Moving day for The Loadstar office becomes a voyage of discovery

Like many other companies this year, The Loadstar made the sad decision to leave its London office and become a virtual team – for now.

Unlike most other companies though, The Loadstar’s office was on a 1924-built Dutch barge, which originally plied the waters of the Netherlands with cargoes of bulk. Luxemotor Sagitta came to live in the UK some 14 years ago.

The team made the decision to move the barge out of London, to a new mooring near Felixstowe. And on a sunny August day, we left the home at Tower Bridge where we’d been for nearly a decade – and where we started The Loadstar – and took to the sea. Sagitta‘s DAF truck engine reliably chugged on for the 24-hour trip, past the ports of Tilbury, London Gateway and Felixstowe.

Our view of Canary Wharf.

The flags read ‘Bye folks!’

Gavin van Marle has a farewell chat with the neighbours…

…who wave us off.

‘Bye to Tower Bridge and the Shard

Canary Wharf

Passing Greenwich and the Cutty Sark

 the Millennium Dome

The Thames barrier

Past London Gateway

All at sea

Past Felixstowe

We moor off Felixstowe to wait for the tide

Sagitta enters the river to its new home …

…and promptly goes aground at the entrance to the new moorings,
where she stays until the next Spring tide, a few days later.

The desks are removed…

… the sofas are back.

We’ll be back, publishing, on 4 January. Everyone at The Loadstar wishes all our readers a good, quiet holiday, and a successful and stress-free 2021.

Thanks for reading us, and for all your support in this oddest of years.