Ferry Nice Cache Traditional Cache
Long Man: As the owner has not responded to my previous log requesting that they check this cache I am archiving it.
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Andy
The Long Man
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A quick cache that will take less than an hour to do. Lots of WW2 gun emplacements along the way.
A sort walk to the end of the Blue Flag Sheerness beach. Near the cache you will see the pontoon that received the Olau ferry some years ago. Some lovely views across the Thames and Medway estuaries to Essex and Southend on a clear day. There are lots of WW2 gun enplacements and lookouts en route but are unfortunatly inaccessible because of the security fencing around the docks (unless of course you can fly like a pigeon).
Fairly public place with fishermen and muggles about so please be careful.
Olau Line was founded in 1956 by the Danish businessman Ole Lauritzen. Originally the company concentrated in chartering tankers and cargo ships to other shipping companies, but in 1974 Olau Line started a car/passenger ferry services from Sheerness in the United Kingdom to Vlissingen in the Netherlands and from Copenhagen (Denmark) to Aalborg (Denmark). The latter line was closed after merely a month of service. Between 1974 and 1976 the consistence of Olau's fleet varied greatly, until in 1976 the company acquired M/S Apollo from Rederi AB Slite and renamed her M/S Olau Kent and chartered M/S Finnpartner from Finnlines, renaming her M/S Olau Finn. These two ships formed the Olau fleet for the next four years.
In 1977 Olau attempted to start a service from Sheerness to Dunkerque, France, but this was not successful. By the end of the 1970s the company was in heavy debt, and in 1979 Ole Lauritzen was forced to sell 50% of Olau Line to the West Germany -based TT-Line. The following year Lauritzen sold his remaining shares of the company to TT-Line. At this time the TT-Line logo was adapted as the new logo for Olau Line, but with red and blue colours instead of TT-Line's yellow and blue. TT-Line decided to invest in new, large state-of-the-art cruiseferries for Olau services. These were delivered in 1981 and 1982 as M/S Olau Hollandia and M/S Olau Britannia, respectively. Unlike Olau's earlier ships, most of which were registered in the United Kingdom, the new ships were registered in TT's homeland Germany.
In the late 1980's TT-Line decided to replace the Olau Hollandia and Olau Britannia with new ships. In 1986 and 1987 the company had taken delivery of two cruiseferries based on the design of the Olau Hollandia & Britannia for their Germany—Sweden traffic, and it was decided that two additional sisters of the same type would be built for Olau Line. These were delivered in 1989 and 1990, and confusingly named M/S Olau Hollandia and M/S Olau Britannia.
The new Olau Hollandia and Olau Britannia were more than twice the size of the old ships with the same names, and they soon proved to be too large for the route they were built for. Due to high operating costs the ships were taken out of the German ship registry and registered in Luxemburg in January 1993, but action for the German Seamen's Union forced the ships to be re-registered in Germany just a month later. In 1994 TT-Line made plans to move the ships under Bahamian flag, but when the German Seamen's Union protested again, TT-Line decided to close down Olau Line in May 1994.
Following the closure of Olau Line the second Olau Hollandia and Olau Britannia were chartered to P&O Ferries, who used them successfully for many years on the Portsmouth—Le Havre -service.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx Or'4' lbh yrnc. [good luck]