The competing cruise ships of DFDS and Virgin seem to be tapping each other, but it is only a trick of the eye. The Chesterfield on the terrace waits for tourists. Cormorants sit in a row on the pier, waiting for something not to happen. Occasionally they fly up to clatter a string of shit down on the pier. Further down the beach, work is underway on something that looks like a part of an oil rig. Tata’s smokestacks were spewing steam, hopefully just steam. Residents of a beach house have already run errands and are plodding from a stuffed IKEA bag through the loose sand.