Big Mary

Ever since I was a child, I had wanted to take a trip on a Cunard liner, having been fascinated by stories of the trans-Atlantic liners for years. I never did manage to travel on the QE2, which I very much regret, although I did visit her one day in the early 90s, thanks to a friend's next-door neighbour who was, at the time, hotel manager aboard her. Along came Queen Mary 2 in December 2003 and, as I watched her pass Town Quay in the murk that day I hoped that, one day, I might be one of the fortunate people to travel on her. Back in July this year, I watched the three current Cunard 'Queen' cruise ships leave Southampton together and wished that I was aboard one of them, especially the Queen Mary 2. When, the following day, my friend Patricia texted me with details of a four-night cruise on Queen Mary 2 at an attractive price, my will power - which is tenuous at the best of times - completely evaporated and I invited myself along.

The cruise was to depart Southampton on 16th November, sailing from the Ocean Terminal, spend a day at sea on Saturday 17th November before heading to Le Havre (Sunday) and then Zeebrugge (Monday) before returning to Southampton on Tuesday 20th November. The Le Havre part of the schedule was changed to Guernsey before being changed back to Le Havre.

16th November was grey and foggy, much like most of 2012 seems to have been, and it wasn't until the Red Jet was passing the Ocean Terminal that Queen Mary 2's distinctive shape could be made out. I met Patsy on Town Quay and, as at least it wasn't raining, we walked round to the Ocean Terminal which is practically next door.

There is an opportunity to get a photo of your ship at the Ocean Terminal; before you get to the terminal building itself, another small road (White Star Road) goes off to the left and you can walk along there for a few yards, stand in front of the fence and take a photo of your ship. Unfortunately, the fog prevented a really good photo, which I took with a small bridge camera, rather than dragging the SLR out, which I would have done if the weather had been better.

Because this is a long post, as the next ones will be, I have made the previews smaller, instead of full-size like I normally do, to prevent too much scrolling. Click on the previews for the larger versions.

After a bit of a wait in the Ocean Terminal spent avoiding the eye of Children In Need fundraisers (nothing against children, per se, I just hate this annual BBC wankathon with Terry Wogan and various z-list 'slebs demanding you part with your hard earned, and refuse to donate money to it, especially as the BBC binned their Wildlife Fund which I did donate to) we went through security and boarded the ship. Last time I came through here, for a visit to HAL's Maasdam in August, my footwear set the alarms off so, as I was wearing the same shoes, I erred on the side of caution and took them off!

We entered the ship via the Grand Lobby on Deck 3, where a piano player was providing background 'musak' (as it can only really be described as). One thing about the ship I wasn't keen on was the music, which was mostly classical, jazz/orchestral or piano-based; I suppose this is because the demographic catered for generally falls into the elderly category. I very much doubt that the likes of Annihilator, Iron Maiden, Gorgoroth or Judas Priest would go down very well with the older folk who make up the bulk of the clientele!

The cabin - or 'stateroom', as Cunard prefer to call it - was ready and it was big, with plenty of room for two people. It had a large window which was far better than an inside, where you have no idea what time of day it is, as it is pitch black no matter the light level outside. There was a bottle of Pol Acker on the table but as Patsy can't stand the stuff I drank it. :o)
From the Golden Lion we could see the tanker Whitchallenger alongside. She soon left, to be replaced by the rubbish barge Seagreen.

The fog cleared in time for departure and we could see Balmoral, which had been at berth 101, heading for the Upper Swinging Ground with Oriana, at 106, also getting ready to leave. The photo below also shows one of the Red Funnel vehicle ferries; I can't believe how minute these look when viewed from above!

As Balmoral headed for the Upper Swinging Ground and Oriana also left her berth, we promptly let go and began to move. The Queen went first, privileges of royalty! We reversed out and, with three loud blasts on the horns, set off down Southampton Water. One of the good things about Queen Mary 2's horn is that the blast is preceded by a hiss (one of the horns is a steam horn from the original Queen Mary) so you don't jump out of your skin. The hiss is a sort of unintentional warning the siren is about to sound.

Aligote, built 2010, IMO: 9440497, 42225 GT, Marshall Islands flag

Oriana and Balmoral followed us out into the Solent. Big Mary hung around between Cowes and Ryde and let them pass, which enabled me to get some passable night shots. Modern camera technology has moved on a lot in recent years and photos unobtainable without a tripod in the past are at least do-able now, with modern image-stabilised cameras and lenses. My Canon 100-400mm L lens has an older IS system but it works very well.

Brittany Ferries' Mont St. Michel approaching Portsmouth

Yes, I was tempted to get a marker, cross 'Hamilton' out and write 'Southampton'!

We anchored a few miles off Jersey the next morning. I was woken up by the anchor going down, up again and then back down, it's a noisy process. Visibility wasn't that good, and it was yet another wet day, but we could see the shore, St Helier and Corbiere lighthouse. I have a soft spot for Jersey because it was the first 'foreign' trip I made on my own, when I was a teenager, sailing from Portsmouth on Channel Island Ferries' 1970-built ferry Corbiere.

Spare propeller blades

I spent the day looking round the ship but, in the afternoon, I watched Gillette Soccer Saturday on SSN to keep an eye on the Southampton score. Saints were away at QPR for a much anticipated match; as both teams are in the bottom three, the losing manager was probably likely to lose his job, so it was dubbed, predictably, by the media as 'El Sackico', a play on 'El Clasico'. Thankfully, Saints won 1-3, which was only our second win of a so-far chastening return to the Premier League. Unfortunately the ever-irritating Reading also won, meaning we are still second from bottom, jeez, I hate Reading after they pipped us to the Championship title last season...but I was amused to see Portsmouth lost - again. :o)

We were supposed to have left the anchorage at 1930, although it took 20 minutes to raise the anchor and it was nearer 2000 by the time we began to move.
We were scheduled to arrive at Le Havre the following morning.

To be continued...