Local People
Deano’s Youtube Shipping Sensation
For a few years now, local lad Dean Cable has been enthusiastically filming shipping videos and publishing these on Youtube. One of his videos has reached a startling 1million views! Dean has now become a go-to source for local information on ships coming to to Felixstowe Port. Here he is to tell you more…
Felixstowe is not just a place to see ships but a place of relaxation and more to my heart, a place where I have made friends over the years. From a young age I started to track ships around the world and 2006 saw the Emma Maersk, the largest container ship at the time. Hundreds of people gathered to see her arrive in the run up to Christmas, she was dubbed as SS Santa a delivering for Christmas 2006. In 2016, I began to explore different aspects of shipping. I started a YouTube channel with just one video. It was slow to start with but less a month later, I had managed to film one of the largest, China Shipping’s CSCL Indian Ocean leaving Felixstowe in awful conditions. Less than 2 days later the same ship made headline news across the world after a mechanical fault caused her to ground heading up the River Elbe to Hamburg. This kick started my channel with 5,000 views on that video. After 6 days of trying to free her with 12 tugs costing millions of pounds, she finally broke free and was pulled clear and then towed into Hamburg for an inspection.
With some help from a docker and a shipping contact I had made friends with, they helped me build a thriving YouTube channel which has now nearly 900 videos and very close to hitting 10,000 subscribers. My channel can be reached at: https://www.youtube.com/user/deancable
You can also follow me on Facebook, just search for: Deano C’s Harwich Haven Videos and News.
Exploring further, I became a member of Gipping Valley Model Boat Club. To start with I brought a cheap ready to sail radio-controlled boat then a few months later I began the long task of building my own model container ship. It took 18 long months to build, apparently that is good for a first build. I now have a fleet of 12 boats with a 13th in the early stages on the way. Being shy and not interacting much with the members, they helped me build my confidence and was given the opportunity of displaying at shows and fetes around Suffolk during the summer months. Now I am one of the biggest assets to the club with attending almost every show, even going up to Blackpool for a weekend model exhibition. Last year was a brilliant year for the club with attending 10 shows, including the Golden past times show at Euston Hall, near Thetford and the Ipswich 4-way event. At these shows I have up to 10 boats on show with a tv showing my favourite videos from my YouTube channel.
One of the regular spotters suggested that I should be an information person as some people do not know much about the port, and maybe I could give talks of what’s happening. It was a great idea and after a little thought, I agreed to do it and from then I have been known as the information guy with the model boats. During summer months, Landguard Viewpoint gets really busy with day trippers. As there was only a touch screen map with a bit of info and another TV with a few videos of the local area in the café, visitors still like to find out if there were any big movements due in or out. To save some time, I made a few notice boards with the days expected movements in the harbour and the top 10 largest container ship in the world. I display them in front of the car with the Emma Maersk, maybe a few more models and loads of info of the real ship’s eventful life. Many people take the opportunity to ask questions and I am grateful to see that I have made a difference at the viewpoint.
Dean Cable
This lovely Felixstowe lady, Nina Danells, tells us how she started litter-picking and why her family loved to get involved too...
Myself, hubby to be Gav and son Tobe’s are all outdoors people. We love to camp and taking walks in our beautiful countryside. Taking good care of it anyway we can is a big thing for us. Whether it’s simply recycling at home or reusing items so not to buy again or using plastic free products to help the environment. We heard about Litter-Free Felixstowe from fellow committee member Sue Lewis, of 356 Felixstowe Air Cadets. Sue told us that she had joined up and while talking with Sue she explained that because my son, Tobes, is a cadet at 356 Air Cadets and currently doing his Duke of Edinburgh Award with them that the litter pick would also go towards the volunteer part of it. So for my son there was a double reason to do the litter pick, but for myself and Gav it would be another excuse for a family walk in our local area and the bonus of being able to help clean it up a little.
We went to Trimley foreshore and within 25 minutes we had collected over 6kg of rubbish! This included anything from disposal BBQ’s, glass bottles, toilet rolls, underwear and even needles.
There were two areas where it was clear it had become somewhat a playground and the fun thing to do is to stand at the top of the foreshore cliff and throw glass bottles down onto the stones to smash. I made sure I took pictures of this location so to warn others and dog walkers like ourselves to be mindful.
Being part of this Litter-Free Felixstowe group is wonderful and I would encourage anyone young or old to join in, as it really has brought the community together and is hopefully making people stop and think before dropping their litter as the group has become more public.
While we were on the foreshore we received quite a few positive comments from passers-by such as “thanks for doing this”. So already we hope these people are talking about it and pass it on. The way our family sees it, is wherever you go if you bring it with you then you take it home with you too. It really is that simple.
A Family of Litter-Pickers
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