, its recognised social value prevents any developer building thirty-floor skyscrapers on it, blocking our view of the harbour. To the right is Canossa College, a low-rise girls school , only six floors high (but with an effective loudspeaker system – and an electronic chimes bell - remember the other-worldly tones from the film 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'? - so that I often feel that I'm participating in morning assembly at 7.50am as the tones blast me awake...).

The point is that our flat has a great view of (part of) the harbour so I thought I would spend an hour recording the boats that passed by our window. In total I counted upwards of 60 boats. I say upwards of because whenever I retreated to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, something interesting, like the high-speed police or military craft, whizzed past.

Here are a few of the boats...(the camera was a Panasonic FZ1000 and the weather was rather hazy/smoggy but nothing like the pea-soupers of Beijing).

Ever wondered where tyres go when they re-tire...they become fenders in Hong Kong.

The one below is a typical so-called 'junk' used to ferry employees at the weekend to a secluded cove at one of the outlying islands so they can have a (usually rather boozy) lunch, swim, water ski or otherwise enjoy themselves. The large companies usually own their own junk (or two).

Fishing...for garbage!

Hard to believe that this pink palace is just a ferry...

The two types of boat below are a very common sight. The large container ships cannot enter Victoria Harbour so they anchor in the deep-water Western Approaches and lighters (like barges) use their cranes to transfer the containers to the lighters, which are then pulled by tugs to harbours on Hong Kong Island and the mainland where the containers are transferred ashore.

More tyres...

Now, I'd like one of these!