A POPULAR boat trip operator is gearing up for a summer full of sightseeing adventures as its tours from Southend Pier return.
Pier bosses have confirmed Jetstream Tours is returning every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the summer season.
River cruisers will be offered a choice of three exciting sightseeing adventures to embark on, including trips to historic forts and a quaint fishing village.
Jetstream Tours says its five-hour Army fort experience is “ideal for history buffs and photographers”.
Where can I go with Jetstream Tours?
The tour visits the historic Red Sand Towers and Shivering Sand Towers and passes the original site of the Nore Sand Towers.
The towers are eerie forts which were designed by the civil engineer Guy Maunsell in 1943 to help shoot down enemy places intending to bomb London.
Tour bosses promise “unrivalled views of Guy Maunsell’s masterpieces”.
A shorter three-hour cruise focusing solely on Red Sand Towers is also on offer.
When the Echo hopped on board to join day-trippers last year, we got “within inches of the forts”.
Southend to Kent by riverboat
Jetstream Tours is also making it easy to hop over the water to Kent without having to navigate the busy QEII Bridge with an exciting five-hour trip.
After a short 45-minute journey, passengers will arrive in Queenborough, a quaint fishing village on the Isle of Sheppey.
The boat will pass the Sheerness Dockyard, a former Royal Navy Dockyard on the Sheerness peninsula at the mouth of the River Medway, before passengers disembark to explore the Kent coast and maybe grab a spot of lunch, before heading home in time for tea.
The historic Royal Dockyard was in use between 1665 and 1960 and the site is now part of a commercial port.
A long list of ships were built at Sheerness, including HMS Rattler, the first warship to use screw propulsion, in 1843, and HMS Gannet, which was built in 1878 and is the only surviving Sheerness-built vessel.
“Unexpected issues” with Jetstream Tours’ flagship boat – named Cruiser – meant the company, which was launched in 2013, had to press pause on tours earlier this year.
But the tours are back with a bang and bookings are available on the Jetstream Tours website.
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