The Port of Felixstowe
Channel: Suffolk Air Adventures
Date: 2023-01-29

The Port of Felixstowe at Sunset.

A week a go I filmed Felixstowe, Shortley & Harwich all in a one minute upload. I thought it would be nice to film the same view but from behind The Port of Felixstowe. What better time to do it than at Sunset? ...and again what a Sunset! No need for fancy colour grading here!

So with the promise of Fish & Chips, a stint on the beachfront play area (for junior SAA) and sniffles and unmentionables on the beach for doggy SAA (Dewi) the family piled into the car for a chilly afternoon in Felixstowe.

As the afternoon rolled on I nervously looked at the sinking Sun, when was my boy going to tire of the swings! Thankfully the dipping temperature and with a bit of encouragement from me I just managed to get the drone up at the right time.

Mrs SAA unceremoniously booted me out of the car by a deserted industrial unit (I am sure I was being spied on by CCTV) and I got to work.

The first difficulty (if you put aside my SD card issues) was how far could I actually go?

The light was fading fast and although the houses and industrial units in this part of Felixstowe go right up to the port walls I wanted to make sure I didn't stray over the port itself. 

So a quick look at Google maps informed me I was about 300 metres from the port wall, so I backed up another 300 metres and after a bit of mental arithmetic (how fast, distance covered etc. etc.) I calculated I would be able to get a nice slow run over all the industrial units outside the port to capture plenty of footage.

Obviously and as you will appreciate, I couldn't do anything too fancy in the fading light so I'm afraid I had to make do with very similar shots. A tricky edit!

The views I did get however give a fantastic view of the port working to unload two ships on Landguard Quay (FSR- Felixstowe South Reconfigerations) berths 8-9 (someone has been doing their homework!).

As I spin to the right you get a very nice view across the River Orwell to Harwich and Shotley point. 

You also get to see the immense size of the port. Trinity Quay is further to the West (up river) and you can just see the distant lights of Ipswich on the horizon.  

Finally a quick look at Felixstowe town and the lights along the beach then an outro to the far horizon where all these containers come from (i.e. China!).

The Mini 3 performed perfectly and its amazing how good the sensor is in low light.

So exactly 11 minutes after being dropped off I was finished and was safely picked up by the family, just before someone came along and mistook me for some kind of nocturnal Auditor.

Its not the most fancy of videos but for the time I spent filming I am pretty pleased. 

I only forgot in my haste to capture a YT short but that gives me an excuse to go back on another day! My poor family... An amazing view and Sunset, which again is presented unaltered.

So I hope you enjoy, thanks for watching & thanks for all the lovely comments, keep them coming!

As always...

Cheers!
Suffolk Air Adventures 


The location:

If you would like to stand on the street  (looking shifty) at the very spot I did you can, by going to what3words and pasting the following for the flight location:

///tested.chairing.pulp

On a H&S note the port is a busy work place with lots of machinery and people operating down below. So even though your drone is the height of 21st Century technology and you may think to yourself "..they can't stop me"  I wouldn't stray over the port itself, as its just asking for trouble and do you really need to? 

No. Better to be safe for everyone's sake. Ta.

The Music:

A suitably spacey feel to the amazing (well I think so ) views. 

Serge Pavkin specialises in these kind of ambient tracks so if you are a YouTube creator (or even if you are not) head on over to his channel and do the guy a favour by dropping a like & comment and of course Subscribing to his channel!

Cheers Serge!

Music: Deep Space - SergePavkinMusic
Music Link: https://youtu.be/a8PX30AlbF4