Three Queens, Southampton, 9th May 2014

On 9th May 2014, Cunard's three 'Queen' cruise ships were all in Southampton together with the latest occasion being Queen Mary 2's tenth anniversary celebrations. They arrived in the very early morning, passing Cowes at the uncivilised hour of 0350, before arriving at Southampton. I saw on Southampton VTS that Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth would be facing each other on 38/39 and 40 so I decided to go over because this would be a unique shot...sadly not as it turned out. I didn't realise this was only temporary for the arrival photos and, by the time I got to Southampton, Queen Victoria was at the City terminal (berth 101) and, worse, starboard side to.


Conditions in the Solent were rough, with gale-force winds and choppy seas, which made for a nice bumpy crossing. Sister ship Red Falcon, complete with her new enhancements, passed us on her way to East Cowes.

(N.B. The full-size photos are mostly larger than usual, 1500 x 1000, so you need to click on them for the largest. I am also not posting all of them, so please go to my Flickr page if you want to see them all)

Cruise ship Rotterdam was in Southampton Water, having sailed at 1100. Her visit was just a fleeting one as Holland America ships never hang around for very long. Because of the gale, it was hard to stand up properly out on deck and even harder to hold the camera steady, so the Rotterdam photos are not among the best I've ever taken.

On arrival in Southampton, it was evident that the Queen ships were not well placed for photography. Queen Elizabeth was okay, as she was at the QEII terminal facing down Southampton Water - good for travellers to and from the Isle of Wight (one thing in our favour!) but not so good for those on the Southampton side - Queen Mary 2 was bow in at the Ocean Cruise Terminal, which was disappointing because it meant there were no good opportunities for a photo of her at all and she was the reason for all the fuss, and Queen Victoria was starboard side to at the City Cruise Terminal, berth 101, so with her back to everyone.

I walked down through the car parks towards Dock Gates 4 and 5 and, as I got to the new Dock Gate 5 (open but still under construction) I decided to try it on and slip past the security guard to see if I could get some decent photos without great big fences or cars in the way. I have to give it to him, he was quick even though he was also dealing with some other passers-by attempting the same. As the ensuing conversation went exactly as I expected it would (Him: 'Can I help you'; Me, playing the dumb tourist: 'I want to get a photo'; Him: 'No chance mate, go to Town Quay. Do you know where it is?'; Me: 'No problem') , I didn't pursue it further, there was no point and I know better than that, and walked back to Town Quay.

I headed back towards Town Quay and ran into my friend Slinky-Dave Shepherd and his mum, who were in Southampton for the event. They were doing a boat trip at 1530 from Ocean Village and asked me if I was going along. I said no, assuming the trips were sold out as I'd not previously booked one, hoping I'd be working instead. However, SDS's mum showed me Blue Funnel's phone number so I gave them a ring, they had plenty of spaces and I duly found myself on a boat trip round the docks.

Something's happened to the colour rendition here. It looks fine elsewhere. Odd.

The boat trip finished a little late, 1640 instead of 1630, so I hurried for the 1700 Red Funnel back to the island. In fact, I ended up having to run and made it onboard Red Falcon just before her engines started. Two days later, I am paying for running through Southampton as my knees are killing me!

Last but not least, I got back to East Cowes as Arcadia was rounding Calshot. If ships really do have a soul and can think, as some of the more romantic claim (and I am not completely immune to that way of thinking myself), I wonder what she makes of the three Queens and it being their day, considering she was originally supposed to be Queen Victoria?

[rant ahead]The day didn't get off to a good start, I found out that a job one of the employment agencies told me they were sending me to had fallen through so, instead of several weeks of paid employment, I'm "looking forward" to yet more weekday boredom and no money - and all my efforts at getting a permanent job have fallen onto stony ground. Added to which, having decided to take the vehicle ferry when I got to East Cowes for photography purposes as Holland America's Rotterdam was sailing at 1100, I found the free car park was mostly closed off with the remaining spaces all taken. Ten minutes and a tirade of f-words later I eventually found a space miles away, which was not ideal and meant I needed to hurry for the ferry. All in all I wasn't a happy person by the time I got on the ferry and was beginning to wish I hadn't bothered!
It also meant that I decided not to stay in Southampton for the fireworks and sailings later in the evening because I didn't fancy a longish walk through the town at night. This three Queens event was characterised by rubbish arrival and departure times. 2130 onwards is not good, especially for us islanders, and the arrivals were worse, bearing in mind there are no ferries before 0545 from the island. So that, along with Red Funnel's crappy timetable, meant island residents were unable to make the best out of the event. Plus there's the photography issue. Fireworks are all very nice and modern DSLRs have excellent low-light performance but photographers want good light for photos, not the dark. Red Funnel were doing a special event cruise from Southampton, using the Red Falcon, but, at £25 plus another £15.20 to get to Southampton and home for us IoW residents, that was not a happening thing as far as I was concerned. That, and the work situation, is making me think even more about 'de-islanding' myself and moving back to the mainland because I'm increasingly sick of crap timetables, adding at least an hour onto journeys and, especially, paying through the nose to get off the bloody place, even for a day out [rant over].

Southampton Ship Show

A few weeks ago, I found out the Ocean Liner Society was holding a 'ship show' at the Novotel in Southampton on February 22nd. They'd always held a show in London, I'd last gone to that one in 2003, but stopped doing them because it became economically unviable to do so, at least so I heard. Having not been to one of their shows for years - the recent South Coast Ship Show in November was not one of theirs - I decided to go along, which I duly did yesterday morning.

The Novotel is a twenty minute walk along West Quay Road from Town Quay, which is no problem on a day like yesterday, which was spring-like and pleasant, unlike the terrible hurricane-force storm - the latest and worst in a series which had battered the southern half of the country in recent weeks - we had a week ago, which destroyed parts of the Isle of Wight (including homes) and dumped even more water on the already saturated south of England.
I didn't take a camera with me simply because I have a recurrence of a shoulder injury sustained after a fall at home late last year and lugging a DSLR and lens(es) to and around the show and back didn't appeal. As it was, there was not much on the move. So, it's going to be a bit wordy but light on pictures I'm afraid.

As well as the vendors and exhibits, there were two talks, both of which I went to. The first one was by Ron Hancock, the Port of Southampton ambassador, who spoke about 175 years of Southampton Docks with obscure facts and personal reminiscences. For example, after a terrible series of storms which battered southern England - much the same as we've had from Christmas until last week - Brunel's Great Eastern called at Southampton to offload the dead and injured. William Whiting wrote 'Eternal Father Strong To Save' in Southampton after watching people being brought ashore from the ship, which had anchored near to what is now the oil terminal at Fawley. One was a friend of his, the ship's captain, who had survived the storm but drowned when the boat carrying him from the ship to the docks capsized and sank in Southampton Water.
The hymn is used the world over, being adopted by the Royal Navy and the United States Navy and also used by NASA and various air forces, with the lyrics adapted to suit.

During World War One a.k.a. 'The Great War', 850,000 horses passed through Southampton Docks but, tragically, less than 50,000 returned. A truly horrific statistic of a horrific conflict. The war started a hundred years ago but that really got me - and before anyone rolls their eyes, I know the human sacrifice in this completely pointless war was bad but it's been well-documented in the 96 years since the Armistice, while the animal sacrifice has been, largely, forgotten. Being an animal lover, this particularly appalled me...I cannot bring myself to watch War Horse, I know I'd be a blubbering wreck long before the end.

Ron's talk was excellent and it's good to know that Southampton Docks have a bright future, and it is now one of the most productive ports in Europe.

The second talk, and the one I was really looking forward to, was by the designer of Queen Mary 2, Dr. Stephen Payne, who gave an entertaining and interesting talk entitled 'Genesis of a Queen 10 years on: would I have done anything differently?', about how he designed Queen Mary 2. His interest in liners was fostered at the age of five, by the BBC TV programme Blue Peter in 1965, when Valerie Singleton did a cross-Channel trip from Cherbourg to Southampton aboard Queen Elizabeth. In January 1972, the ship burned and sank, a victim of arsonists, in Hong Kong harbour, which was shown live via satellite on the show. The ship was featured in the Blue Peter annual later that year (I also got the Blue Peter annual every Christmas when I was a small kid in the 70s) and Stephen was put out by the article stating that no ship like that would ever be built again, so he wrote a letter of complaint, which got him a blue Blue Peter badge.

The story of how he came to design the ship as a liner and not just a cruise ship was interesting. They had to overcome the ship yard's 40% construction premium (a result of the much thicker steel used and higher criteria for) and, because of this, Stephen then had to increase the ship's passenger capacity to help make up for the 40% extra cost. He covered design, construction and sea trials. An amusing snippet to emerge was that one of the publicity shots of the ship, showing her bulbous bow, had to be doctored because, apparently, the Americans considered the bulbous bow to be 'obscene'! I couldn't believe my ears. Seriously?! I know the Americans as a nation are notoriously prudish but this is prudishness taken to new levels. It's bordering on insanity and completely moronic.

Anyway, it was a very entertaining and informative talk and, afterwards, myself and my friends Andrew, Vitor and Christian had books signed by him and our photo taken with him. I am not a shy person but I suddenly found myself a bit tongue-tied and could only mumble something about how I'd travelled on QM2 once, hoped to go on her again and how superb she is! It was as if I'd met Iron Maiden, Motörhead or Anthrax when I was a kid back in the 80s (I was a metalhead - I still am!).
Commodore Ron Warwick was also there and he also signed my copy of Stephen's QM2 book. I have to admit I was nervous about approaching him because, when I was a ship-obsessed teenager back in the 80s, the Commodore was a bit of a hero to me, and I thought he'd be a bit austere and unapproachable but he was friendly and made a couple of jokes as he signed the book.

There were plenty of stalls selling loads of ship-related goodies and books to part you from your hard-earned. I knew there'd be model dealers there, so I went with the sole intention of buying one or two for my collection and bought one of Hamburg Express, one of the big new 13,200 TEU monsters (funnily enough I saw her passing the forts in the Solent last Sunday) and one of Queen Victoria. I would have got more but it's easy to go mad and spend too much. There weren't any ferries I wanted, and no more container ships, and some of the other cruise ships and liners were even more expensive.

It was an excellent show and, as I am a confirmed southerner and therefore completely biased, I think Southampton, with its rich shipping history, is the perfect place for the Ocean Liner Society's Ship Show, I really hope they are back next year.

Hamburg Express in model form

And in the Solent last week

 

Queen Victoria as a model

And the real thing, as seen last year in Southampton

And my entire 1:1250 collection (I have others, but they're all sorts of sizes and quality) lined up on the dining room table. I need a proper home for these, rather then the top of a book case, because they're potential victims of dust and the cats (one furry fiend has already broken the fore mast off the Queen Elizabeth, which I have had to glue back on - I know it was a cat because telltale hairs were left at the scene of the crime!)

Southampton Water, 30th June 2013

Had to go to the mainland today, via Southampton with the car, so I took the opportunity to grab a few photos, too. It was a nice warm sunny day, with clearing fog.

LS Anne, passing Cowes on her way in to Fawley. She was on a parallel course with us as we entered Southampton Water.

Other tankers at Fawley were Aframax River...

...and Baltic Mariner

This moronic yacht got right between us and Red Eagle this morning. We had to slow to a dead stop in order to give him the opportunity to get out the way. This is the type who gives WAFIs their name, he really was a Wind Assisted F**king Idiot.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Toreador was looking rather pale, her once bright red paint now faded to a washed-out pink.

The docks were busy with car carriers, as they always seem to be at weekends. Undine and Virgo Leader were at berths 39/40.

While Queen Victoria was in 46, which is the Ocean Cruise Terminal these days, with Höegh Shanghai in the opposite berth.

On the way home, NYK Orion was ahead of us, out in the Solent

And June is finally over. Good riddance to it!

Ships from Hythe

I went to Hythe to take photos yesterday, 15th June, as a change from Cowes or even from Southampton itself. I caught the 1345 Red Jet over to Southampton and had a lively crossing of the Solent as it was very windy, with gusts of up to 31 mph at Calshot.
My friends Patricia, Kevin and Anthony were at Hythe, as was Christian, another member of our maritime Facebook group. Patsy and Kevin were waiting for me at the foot of the pier and we walked into Hythe for food before heading to the marina to meet Anthony and Christian.

Five cruise ships - Crystal Symphony, Independence of the Seas, Ventura, MSC Opera and Queen Victoria - were in and I was also lucky in that two OOCL container ships - OOCL Seoul and OOCL Kaohsiung - and a car carrier - Höegh Trove - were on the move during the afternoon.

The conditions for photography were highly variable with a great deal of dark clouds plus the odd sunny spell. The near-gale also made things difficult, as did the combination of white ships with a dark sky behind which played havoc with the exposures. It was also pretty cold at Hythe Marina.

OOCL Seoul was on her way out of the port...

...while OOCL Kaohsiung was arriving

Of the cruise ships, Independence of the Seas was first to depart, making a racket as she went.

Then it was the turn of MSC Opera

Queen Vicky was next

Then Ventura, which I'd so rudely ignored last week(!), left under increasingly-threatening skies, although it didn't rain.

Between Ventura and Crystal Symphony, Höegh Trove left with the assistance of tugs

And, finally, it was the turn of Crystal Symphony which, with the assistance of tugs, backed into the Itchen to turn.

I returned home on the 1945 Red Jet across an even bumpier Solent which made a fun ride home. I like it when it's bouncy and it's also amusing to see other passengers turn a bit green and utter stifled shrieks when we hit particularly large waves.

I visited Mum on the way home, but her condition hasn't changed. She's still on life support in the ICU.