Artania

I've done precious little of anything and no ship photography whatsoever since I got back from Dover almost three weeks ago. The weather has been fantastic the past few weeks with high temperatures over 30°C and a lot of sunshine but I've spent the time lounging around at home, job hunting with no luck and visiting my mum in hospital (she's on the mend, defying the doctors' gloomy prognoses). However, today I decided to take a trip to Portsmouth this afternoon to see Artania depart. Built as Royal Princess in 1984 - I remember watching her sailing along the Solent when I should have been in a geography lesson, I would rather have skipped English or maths! - she is a ship that I haven't seen in a while, the last time was as Artemis in the Solent some years back, probably in 2005.
I caught the Hovercraft over to Southsea and walked along the seafront which, in the lovely hot weather (it was at least 32°C/90°F), was packed. During the walk I was 'treated' to a chav couple having a very loud argument about who was shagging who and in which every other word was a variation on the 'f- and c-words', and all the while their unfortunate baby (which probably has no chance) was screaming his head off. Classy. Not.

The photos are a mix of ones taken with the Canon 6D and 100-400mm lens and the 600D with the 24-105mm lens on it.

Commodore Goodwill was coming in as was St. Helen. Yes, there's a yacht in the way. There's always a yacht in the way.

A quick trip to the Still and West for a drink, where I met my friend 'Slinky-Dave' Shepherd (check out his SDS Ship Photographic page on Facebook - you don't need to be signed into Facebook to see it) before heading back to the Round Tower.

By now, it was clouding over and there was a breeze keeping the temperatures down. I could hear distant thunder coming from the direction of Southampton which was not surprising, given the temperature and humidity, and some business-like cumulonimbus clouds were building up.

Bretagne arrived on her usual route from St. Malo

The Wightlink ferries over to the island were in and out as usual. I wasn't going to bother with these too much but I did in the end, for something to do while waiting.

Top to bottom: St. Faith, St. Helen again and Wight Ryder II with St. Faith

Normandie Express (a.k.a. the Vomit Comet or 'VomCom') arrived as we were waiting for Artania - which was late - to depart.

Finally Artania appeared, some 25 minutes late. I assume she was waiting for the VomCom.

Once Artania was gone it was time to go home. I'd missed the 1900 hovercraft back to Ryde but luckily there was one at 1930. I had twenty minutes to wait so I sat in the waiting room, reading Facebook on my phone and studiously ignoring the TV which was tuned to the news...apparently some woman in London has had a baby which, judging by the hype and fervour displayed by the media, seems never to have happened before.

Once back at Ryde I took a photo of Freedom 90 as she headed back to Southsea, totally forgetting about the sand and crap thrown up by the fans; I had to protect my lens from a sandblasting as the craft turned off the pad but I got a nice shot of her passing the pier.

And that's it for now. Apart from the TSS Solent Cruise #2 on August 10th - I hope I can make THAT one! - I haven't got any photography trips planned for the near future, apart from the usual serendipitous opportunities that might present themselves.