July's highlight was a trip to Dover, a place I'd not visited in about eight years, with my friend Patricia. I was planning to go to Dover anyway and Patsy wanted to see Saga Ruby and Saga Sapphire together on July 4th - something that wasn't going to happen at Southampton - so we pooled our resources and went together. I collected her in Southampton and we drove down, arriving in the late afternoon on the 3rd.
Also in July was an opportunity to catch up with Artania, the first Royal Princess - which I recall skipping school to see in 1984, when she was new - and, later, Artemis. She called at Portsmouth during 2013; Portsmouth is an excellent location for photographing ships and it makes a change seeing cruise ships there instead of Southampton - as much as I like Southampton, Portsmouth has waterfront pubs, which Southampton lacks since the ones on Town Quay closed, and is easier to get to by using the hovercraft service to Southsea (not least that you can park close to the terminal).
August
August began with some unhappy rumours about the ultimate fate of Ostend Spirit, ex. Pride of Calais. These were later confirmed with the ship eventually meeting an untimely demise at the hands of Turkish breakers (see October and November, below).
Relatives visited in early August, and we booked ourselves on the Red Funnel Cowes Fireworks Cruise on Red Osprey. The Red Arrows performed a display over the Solent and the two Cowes towns before the cruise began.
August's highlight was a Thames Ship Society Solent cruise. I'd been supposed to join the June one but circumstances dictated otherwise. However, I was able to transfer my booking to the August trip and it turned out to be a gloriously warm sunny day; summer 2013 was the best in a long time with high temperatures and a lot of sunshine.
More cruise ships on August Bank Holiday finished a half-decent month.
September
The definite highlight in September was a quick weekend trip to the port of Almeria in southern Spain to catch up with a long-lost friend, a ferry called Sherbatskiy, better known in the UK and northern Europe as Pride of Free Enterprise and, latterly, Oleander. We also did a ferry trip on Isabella 1, also formerly of UK-Continental routes, over to Nador, Morocco, and back, which was an 'interesting' trip.
The week before that, though, I'd gone to Gosport to see Wind Surf, a five-masted cruise ship, depart from Portsmouth, and she was also worth the effort of seeing.
October
In mid-October I did a return trip to St. Malo on Brittany Ferries' Bretagne, a lovely ship I'd not been on for some years.
At the end of October came the news that fans of Dover Strait ferries - and, in particular, fans of a certain two Dover Strait ferries - were dreading, that Ostend Spirit had indeed been definitely sold to breakers and would leave Tilbury for Aliaga on 30th October.
Myself and my friend Slinky-Dave made a last-minute decision to go up there and photograph her departure. Now, nearly 2 months on, I still think 'ugh, shit' whenever I think of that day, primarily because of what was happening with that ship going prematurely to breakers, but also because in the end it turned out to be a bit of a waste of time and - considering I'd brought my car over the Solent - money, because, after an abortive attempt to enter the locks, her departure was put back until the evening, because of apparent mechanical trouble - although we think she knew there were onlookers with cameras and just didn't want to be photographed! That said, we'd have not forgiven ourselves if we hadn't gone there and she had left as intended. We at least gave it a go. One of the joys of maritime photography!
November
During November, on the 13th, Ostend Spirit got beached at Aliaga, which I followed at work via texts from Slinky-Dave (there's no data signal in Newport for some reason, certainly not a Vodafone signal - you're lucky if you can even get a phone signal sometimes). We're not supposed to have mobiles on us at work but I've not been officially told that...and rules are made to be broken.
As of mid December, she is half gone, cut up as far back as the funnel. A disgraceful waste of a good ship in full working order.
On the 16th I went to the South Coast Ship Show in Portsmouth and nearly broke my arm in the process, tripping over a crappily-maintained paving slab while on my way there, fortunately with no lasting damage to myself and - more importantly - with none whatsoever to my camera and lenses snuggled in a well-padded bag. I did console myself with some new ship models for my collection and a new book about the Dover-Calais ferry crossing, as well as seeing some people I hadn't seen for a while.
Before measuring my length on a borderline-lethal paving slab I photographed Commodore Clipper on her way to the Channel Islands, as she departed Portsmouth on a cold but sunny morning.
Towards the end of November came the news the old cruise ship Formosa Queen, the former Song of Norway and Sundream (among many ex names), had been sold to Chinese breakers. At 43 years old, she's had a very good innings indeed, unlike a couple of other ships I know. She was a semi-regular visitor to these parts a few years ago and I photographed her in Southampton Water in 2003, back when I was still using film. The photo below was taken on 31st August 2003.
December
On 7th December, I popped over to Southampton to see Saga Ruby for which, as far as I am concerned, was likely to be the final time. She sailed on her last Saga cruise that evening and, although she's due to return to the city on 7th January (a Tuesday), I am likely to miss her because I will be back at work after the Christmas break. As she's already been sold, she is probably not going to hang around for more than a day or two at the most.
I got another new camera, a Canon 70D, which joins the 6D. I am one of these people who likes to have more than one camera body, in case something goes wrong with one, and it also cuts down on lens changing.
And here we are at the end of 2013, a year with ups and downs - mostly downs, it has to be said, with a run of bad luck which seemed never ending. I am happy to see the back of 2013 and I sincerely hope 2014 is a much better year.
So, what do I have planned for 2014? Firstly, a trip over to Rotterdam and sailing back on the new Norwegian Getaway in early January, followed by an overnight cruise from Southampton and back. In March, I am going to Australia for three weeks the highlight of which will be - hopefully, weather permitting - a week far from artificial lights, up in the Warrumbungles, looking at the southern skies (which are spectacular, because the centre of the Milky Way is overhead and southern hemisphere stars completely outshine the stars north of the Equator. This is my third trip to Australia and my fifth south of the Equator). That is not maritime-related of course, but I am planning some ship photography in and around Sydney, as well as up the coast at Newcastle. I am hoping to get back to Dover and Calais at some point, plus I am thinking of visiting the Irish Sea and maybe the Baltic, too. Finally, finances allowing, I am hoping to do another cruise on Queen Mary 2 at the end of next year. However, plans change and, the Norwegian Getaway and Australia trips aside, nothing's graven in stone.
Here's to a great 2014!
