Whilst on passage from Warrenpoint to Heysham on the evening of January 31st, 2008, the ferry was struck by an abnormal wave during a severe storm. The wave shifted cargo and caused a heavy list and loss of power leading to the vessel being blown ashore on the Fylde coast. Now 3 months on the stricken Riverdance ferry is to be cut up and dismantled to get it off the beach once and for all.

Kelsey and I decided to go for a quick walk along the promenade at Cleveleys as the weather was still nice and warm after a lovely day.

We noticed that the tide was out and decided to walk on the beach and make our way over to the Riverdance ferry that was still stranded since it was washed ashore in a storm on February the 1st. You can read All about it it if you missed out on that blog post that I made.

The Riverdance was a couple of months ago leaning on the sand and maritime experts were hoping to re-float her when the next high tide came along, this was never to happen as the stricken ferry just carried on leaning day by day until it finally went completely over.

The tide coming in and out each day over the past few weeks has taken its toll on the Riverdance and now the experts say that its fit for nothing more than scrap!

Work is being carried out and they are cutting the vessel up and dismantling her so they can finally remove her from the beach. I am not sure how long this is going to take but its a big job by anyone's standards.

One for the photo album as Kelsey stands in front of the now worked on Riverdance. This was as close as we were allowed to go.

Coastguards on quad bikes are on the beach when the tide is out keeping on-lookers from going within the exclusion zone for their own safety. Of course there are always the ones that think they are the exception to the rules and try and get that little bit closer to the action. They suddenly find a man in a fluorescent orange jacket hurtling his way across the beach towards them to send them back the way they came. Naturally Kelsey and I abided by the rules when we shot the photo's in this post tonight

I will try and keep you all updated with some more photo's as and when I can (tide and work depending). In the meantime if you see an advert on ebay for cheap scrap metal, it could be a piece of Cleveleys nautical history!

Its Scrap-tastic mate !

Gz :o