Tall Ships and Traffic

Monday morning and a few Tall Ships finally made it into the Bay 5 hours before the start of the race. Which was from round the other side of Berry Head, which is the headland you can see in the picture, and wasn't visible from Torquay sea front where I took this and a few other pictures. I had to grab them while I was stopped at the traffic lights but better than nothing. In previous years there have been ships parked out there for days before the race but Torbay Council don't seem to have done much to get them here early so we could all take photos and tell the grandchildren we were at the 50 anniversary Race.

The other thing that happened was the traffic was chaotic. Most of it was just the number of people coming into the Bay to see the Ships plus some idiot parked a coach (not a bus as the local paper reported) at the entrance to the Harbour and the official party, including HRH Edinburgh were held up for hours. Well OK the clean up before they arrived was held up. Still nothing to do with Stagecoach.

All day long drivers were on the radio reporting that they were up to an hour late. When this happens the controllers have to work hard to try and get us back to something like our correct running time. The Paignton controller who should have finished at 5 pm was still there at Half past six working hard. Well done him. Shame our local police force weren't out and about attempting to control some of the traffic. Note; I didn't expect them to be, so I wasn't disappointed.

Then right in the middle of it all the council put temporary traffic lights up on the Brixham Road and dug a very small hole. In case you don't know the area, Berry Head where the race started from is on the other side of Brixham and most people who had been to see the start would have been using this road. Well done Torbay Council.