There's a link for each month, click on those for the entire archive if you can be bothered.
January
On January 10th, there were no less than six cruise ships in Southampton, five which should have been there and one - Saga Ruby - which shouldn't. She'd broken down and the time taken for repairs meant her world cruise was cut short.
Winter 2012/13 was bitterly cold, with significant snowfalls in January and March and regular flurries through the entire season.
February
Visited Portsmouth (Southsea) for the first time in a long time to catch up with a friend I'd not seen in years and took a few pics of the usual ferries, including Commodore Clipper.
The Saga Ruby saga continued, with the ship going on sea trials after her repairs. I photographed her passing Cowes on her way back into Southampton.
March
More snow and a new camera - a Canon 6D which I'd bought because it was the first full-frame DSLR I'd been able to afford and I'd wanted to get a full-frame for ages. Needing a wide-angle lens that worked with a full-frame camera also meant I had to trade all my other lenses except my 100-400mm, my 7D and some surplus astronomy equipment (eyepieces, etc) to cover the cost of the new one! It was also a present to myself for putting up with one of the worst temporary jobs I have ever had, which lasted from January to March, in the local council's filing store - it was the most boring and coldest job I'd ever had and I was glad to see the back of it when I'd had enough, lied to the agency about getting another job and quit!
I took the new toy to Cowes and tried it out on a couple of passing ships, including container ship CMA CGM Titan.
Also in March, I caught up with the brand-new AIDA cruise ship AIDAstella, which was visiting Southampton on her maiden voyage. It was another horrible bitterly cold day and I found a tiny casualty, a dead bee, on the ferry's outside deck, presumably a victim of the atrocious early spring weather. I would think this tiny creature's demise was only one of many small tragedies resulting from the dreadful weather.
April
The weather finally improved and the highlights of this month were catching up with two of the new generation container ships, APL Temasek and Hong Kong Express, the latter's name sounding like a Chinese takeaway in Newport.
I did a day trip with a mate to Cherbourg, from Poole, on Brittany Ferries' Barfleur, my first trip on this vessel, and later the same week, I joined my friend Patricia on P&O's Aurora for a short cruise to Amsterdam and Zeebrugge. While in Amsterdam, we got the train to Rotterdam to see the new Norwegian Breakaway which was visiting the city prior to her maiden voyage to New York, via Southampton, a few days later.
As we were in Rotterdam, and she was close by, we went to visit the old liner SS Rotterdam, now preserved in the docks at the end of her long career as a liner and latterly a cruise ship. The two ships, one old the other brand new, provided an interesting contrast in styles and a gap in ship design of 55 years.
Back home, I photographed Norwegian Breakaway as she passed East Cowes on her way to New York, presumably never to return. She'll be based in NY City year round.
A lowlight in April was the news that ferry company TransEuropa Ferries had gone bust. Their newly-acquired chartered ship Ostend Spirit, the former Pride of Calais, was sent back to Tilbury to await her fate after being handed back to P&O, while their other two ships, Larkspur and Gardenia were laid up in Ostend also facing an uncertain future. It was also a bit galling from the point of view I was planning a trip with them in the summer.
May
I finally caught up with CMA CGM Marco Polo, who'd eluded me up until now. I caught her on her way past East Cowes on her way up to the docks at Southampton.
I also managed to see the small Hurtigruten cruise ship Fram, which had called at Portsmouth. Hurtigruten ships are rare visitors so it was nice to see this ship.
On a sad note, it was goodbye to HMS Ark Royal, which left the Solent under tow bound for the breakers at Aliaga, Turkey. Unfortunately the weather was horrible, very grey and murky but the photos came out as well as could be expected, given the conditions.
June
June was generally a month to forget for various (non-maritime) reasons but I did manage a lot of photography trips to Cowes and one over to Hythe (near Southampton). One such was to see the new Royal Princess arriving for the first time, as the heavens opened when she reached the Solent, with thunder, lightning and torrential rain.
Ten days later, she sailed on her maiden voyage, in much improved weather.
To be continued...
