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  LD chop and change endlessly. At first, people gave them the benefit of the doubt and gave them credit for trying new alternatives. Now it is beginning to seem as though they are running around like a headless chicken. Not good for freight operators or tourist traffic as there is no guarantee any service will still be there when booking ahead.
  
  Fortunately, they state that they are definitely committed to Boulogne. The Norman Arrow was a fiasco, a fast ferry which was supposed to be able to carry a bit of freight but it turned out that it took so long to load and discharge that it completely negated the high speed spurt on passage.
  
  The Norman Spirit was taken off the Portsmouth - Le Havre run on which she had proved very popular and put on Dover - Boulogne. She is a full sized ferry and accordingly expensive to operate. Doesn't look like she is carrying enough to justify it. Accordingly they are going to replace her with something cheaper to run. Possibly they are going to charter a freighter such as the ex Dawn Merchant. Or maybe the Cote d'Albatre will come back, although she replaced the Norman Spirit at Portsmouth so they would then need to replace her.
  
  Looks like the Norman Spirit is going to be chartered to TEF to run Ramsgate-Ostend, presumably bareboat as have heard all the crew have received their marching orders (no need for British crew if she is not running to France where the unions will only accept British or French crew). Or LD is going to buy TEF as they have repeatedly said they are interested in running to Ostend. When she previously ran Ramsgate-Ostend as the Prins Filip with the Belgian company RMT, she was a tight fit draft-wise but a lot of dredging has been going on for the windfarm support vessels. LD is currently a small beer neophyte in the ferry world but have the resources of the LD group behind them, a conglomerate which is also one of Frances major deepsea shipowners.
  
  SeaFrance is still in the throes of sizing down. Britanny Ferries are still interested in a buyout if the price is right. LD also offered to buy them but were summarily rejected by the company and the unions.
  
  P&O used to run Dover-Boulogne but ended the service together with Dover-Zeebrugge in order to concentrate all their resources on Dover-Calais to meet the challenge of the Channel Tunnel. They probably regret this now as they are held to ransom every time Calais is closed. They have done a couple of berthing trials with freighters at the new hub port in Boulogne.
  
  Sealink used to run Folkestone-Boulogne but both Sealink and the port of Folkestone were relegated to history after being privatised.

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