Ok so they're not all sisters, but fleetmates. During July 2012, P&O celebrated their 175th anniversary and on 3rd July, all seven of their current cruise fleet were scheduled to be in Southampton together - a treat for ship enthusiasts and passengers and a nightmare for the local transport system! I had originally intended to be in Southampton to see all seven ships in together and then, later, return to the Island to watch them sail past Cowes. This plan got changed when my friend
Patricia Dempsey asked me if I'd like to join her on Oriana, for a four night cruise to Holland and Belgium starting on the day of the Grand Event, as someone else had dropped out. Is the Pope Catholic, by any chance? However, I initially demurred as I'd just forked out a hideous sum of money to the vet for dental work my dog needed, but Patsy told me that the cost of the cruise was covered by this other person's insurance so it'd have been rude not to!
Unfortunately, this summer is going down as the most dire on record, thanks to the
jet stream stuck over France rather than between Scotland and Iceland, which is where it should be, and stalled systems dragging low pressure areas over the country, and July 3rd was, unfortunately, no exception, with rain forecast. The weather this year seems bent on ruining major events and, quite frankly, the people who declared a drought back in March should be strung up with hosepipes! Declaring a drought in this country should be a capital offence!
Anyway, I travelled over to Southampton on the 0845 Red Jet, met Patsy and her dad Kevin and we joined a Blue Funnel harbour tour on the Ashleigh R. Despite the weather's best efforts we got some good photos and had a good time. We got a bit wet as we left the Itchen but the rain did hold off for the majority of the time.
Following that, me and Patsy headed round to berth 101 to join Oriana. To cut a long story short, as I'll let the photos tell the story, the Grand Event was a great success, despite the grim weather. Adonia sailed first, leaving her berth alongside the QE2 terminal before turning in the Upper Swinging Ground and sailing past the four ships in the Western Docks. As she went past, she was followed, in order, by Ventura, Arcadia, Aurora, Oriana (us!), Azura and finally Oceana. The atmosphere on board Oriana was magnificent and the party was in full swing, despite the elements chucking as much crap as they could our way.
Click on the photos for the larger versions. The rest of the cruise will follow in another post over the weekend.
The view from Town Quay
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| L-R: Ventura, Arcadia, Aurora, Oriana |
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| Azura |
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| Adonia and Oceana |
From the Ashleigh R on the harbour tour
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| Oceana |
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| Oceana |
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| Azura and Oceana |
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| Azura |
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| THV Patricia and Shieldhall |
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| THV Patricia, which we'd be seeing more of later |
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| Oriana - easily the prettiest of the bunch |
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| Aurora - the next prettiest |
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| Arcadia |
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| Ventura |
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| Arcadia, Aurora and Oriana |
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| Aurora and Oriana |
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| Oriana with Ocean Scene |
From the boat tour we got a taxi back to Town Quay and then walked through Mayflower Park to berth 101
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| Dock gate 8, Herbert Walker Avenue. The sign has the ships' names in order of how long they have been with P&O. |
We joined a fairly lengthy queue for security and then an even longer one for check-in, making an hour of queueing in total in a hot building. Nice. However, once we got aboard, it was up to the outside decks for photos.
I got (more) photos (than sensible) of Aurora, from each deck. When there's such a pretty face to photograph, you can't not really.
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| Shieldhall was busy |
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| As was the Southampton Harbour Master |
We had to have muster, of course, and get our lifejackets from our cabins and practise putting them on.This was done just as Adonia passed us heading for the Upper Swinging Ground which annoyed Patsy but, to give them their due, the crew knew people didn't want to miss anything and the muster practise was out of the way fairly quickly.
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| Adonia heads for the Upper Swinging Ground |
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| And passes us on her way down river |
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| Followed by Ventura |
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| Then Arcadia |
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| Aurora was next |
And then it was our turn
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| Our tug Svitzer Surrey |
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| Band, streamers and confetti |
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| Plenty of people lined Mayflower Park and Town Quay despite the appalling weather. |
Next it was the turn of Azura and Oceana
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| Fireworks from the barge Wilcarry |
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| Each passing ship had her own mini firework display |
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| Wight Scene |
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| The view from the top deck of Oriana, looking forward, as we passed Weston shore |
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| In front of us were
(l-r) Aurora, Arcadia, Ventura and Adonia |
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| While behind us were Azura with Oceana behind her. |
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| There were also crowds at Calshot |
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| And East Cowes - it was nice to be 'up here' and not 'down there' for once! |
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| Last but not least, Oceana |
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| 'Wait for me!' |
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| There's always a Red Funnel in the way! The Red Eagle was doing a cruise, one I'd originally thought of joining. I'm glad I didn't pay for it. I was on a better cruise - although they had the prettiest view! |
The P&O fleet were going to be the subject of a 'mini-review' out in the Solent between East Cowes and Ryde. Princess Anne, on THV Patricia, was carrying out the review, sailing between each ship in turn and waving.
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| If you look closely you can see Princess Anne, seventh figure from the left, and you can also see Carnival (owners of P&O) president Micky Arison, who is the bearded figure in the pink tie directly above the 'Twin Screws' sign. |
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| THV Patricia and her VIPs leave us and heads towards Azura |
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| HMS Dragon, the new Type 45 destroyer |
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| Balmoral |
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| Shieldhall |
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| Southampton Harbour Master |
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| Pilot boat |
And that was it. Once we were past the Nab and clear of the Solent, each ship went on her way. We were headed to Amsterdam, where we were due to arrive at 3pm the following day. It was a really exciting couple of hours and it was nice to actually feel part of a big event, rather than just a mere spectator on shore or a pleasure boat. So the weather was absolutely diabolical but it didn't rain all the time, my cameras and lenses didn't go on strike in disgust and I got some good photos.
Many happy returns to P&O and I hope that they have another 175 years.
