The day I’d been waiting for for quite a few months, had arrived. Our special tour of HMS Belfast organised by Howard, fellow volunteer at the museum. I was a temporary part of the Duxford volunteers, another group that Howard volunteers with.
Hay's Wharf Galleria
I started off at Hay’s Wharf for a Starbucks before heading to the gangplank where we’d arranged to meet. Eventually the whole group turned up (we numbered about 18) and we headed aboard.
We were then given a talk about the Belfast then about the conservation work done by the volunteers. There’s no money so everything is fixed by the volunteers.
And they don’t just slap a bit of paint over the rust either. There’s an awful lot of metal restoration (as you’d imagine) that, like the harbour bridge, never ends.
The chaps talking to us who then took us around to show off their latest projects, were fabulous. Volunteers to a man and incredibly knowledgeable. Now I want to volunteer on the Belfast!
We were treated to a demonstration of one of the six inch gun turrets, how the gun was loaded, aimed and fired.
It was while we were stood in the gun turret that the storm struck. We had an inkling of what it would have been like when Belfast was in the frozen waters of the Arctic and the weather turned bad.
We left the turret and stepped out onto a rain and hail lashed deck to be buffeted by strong wet winds. It was all most enervating. It also only lasted about ten minutes before the blue sky returned and everything started to dry.
All in all we had a marvellous time; well worth the wait. Thank you Howard.
Bye bye Belfast
Meanwhile Denise and Tracey were avoiding their hotel room in Amsterdam.
