Hartlepool Marina Bike Ride.

Today I had a good ride right around Hartlepool Marina, and its piers. I also take a quick look at HMS Trincomalee and the Wingfield Castle Paddle Steamer.
I go up and down the different bars, and take a look at the Seagull Hotel. I chat to people who have sailed into Hartlepool on their Yacht.

All in all I think it’s great place for a day out with plenty to do and see.

Contact: mickgant@icloud.com
#michaelgant #drone #silverfox #hartlepool #marina #hartbour #bars #yacht #trincomalee #hmsreincomalee #royalnavy #museum

Hi guys, welcome to another bike ride with Michael. Today I’m going to head onto Harleyool Marina. We’ll have a look, see what’s going on there. Just another gentle bike ride though, just to get back into things. Try and get me fitness up a little bit. And it’s the first time I think I’ve been along here since I’ve relayed the pavement. And it is a cycle track, part of the cycle track, I believe. And it’s a lot better than it used to be, that’s for sure. So, I was only out yesterday for the first time in uh well over a year, probably two years, and I can tell my legs are really hurting today. But we’ll see what we can do. Hoping for at least another five mile. I am tracking it this time on Straa. All right, we’re at our first little pier. It’s got some steps, so I’m gonna have to get off the bike and carry it up the steps. But I’ll see how many peas we can get along. And if I’m quick, there’s a little boat coming in. It’s not the lightest of bikes in the world. Can you see the boat? try and get to the end just before the boat goes past. It’s a little yacht coming into Harley Marina. But where has it come from? Well, if you stick around, you’ll find out later on when I speak to them at the lock gates. [Music] So, we can have a see. There he is. If I give him a wave, he might wave back. There you go. Hi, guys. Bit of a bumpy ride. It’s not a bad little spot though, is it? E. So, we’ve got Middleton Pier over there, which splits into two. I’m not sure. I’m not sure how conducive it is for uh taking a bike along there. I think I have been along before on me bike. Well, we’ll find out in a minute, won’t we? when we get round there. Right back along. Hopefully we haven’t got a puncture coming along here. [Music] I can also tell that it was me first time out on the bike in a while cuz me bum’s really hurting. Hasn’t got used to it yet. I tell you what though, I’ll be glad when I get rid of them rolls of fat around me belly. Right, we’re going we’ve got the yacht club here on the right or on the left now. Now, up until a year or two ago, this was very steep little bank here when I did actually uh slip off me here. And I cut up all me leg and all me arm. And I take anti-coagulants, so I wasn’t half bleeding a lot, but I’m all right now. It’s very nice, isn’t it? It was a lot slippier than this last time. I’ll try and find the video and put it up where I fall off. I cut all me arm. It was horrible, but it’s a lot better now. The slipway, not me arm. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. So, that’s the yacht club on the left. I don’t know whether they still do them, but me and Brenda used to pop in for a Sunday lunch and it was really nice, very reasonably priced and have a couple of beers and go home and go to sleep. But we haven’t done that for ages. I might look into that, see if it’s still going on. [Music] Right, we’re coming up to the marina proper. You might be able to see all the boats there on the left. And that noise we can hear is the lock gates closing. So I might have to wait. You can usually get over one side. Couple of restaurants here. One of them’s not open at the moment. The pier. That one closed down a couple of years ago. And there you can see all the boats. little barge there. [Music] Still might sell up and buy a barge. I don’t know yet. So, we’ve got Portals Place here on the right. Haven’t been in since my mate sold it. Creos. Are these gates open or should ones are open? I think the gates shut on this one. Yeah, it is. I’m going to the other end, but it means going up the stairs. We could always stop and watch the boats go past, couldn’t we? Must be open and soon. These are the guys that wave to us going past. Should I go and say hello to them or do you think they’ll think I’m a crazy person? Probably. Thanks for waving. Have you come far? Grimby. Oh, it’s far enough, isn’t it? How long did that take? We’ve done a couple more. All right. We’ve come from Scarra today. How long did that take? Five hours. How are all under sail or engine? Sail start with engine for last bit because the wind went away. Yeah. All right. Cool. Enjoy. All right. The lock gates have opened now. We’ll see you from the other side. And this is what it looks like for the seagulls returning with a mouthful of fish. [Music] Might as well walk around with it. Seeing as though there’s more steps now. There’s a wreck down there somewhere. You can’t see it at the moment, but I do have a picture of it. So, I’ll try and find it and put that on for you. Hey, the door. [Music] [Music] I hope these lovely folk don’t think that I’m stalking them. I’m not really I’m not really a nuttery, you know. I wonder how the stop went in Harley Poo. I wonder if they enjoyed it. I wonder if they’d come back. I wonder what it’s like to stop on the marina in general. Let’s pass the Harley monkey. Right, I’ll go around the back here so we can have a look around here. So, you’ll see cadets building. We’ve got the uh big crane here for taking the boats out the water. So, this is coming round the back of the bars and the shops. And we’ve got a few uh few boats here. You’re out of the water. It’s a well, you can get through this way, but it’s a shame you can’t actually get right through the gates here onto the other side. Oh, amazingly they are actually open today, which I’ve never ever seen before. [Music] I’ve got a little buck on the slip there. I’m probably not supposed to be here, but it didn’t say I couldn’t. But you can’t get round that side there, which would be easy if you wanted to go to the small crafts club, which I’ll show you on the journey. It will go back around to the front past the bars and such. Sarah Louise, Celtic spirit or Celtic high tide adventure and a seagull. There’s another little boat coming in there. I’m going to get the lock gates going again. We’ll go through the middle of the crane. [Music] [Music] I just just went over something that sounded a bit sharp. Right, we’ll go around the outside so we can see some more of the boats. On the left hand side over here, we’ve got what looks like a house boat. Now, I’m not sure if somebody actually lives on there permanently or whether it’s some kind of business venture. Please let me know in the comments if you know. So, it’s all changed a lot around here since I was a kid. You couldn’t really Well, there was Middleton Village here, but I don’t remember it that much. It was a long time ago, but then I think we still have a a mar of Middleton. I’m not sure about that. Actually, I don’t think we do, but it’s turned into a nice little marina. It was all It was all more industrial when I was young. It started changing around about the late ‘ 90s, I believe, or or the mid80s. But we’ve got loads of bars and shops here, which I will show you shortly. Had to maneuver around the corner. Here we have an interesting boat. This is called the watchful Harley, but it did actually take part in the uh Dunkirk repatriations. He’s some here’s some notes about it. So, I’ll just put that on and you can pause it. So yeah, it was uh it saved lots of people from Dunkirk and I believe it went back there as part of the celebrations or certainly went down south. Disappeared for a while. We’ve had a group of volunteers doing the board up and doing a great little job. And it is a cafe as well. Well, I’m not I’m not sure if you can booger for private parties or I don’t know if you can get a beer on there as well, but we’ll have a little ride up. See the bars. As you can see, you’ve got quite quite a lot of different types. We’ve got Indian, we’ve got like a Spanish tapas spa, which is beautiful bottle. Vibes Emporium. I’m not sure that’s open anymore. This one’s an Italian type, a black olive. We’ve got roses, which I’ve done quite a few pictures in there before when the football’s been on. Loads of different styles. a new Thai restaurant by the looks of it. The lock gates and one here I haven’t tried cuz it’s only been open a short while. But I do want to try it. I’m not even going to try and pronounce it. Lemon Leman Kai. I don’t know. You tell me. I said I wasn’t going to try, but I did in the end. All right. So that’s the bars, right? Let’s go and find one of the other peers. See if we can get along it. Looks like a nice day for sitting in the sun or indeed being out on your bike. So, as you can see, there’s plenty of choices on here. Whatever you like, plenty to eat and drink. Sometimes they miss these out on other YouTube channels. I don’t actually feel that safe on the roads anymore. There’s lots of uh people about who don’t give you don’t give the bikes the respect. Sometimes there isn’t enough room to do that. But you know, don’t squeeze through a gap there, isn’t there? Right, we’re going to go up past a small crafts club. Now, this is what I was on about. If you could possibly get through on the other side, it would save you a long walk around. So, that’s the small crafts on the right there. I took some pictures in there recently on VE Day, I believe it was, or part of the VE Day celebrations. I’ll put one of them up as well. So, this is basically the other side of where I came down when I said you can’t get through there, but we did. But there isn’t a walkway there. You can see at the end there’s just no way to get through which is such a shame. You know, even a little walkway would have been handy. And they’ve nearly got that boat in the uh water now. Let’s have a look. Maybe I should keep recording it in case the car goes in as well. Hope he’s got his handbrake on. This could be me viral video that I’ve been waiting for. There you go. They’ve done a great job. They knew what they were doing. No viral video for me then. Right, let’s see if we can get along that pier. I believe it’s called Middleton Pier. That’s Middleton. I know a couple of people who live in these flats and they have an amazing view. The ones on the front. [Music] Usually a load of dog muck around here. Hopefully it’s not so bad with being the light nights. [Music] Tide’s up again. [Music] You won’t be able to see it, but I can see the guys with the boat on the other side. [Music] Yeah, mate. I’m probably not supposed to be along here on the bike. I’m not even sure you’re supposed to be long here on foot, but I’ve gone for it. I’m pretty sure when I was a kid that there wasn’t a wall here on the left and it was just open. It looks newish, doesn’t it? We’ll see how good the image stabilization is on this camera cuz I’m bumping all over the place. Warning, no entry. As you can see, there’s a little bit here where you go from one pier to the next part. There’s a bit of a gap where you can actually get underneath. [Music] There’s a few guys out fishing. I’ve definitely just gone over some glass. I heard it crunch. I have been along here in the snow and done some video, but God knows where that is. If I can find it, I’ll put it on. But don’t hold your breath. We’ve got some more people fishing. Maybe I should take up fishing. I’ve always wanted to do it. Live on the course. I’ve never really had a go. A little bit, but not properly. This is the pier we actually going along at the moment. And this is the one I’m going to go along. You know, I said there was a little offshoot. And the one on the left there, just going out of picture. That’s the one we went along. [Music] I’m going to lift the camera off and show you a view. So that’s where I was brought up as a kid over there. Did you see something just dive in the water there? Unless it was one of the guys casting out. So I’m going to do another trip over there. I sometimes talk to the fisherman, but I never know if they’re there just for a bit of solitude, bit of peace and quiet. So sometimes I don’t like to bother them. And they’re probably like taxi drivers will get asked the same questions every time. Out catching, mate. Nah, just a cold. Just catching a cold. [Music] I’ve had it all before. I’ll try it with this guy. Let’s see what happens. How catching, mate? No, I’ve literally just got here. Love you. Enjoy. I’ll try then. Oh, I’ve gone over the glass again. [Music] All right, we’ll go down that little pier. I’m definitely going to have a flatty. It’s not far for me to walk home, but it’s far enough it’s going to be a pain. I’ve got all the tools to change the tire, but I haven’t got a spare in the tube, which is pretty dumb of me, isn’t it? More glass. Idiots. Why? [Music] Let’s have a look. See if I’ve got a flatty. There were quite robust tires when I got it, but I haven’t changed the tires in. I’m guessing I got the bike before co because I’ve just looking in me little bag. What’s on here? That’s got me phone in. And it’s also got in some uh hand cleaning gel and a mask as well, just in case. [Music] All right. The other pier I was going to go along has been blocked off now. You can get to it from the seaside, but the tide’s up, so I don’t think I can. And I don’t really want to be cycling on soft sand either, cuz I will fall off. We can go and have a look, can’t we? And I’ll have to have a check. See how many miles we’ve done. So, I do want to do much more than me five. Or I might have to add some more on. The little boat’s gone now, so it must have been launched successfully. Unauthorized entry to this pier is prohibited. Notice to all anglers fishing from this pier is prohibited. You may cause death or serious injury to others by casting fishing lines into the harbor entrance whilst boats are passing by or passing between peers. You will be solely responsible for any death or injuries caused by your actions. And it says it’s on CCTV. I didn’t see any cameras, but there may well be. Let’s have a look at this little beach here. More signs. Since they do like a sign in Harley, no inflatables, do not sand yacht. No wind surfing in the bathing area. Beware of kite surfing. Hey now, hold on. Hop backwards. Little doggy wants to play on the beach. So the black beach, you might be wondering why it’s black. It’s not muk. It’s actually sea coal which comes from the same out sea. And lots of people, including our family and Brenda’s family, used to collect it and burn it on the fire, but it didn’t have used to spit out. It’s a little bit dangerous. It’s abandoned now, of course, but these people still collect it. I’m not sure what they do with it. Not sure if it goes off to used to go off to power stations and such, but I don’t think it does now. I think it’s a dying art. Oh, that’s nice. Nice little bit of breeze. It looks very cloudy. In fact, it is very cloudy, but it’s very warm. [Music] Right, let’s take a right. Head down to the other pier, which I know is cut off. And they’ve actually just built a seagull hotel. Oh, what? Am I hearing you right? Yeah, a seagull hotel. It’s absolute prime spot in the town for humans. But of course, they’re looking after the seagulls more than the humans. I’d love to have been able to buy the plot and build a house there, but alas, I haven’t won the lottery. But I do have some video of this seagull hotel. I think it was before any girls had inhabited it. But apparently there is some in there. They’re hoping the kitty wakes will go in there and stop bothering the people in the houses on the seafront and a bit further inland, too. Yeah. All fenced off now. Until recently, you used to be able to get round here onto the other pier and to the lifeboat station, but alas, that’s not the case anymore. And we do have a little area here where you can get down onto the beach. But as you can see, people are just dumping crab here. [Music] You can just about see the Seagull Hotel over there. We’ve got some fisherman’s huts there and uh the little pier and the lighthouse in the distance. But nothing doing today. Tide’s up. Can’t get round. Right, I’m going to make me way back round to the marina. We’ll go and find the HMS Trinkle and the Wingfield Castle as well and see what state they’re in. And at the moment, right, we’ve got the diving club just on the right hand side there. The Harley sea cadetses. Quite a few different businesses run from here. There was a big call center here quite a few years ago, Garland, but that closed down, leaving a lot of people out of work. [Music] These are all private accommodation, I believe. I have looked at a couple online. I didn’t quite fancy them. They look like they’ve been split down the middle. And for those of you that have never been in the middle of these flats or apartments, shall we say, let’s go and have a look, cuz I have never been in here either. [Music] That looks like you can actually go along the front. Let’s have a look. Well, there you go. I didn’t know you could do this. On the other side there, we’ve got the brand new leisure center which is being built right next to another gym. That can’t be good business for them. Let’s have a look. We’ll go to the end. Yep. Never knew that you could come along here. It’s a nice little spot this. Well, it will be will be when they finish building. You’ve got the sun on the balcony. Good stuff. And it goes right the way round. Well, there you go. You learn something new every day. You think you know the town you live in, but you don’t. Who else knew this was here? [Music] This side’s not in the sun at all. We’ll probably get it late afternoon maybe or we’ll go back the other way. So over in the distance there we’ve got the uh highlight which used to be situated on uh at Longill. I believe it was to enable the boats and ships to line up with the low lights. So they knew they were online to come into the harbor into Harley. Yeah, I’d have one of these flats. Would have been better before they built that thing over there. Mind. But can we get out at the bottom? This is the question. You can on this side over there used to be uh shops we used to have been in there and uh what’s that uh shop that used to sell stationary staples they’ve all shut down and they got done up but I believe they’re going to be part of the Royal Navy Maritime Museum whatever it’s called. That’s just the entrance [Music] to the building site. [Music] Marina Pizza. Had a few nice things from there before. Got another pub here, which was recently featured on a video on YouTube by the Curb. It’s got a nice view overlooking the Trinka. I don’t think it gets the customers that it probably deserves. Not sure how good the food is or anything. It’ll be basic basic pub. Here’s my favorite restaurant in town, Porterfenos, which is run by the lovely null after Creo passed on. And these big buildings here, these big lovely buildings are all part of the museum. It’s the National Museum of the Royal Navy. That’s what it’s called. But we’ve also got attached to it is the Harleyool museum which is free to go in or the museum of Harleyoo and I don’t think this attraction gets the attraction it deserves cuz it’s absolutely fantastic inside. I’ll stick a picture up of the ship, the Trinka, which I believe is the oldest floating warship, definitely in the country and possibly in the world. And on this side, we’ve got the Wingfield Castle. Now, I did a video of this lately. I did a video of this recently. It’s not in a good state, but they have found some funds to do it up. And I know they did some work on it recently to stop it sinking as such, but I’m not sure when the work, the proper work is about to commence. In the summer months, there’s always something going on on the marina. And this spot here is where they start the swimming for the triathlon, the big lime triathlon. And it’s quite a spectacle. I’ll pop up a video. I actually did a time lapse video over the Wingfield Castle, but we’ve just passed there. So, I’ll uh dig that out. Tell me what you think about it. On a warm day like this, when the kids get out or when they’re on holiday, it attracts them all down here and they’re all diving in and swimming off there. I don’t think it’s very safe, but nobody’s died yet, thankfully. So, we’ve got the old west key and the premier in. I’ll get on the path. There’s nobody about. I’m not getting in anybody’s way. If anybody comes, I’ll go back on the road and don’t have a go at me as I won’t raid it. So, I’m pretty sure that there’s quite a few people live on the boats down here. Well, that’s a barge with a house built on it, isn’t it? So, I don’t definitely know, but I definitely think somebody lives on there. So, just over there on the right, that was the lock gates what we came past earlier on. So, you can see it’s a nice little loop around and get round to the other side. And we’re also on the other side of where they’re building the new leisure center. and the highlight. This camera is probably too far away, but there in the distance over there, we’ve got the HMS Trinkle that I was talking about. And you can just about see the flood lights of the fantastic Harley United at Victoria Park or the Vic. So, of course, this was all working dock timber yards and all kinds of goods coming in here. Coal, there was some coal sts all gone now. Industryy’s all gone. More for leisure now. If you’ve got a boat on here and or you live on here, let me know what it’s like. Should I do it? Is it the life for me? Is it cheap? Cheaper than living in a house. Or is it more expensive? Taking into account I don’t have a mortgage at the moment. But I know people who live in these houses as well have a fantastic view and they get the sunshine on the morning. Well, certainly in the summer anyway. And these ones are bathing in sunshine in front of us. Hi guys. It’s so peaceful today, especially around this little bit. Once that wind drops, it’s actually too hot. I don’t know what the temperature is saying. I will uh put it up there. There’s the other pier. We went round over there. You all right? I don’t think there was much pedal power going on with that bike. The water’s so flat. I mean, it is inside a harbor, of course. It’s so peaceful even an old fellow like me can get out in a kayak. To be fair, I was a little bit scared and it did hurt me arms a bit. So, more houses being built here. Just getting all the drain working for it. I wouldn’t mind one myself to be honest if it was a a nice high flat with a lift of course. Of course they are planning on building some of these highrises right in front of my house. So it is going to block off my view. But I don’t think there’s much I can do about it now. I did complain but nobody listened. So that’s just about it. Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoyed the little trip around the marina. So that was approximately 5 miles. I will stop and have a look tell you exactly what it was. 46 miles. There they go. The scourge of the town going past lovely. Anyway, enough said about that. So that’s me done. Thanks for watching. Don’t forget give us a thumbs up. Give us a comment and I will definitely answer you back. Let me know what you think of these little bike rides and uh we’ll see you again. Bye-bye now. [Music]