SUMMER days are made for running away to sea: the sky blindingly blue, the sun sparkling on the water and, far out in the bay, ships rising slowly from below the horizon into a shimmering haze of heat.
On such a day recently, Dublin Port was crammed with vessels registered in places as dreamily distant as the Bahamas or Nassau. There were ships from West Africa with cargoes of mahogany and from Scandinavia with paper, plywood and timber. As soon as the Isle of Man Packet Steam ship pulled out, a freighter slipped into the vacated berth, impatient to start unloading. Even though the port operates a 24 hour schedule, there is no time to be lost.
Huge roll on roll off (ro ro) cargo trailers were lined up in their parking bays, waiting to be towed onto the roro freighters while a high and mighty red crane nonchalantly lifted a container way up above the harbour and swung it carefully into position for lowering onto the deck of a vessel.
Dublin Bay has long been an outlet for sea trade. Nearly 4,000 years ago, it was gold and copper, mined in Wicklow and sent by sea to Britain and mainland Europe. Then the ninth century Norsemen settled on the banks of the Liffey, forming the beginnings of the harbour we now have. The most recent changes in dockland took place in 1992 when parts of the old port were demolished and rebuilt. The workforce was cut, new technology introduced and deliveries speeded up. Most cargo, including coal, is now containerised, so whereas before it might have taken five days to unload a ship into a fleet of Heiton's lorries, now it takes only one.
A £5 million Irish built, 20 tonne grabbing crane can shift 3,000 tonnes of grain a day, while the hoppers have aspirators which keep the dust down to a level considered safe for the workers. There are about 4,500 people working in the port, including electricians, boilermen and clerical workers.
The harbour has its own dock police and firefighting team. At the end of the oil terminal jetty, a bright orange escape capsule hangs out over the water. Should a fire break out, there is room in it for 15 people who can climb into it, batten down the hatch and lower themselves into the water. The capsule has a compass and lifeboat inside and its own water drenching system.
Everywhere you look in the port, you find signs of activity - the diver with his barge, the dredgers, the tugs (two working, two on standby, with two more being built in Cork), the pilot cutters and, keeping an eye on everything - Brian Byrne high up in his radio control tower. From there Brian, one of the port's five radio operators, can see what's going on right out into the bay. And what he can't see, he picks up on radar.
The channel is a busy one, with anything up to 70 movements of ships in and out of the port in 24 hours, their positions showing up as splats of green on Brian's screen. He is the first person at the port that a ship out at sea will make contact with usually to ask for a pilot to come and guide it in.
THERE are three main sand banks the Kish, Burford and Rosbeg - which need to be negotiated. A few months ago, a new roundabout system was established in the bay with the introduction of the new Dublin Bay Buoy.
Almost 4,800 ships used Dublin Port last year, up from 3,700 in 1984.
For ships needing help, there are 12 pilots - three per watch who are taken out to the vessels by one of four cutters. The newest cutter is the Dodder, capable of doing 20 knots (22 mph), although the one I went out on was the older, more sedate Caac From its deck, we got a novel, waterside view of the port - old warehouses; a former Scottish Lights vessel being repaired; a ship - from Limassol in Cyprus just berthed.
We chugged past Berth Number Five - traditionally the one for unloading tropical fruit - and the old Hammond Lane Foundry, now in the recycling business and shipping up to 6,000 tonnes of scrap metal to northern Spain every month. Then, as a special treat, the East Link bridge opened up for us - an operation that takes only 35 seconds - and we ploughed regally through.
Passing back under it again, we made a detour to look at one of the port's fastest growing areas - visiting cruise ships. Last year, 27 cruise liners came into port, this year at least 42 will stop. And, according to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, passengers from those cruise liners will spend up to £6 million in the Dublin area this year.
In the liner berth was the Southern Cross, its red, yellow and blue paint giving it a festive, holiday air. Just arrived from Scotland, it had stopped in Dublin to allow its passengers to spend a day in the city, as well as to pick up 100 Irish passengers before continuing on for the Mediterranean. Last year, the Southern Cross was the first cruise liner to visit Derry for 32 years.
Today the biggest liner of the season arrives in Dublin Port. Some 264 metres in length, the Splendour of the Seas is the longest ship ever to come alongside in Dublin Port. When its 1,800 American visitors disembark, they will be given a rousing Irish welcome. Some of them, after all, may be coming home for the first time.
