Queen Elizabeth, Arcadia and Royal Princess

Royal Princess was sailing on her maiden voyage this evening, from Southampton to Barcelona and, at the time of writing, is not scheduled to return. Queen Elizabeth and Arcadia also sailed from Southampton this evening, on their respective cruises.

The Attack of the Clones. Or, Send in the Clones for those of a more peaceable nature.

The Deposed Queen

And, finally, the star of the show, the only 'royal baby' which interests me, Royal Princess, which departed on her maiden voyage to Barcelona this evening.

Royal Princess and a couple of friends

Royal Princess was due to depart on a short cruise to Guernsey this evening and, as she was due to depart at 1700, I decided to go to Cowes and see her depart along with Queen Elizabeth and Silver Cloud. Oriana was also due to depart at 1800 but was a bit delayed so I decided not to wait for her.

The car carrier Grande Italia also left, just before the cruise ships

Queen Elizabeth was first of the cruise ships

Followed by the new kid

And the little Silver Cloud, which was a total minnow compared to the previous two

Rather than wait for Oriana, I headed for home. My mum is still in intensive care, in a coma, and although she's stable, the outlook is still not good. I think that, at times of crisis, having a hobby, an outlet, is essential and I feel sorry for anyone without a hobby.

I emailed Dave Smith, the membership secretary of the Thames Ship Society, whose details are on their website asking if my booking for the trip yesterday could be transferred to the August Solent cruise. Dave passed on my query to Ray Smith, the outgoing treasurer, who confirmed that this wasn't a problem and would send the ticket in the post. Many thanks to Dave and Ray. :)

Royal Princess

Princess Cruises' brand-new Royal Princess was due to arrive in the Solent this morning, so I made plans to go to Cowes to see her pass. The day didn't begin well when I was woken just after 4am by thunder and the weather steadily got worse, despite the terminally-useless Met Office predicting sunny spells from 0700 onwards. Carnival UK's events are seemingly Cursed by the weather!

I parked at Egypt Point and sat in the car and watched some nice forked lightning over the Solent, sadly failing to capture any on camera, and the torrential rain while listening to the thunder, fervently hoping that this crap would clear away before the ship appeared and spending the time waiting by posting on Facebook, slagging off the Met Office on Twitter - thunder, lightning and torrential rain is NOT, repeat NOT, 'sunny spells'! - and checking Marine Traffic. Unfortunately the weather didn't clear so I took most of the photos from the car, although I did have to step out once or twice, ending up with wet feet and my car with as much water inside as out.
My friend Andrew Cooke was also at Cowes and, like me, he took photos from inside his car. We re-parked our cars at least once to get into photography positions to limit the times we needed to get out!

Here are the photos, and I have managed to make the sow's ears into not exactly silk purses but something approaching acceptable.

It was at this point that I'd had enough and came home. The small cruise ship Deutschland is in Cowes later but, although the sun is now out (typical!), I am not planning to go back today. Tomorrow it's the TSS Solent trip and I hope the weather is better than the soggy mess it was this morning!