Friday the Thirteenth is a date generally feared and avoided if at all possible by the superstitious. Things can, and do happen on Friday the Thirteenth, such as the Costa Concordia accident on January 13th (a Friday!) this year but that could just as easily have happened on the 12th or 14th. My Friday 13ths this year have actually been good days and yesterday was no exception, although I hope they're not storing anything up for Something Really Bad in future!
Friday 13th July 2012 was notable for the fact that all of Cunard's three current 'Queen' cruise ships were in Southampton together for the second time in just over six weeks. This time, however, there was no publicity unlike for the Jubilee celebration on June 5th. The weather this time was also better.
My friend
Patricia had told me about
Blue Funnel Cruises' sailaway cruise while we were in Amsterdam last week and asked if I would like to come along but, as I thought it would be a sell-out, we phoned and there was at least one space left. £17.50 for a three-hour cruise is not bad value.
Duly booked on the cruise and with camera batteries charged and cards formatted, I went to work as normal yesterday morning but finished at lunchtime and headed over to Southampton on the Red Jet from Cowes.
As I had some time to kill before meeting Patsy and Kevin I caught the free bus up to the city centre and had a wander round the shops. That was a mistake, as I ended up in Currys and bought a Sony video camera; I'd been thinking of getting one for a while but I got this on a whim. I'll post some initial results once I have edited them and uploaded them onto my YouTube account.
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| Queen Victoria in the Ocean Terminal. |
I met Patsy and Kevin at Town Quay and we went straight round to the Blue Funnel offices at Ocean Village where I had to collect my ticket from the office before boarding Ocean Scene. Also over for the event were Andrew and Donna Cooke, well-known maritime photographers from the island.
From Ocean Village we passed Queen Mary 2 on berths 38/9 and Queen Victoria at berth 46 and headed up to the Western Docks where Queen Elizabeth was waiting on berth 106. The schedule had been rearranged and QE was to depart first, turning in the Upper Swinging Ground before passing Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2. QV would be the next to depart, followed by QM2 which would back into the Itchen before turning into Southampton Water.
While waiting for Queen Elizabeth to get underway, we went into the container port but, unfortunately, this was ship-less, there was no so much as a floating cockleshell in there, apart from a bloke in a tiny motor boat who had tied up to one of the berths and was moved on by the harbourmaster's launch. Probably yet another worm-drowner attempting to fish where he shouldn't - I'd already seen one bloke on Town Quay fishing right next to a 'Strictly No Fishing' sign. What is it with these people - illiterate, stupid or just don't think that rules apply to them? Actually this reminds me of a discussion with a friend who just happened to be a devoted fisherman and who was of the opinion that an interest in ships was a bit strange. And sitting out in all weathers dangling a worm on a hook into water is not strange?
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| Queen Elizabeth with Ashleigh R |
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| Three Queens: L-R - Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, Queen Mary 2 |
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| We followed Queen Elizabeth down to where the other two were waiting |
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| Queen Elizabeth passes Queen Mary 2 |
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| Queen Victoria gets under way |
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| Why is there *always* a yacht in the way?! |
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| Queen Victoria follows her sister down Southampton Water |
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| Queen Mary 2's lines are let go |
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| Red Eagle peeps out from behind Queen Mary 2, ready to get in the way of photos |
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| Here comes Red Eagle - note Union flag painted on funnel |
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| Queen Mary 2 moves away from the dock |
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| And reverses into the Itchen |
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| The 'Vista Sistas' are approaching the oil terminals |
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| "Wait for me!" |
And with that, it was time to head back to Ocean Village, then Town Quay and home. The weather had, fortunately, been an improvement over the dire effort of the previous week and the P&O event and the sun had even managed a few brief appearances.
I'll see what the video footage is like and post it later.
The weather is truly grim this summer and the south coast has had more than its fair share of rain and wind. However, we should spare a thought for Portsmouth, it's -10 there. :-)
