High, High, high in the Sky

This morning was very enjoyable at work, for at last we had the section trip up the Spinnaker Tower. This is of course a before the public opening special! It’s a nice day down here (blue skies, wisp of cloud, sunny) so good viewing weather.

I borrowed Dr T’s camera (wide angle facility etc.) for some snaps (as he can’t take the camera up yet himself!) .. along with many other colleagues we were snapping away.

It was nice to see it in its nearly finished state as the last time I spent ay major time on the site was when the concreting was coming to an end and the couple of work experience visits before the top cone was put on … all with a hoist lift. This time we were treated to a sneak preview and went up in the internal lift (which bends 4m … look through the gap when you go) for the views on the decks. The views are great, and it felt classier than the CN Tower, which is now a bit on the old side.

But what we were most proud of as a section was that our admin assistant made it to all 3 viewing levels and back down again … as she’s afraid of heights! Admittedly she didn’t really go near the windows but she could still see the views out across & over the Isle of Wight, see both Portsmouth and Langstone Harbours & Fawley refinery. She was a bit wobbly when she first came out of the lift onto the first deck, but once she got used to it she was OK.

We even had the air sea rescue Helicopter (Romeo Juliet) do a fly past at roughly our height while we were there!

So if you come down south once it opens … I recommend the Tower for your viewing pleasure. As a Soton dwelling colleague pointed out … Soton doesn’t have anything attractive like this!

I give you a tower eye view ... through the walk on air



Our new sundial?



Not forgetting a couple of views ...

The Dockyard & Hill



The Harbour Entrance & IOW