Portsmouth, 6th April 2013

Spring partly sprung on Tuesday but then vanished again but, yesterday, Saturday 6th April, it reappeared with blue skies and bright sunshine although the wind was still cold. Fred. Olsen's Boudicca was in Portsmouth and with a couple of Brittany Ferries' ships also on the schedule, I decided to take a rare trip to Portsmouth for some photography.
I don't tend to go to Portsmouth much these days as I am not particularly interested in naval ships and the rest of the traffic is mostly the regular ferries of Wightlink, Brittany Ferries, Condor Ferries and LD Lines (the latter's ship/s tend to arrive and depart in the evening) and also, when I am travelling elsewhere I tend to go via Southampton, especially when driving, but, as it would make a change, I decided to go over for the afternoon.

I had thought about using the vehicle ferry from Fishbourne but parking the car would be an issue, considering spaces at the terminal are limited and there is nowhere else to park in the village so decided on the Wight Ryder service from Ryde Pier. I have not used that service since 2010 when I was travelling up to Heathrow on my way to the States to see friends and go to an amateur astronomy convention in Texas.

Wightlink were hosting a Party-on-the-Pier and, as I walked up the pier, dozy families walking four or five abreast, rather than in twos or single file, walking down meant I had to walk round them because there was no way they could possibly make room. Yeah, thanks, I'll just step into the path of that oncoming taxi, shall I? Dozy adults, dozy kids. It's probably the shock of the bright sunlight...no it isn't, people are always dim like that and it's no wonder some kids grow up with no respect for anyone or anything (Christ, now I sound like my late Nan :p )
At the terminal, an octet playing classical music with a variety of wind instruments (oboes, flutes, that kind of thing) in the boarding/café area and a covers band murdering old pop numbers were trying to outdo each other. It was deafening and there was no escape, made all the worse by the fact I loathe covers bands and don't like classical music.
Rantette over...

I ran into my friends Andrew and Donna Cooke and we went up to the top, outer, deck of Wight Ryder II - the great thing about the new Wight Ryders is that they have an outside deck which is a decent platform for photography and, on a lovely sunny day like yesterday, meant a pleasant trip across an unusually quiet Solent.
Once I got to the Round Tower, I checked the football results and found Southampton had beaten Reading 2-0. Get in! Good result and another step towards safety...I had to keep shouts of joy and rhetoric to a minimum, bearing in mind I was in 'enemy territory' and the Skates were at home (there were a few people in Pompey blue wandering around; they drew 0-0).
The tanker Maersk Rapier was alongside the jetty at Gosport, she'd already been there for more than a week.

I went straight to the Round Tower where I'd later meet up with my friend Dave, another ship enthusiast, and waited for Mont St. Michel to emerge.
While I was waiting for Mont St. Michel, the reefer Star Leader arrived.

Her stern is an interesting shape and I wonder if that is some fuel-saving design?

Once Mont St. Michel had gone, it was time to head to the Still and West pub until 5pm when Boudicca was due to sail. As it as she was 20 minutes late, apparently because some unfortunate person needed to be taken off the ship and away by ambulance. It's always a shame when someone is about to start a cruise or other holiday but end up needing medical treatment instead. Hopefully it's nothing serious.

It was at this point that my new 32Gb SD card decided it didn't want to play any more, meaning I had to do a quick switch. I was not best pleased but have found out that the card I've got isn't quite fast enough for the 6D, itself not the fastest camera on the planet, therefore it created a buffering problem.
Brittany Ferries' Bretagne was on her way in, but quite a way distant and, as time was getting tight for my 1815 ferry back to Ryde I did consider giving her a miss and catching up with her at another date. As it was, I decided I had enough time and waited.

I left the Round Tower a little after 6pm, which didn't give me a lot of time to get to the harbour for the 6.15pm back to Ryde but, luckily Dave gave me a lift and I made it with minutes to spare (how many times have I legged it along the concourse of Portsmouth Harbour Station over the years??!). I went straight up on deck and found Crown Garnet, another reefer, coming in. I thought I would miss her but this was an example of perfect timing.

A small Norwegian car ferry, Sea Horse II, was to be found nestling under the Spinnaker Tower.

And here are the best of the rest from the day...

Cosco Shengshi on her way down the Solent from Southampton. I wouldn't normally bother with a long distance shot like this but I like the sky. I did nothing to the saturation, the sky was this nice golden colour.

And the usual Wightlinks going about their lawful occasions

Plus the Gosport ferries

One of the pilot boats

Portsmouth certainly has done a great job of tarting up the waterfront and I wish Southampton would to the same with Mayflower Park and Town Quay. It's a great place to visit, even if the ferry scene isn't what it was in days gone by. Even the Round Tower has had money spent on it, with new seating and some new railings put in.

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I wasn't planning on travelling much this year, due mainly to costs, but it appears as if things might change a little bit. I already have the four-night trip on Aurora on 24th April (cruise no R302 to Zeebrugge and Amsterdam) lined up but I am also going to be doing a day trip to Cherbourg on Brittany Ferries' Barfleur, on 20th April. Barfleur is a ship I have seen on a number of occasions but not yet travelled on.
She spent last summer along the coast at Dover, operating for DFDS as their Deal Seaways before returning to Brittany Ferries. There are photos of her in that guise over on Dover Ferry Photos.

Mooted with friends are also trips to Oostende from Ramsgate on TEF's Ostend Spirit, a ship I've sailed on just once as Pride of Calais, and possibly a trip to Spain to see, and hopefully sail on, Oleander, one of my faves (the Townsend Thoresen Spirit class were the best ferries of all-time, along with Pride of Dover and Pride of Calais, in my completely unbiased opinion) and a ship that I never actually managed to sail on - surprisingly enough, although my schedule never allowed me to, but I've seen and photographed her a number of times. She's an old ship, guzzles fuel like it's going out of fashion and who knows how much longer she'll be around, although I have heard she is well looked after, so I feel I ought to see her one last time and sail on her before the inevitable one day happens.
The TEF trip from Ramsgate is likely, the one to visit Oleander a bit more in the 50/50 category.

It's looking as if 2013, crap in so many other ways (death of friends, death of pet, other problems), is shaping up to be a great year of photography.

Ryde sands

Dogs got a walk on Ryde Beach, east of the Pier, so the camera came too. Unfortunately (I seem to be using that word too much recently! :-/) after the lovely bright start to the year on January 1st, the weather has reverted to type - crap - and it was murky, with only the odd glimpse of brightness as the sun teased us.

Nonetheless, the Solent did produce a few floating items to aim the camera at, namely Armorique, Torm Gertrud and Wight Ryder II on its usual run from Ryde PH to Portsmouth Harbour.

Armorique (IMO: 9364980, built in 2009, 29468 GT, French flag) inward to Portsmouth from Ouistreham (Caen)

Wight Ryder II (IMO: 9512549, built in 2009, 520 GT, UK flag) sets off on its usual run to Portsmouth...

...as the tanker Torm Gertrud (IMO: 9240885, built in 2002, 30128 GT, Danish flag) passes Ryde on her way up to the oil terminal at Fawley on Southampton Water.

Big Mary

Ever since I was a child, I had wanted to take a trip on a Cunard liner, having been fascinated by stories of the trans-Atlantic liners for years. I never did manage to travel on the QE2, which I very much regret, although I did visit her one day in the early 90s, thanks to a friend's next-door neighbour who was, at the time, hotel manager aboard her. Along came Queen Mary 2 in December 2003 and, as I watched her pass Town Quay in the murk that day I hoped that, one day, I might be one of the fortunate people to travel on her. Back in July this year, I watched the three current Cunard 'Queen' cruise ships leave Southampton together and wished that I was aboard one of them, especially the Queen Mary 2. When, the following day, my friend Patricia texted me with details of a four-night cruise on Queen Mary 2 at an attractive price, my will power - which is tenuous at the best of times - completely evaporated and I invited myself along.

The cruise was to depart Southampton on 16th November, sailing from the Ocean Terminal, spend a day at sea on Saturday 17th November before heading to Le Havre (Sunday) and then Zeebrugge (Monday) before returning to Southampton on Tuesday 20th November. The Le Havre part of the schedule was changed to Guernsey before being changed back to Le Havre.

16th November was grey and foggy, much like most of 2012 seems to have been, and it wasn't until the Red Jet was passing the Ocean Terminal that Queen Mary 2's distinctive shape could be made out. I met Patsy on Town Quay and, as at least it wasn't raining, we walked round to the Ocean Terminal which is practically next door.

There is an opportunity to get a photo of your ship at the Ocean Terminal; before you get to the terminal building itself, another small road (White Star Road) goes off to the left and you can walk along there for a few yards, stand in front of the fence and take a photo of your ship. Unfortunately, the fog prevented a really good photo, which I took with a small bridge camera, rather than dragging the SLR out, which I would have done if the weather had been better.

Because this is a long post, as the next ones will be, I have made the previews smaller, instead of full-size like I normally do, to prevent too much scrolling. Click on the previews for the larger versions.

After a bit of a wait in the Ocean Terminal spent avoiding the eye of Children In Need fundraisers (nothing against children, per se, I just hate this annual BBC wankathon with Terry Wogan and various z-list 'slebs demanding you part with your hard earned, and refuse to donate money to it, especially as the BBC binned their Wildlife Fund which I did donate to) we went through security and boarded the ship. Last time I came through here, for a visit to HAL's Maasdam in August, my footwear set the alarms off so, as I was wearing the same shoes, I erred on the side of caution and took them off!

We entered the ship via the Grand Lobby on Deck 3, where a piano player was providing background 'musak' (as it can only really be described as). One thing about the ship I wasn't keen on was the music, which was mostly classical, jazz/orchestral or piano-based; I suppose this is because the demographic catered for generally falls into the elderly category. I very much doubt that the likes of Annihilator, Iron Maiden, Gorgoroth or Judas Priest would go down very well with the older folk who make up the bulk of the clientele!

The cabin - or 'stateroom', as Cunard prefer to call it - was ready and it was big, with plenty of room for two people. It had a large window which was far better than an inside, where you have no idea what time of day it is, as it is pitch black no matter the light level outside. There was a bottle of Pol Acker on the table but as Patsy can't stand the stuff I drank it. :o)
From the Golden Lion we could see the tanker Whitchallenger alongside. She soon left, to be replaced by the rubbish barge Seagreen.

The fog cleared in time for departure and we could see Balmoral, which had been at berth 101, heading for the Upper Swinging Ground with Oriana, at 106, also getting ready to leave. The photo below also shows one of the Red Funnel vehicle ferries; I can't believe how minute these look when viewed from above!

As Balmoral headed for the Upper Swinging Ground and Oriana also left her berth, we promptly let go and began to move. The Queen went first, privileges of royalty! We reversed out and, with three loud blasts on the horns, set off down Southampton Water. One of the good things about Queen Mary 2's horn is that the blast is preceded by a hiss (one of the horns is a steam horn from the original Queen Mary) so you don't jump out of your skin. The hiss is a sort of unintentional warning the siren is about to sound.

Aligote, built 2010, IMO: 9440497, 42225 GT, Marshall Islands flag

Oriana and Balmoral followed us out into the Solent. Big Mary hung around between Cowes and Ryde and let them pass, which enabled me to get some passable night shots. Modern camera technology has moved on a lot in recent years and photos unobtainable without a tripod in the past are at least do-able now, with modern image-stabilised cameras and lenses. My Canon 100-400mm L lens has an older IS system but it works very well.

Brittany Ferries' Mont St. Michel approaching Portsmouth

Yes, I was tempted to get a marker, cross 'Hamilton' out and write 'Southampton'!

We anchored a few miles off Jersey the next morning. I was woken up by the anchor going down, up again and then back down, it's a noisy process. Visibility wasn't that good, and it was yet another wet day, but we could see the shore, St Helier and Corbiere lighthouse. I have a soft spot for Jersey because it was the first 'foreign' trip I made on my own, when I was a teenager, sailing from Portsmouth on Channel Island Ferries' 1970-built ferry Corbiere.

Spare propeller blades

I spent the day looking round the ship but, in the afternoon, I watched Gillette Soccer Saturday on SSN to keep an eye on the Southampton score. Saints were away at QPR for a much anticipated match; as both teams are in the bottom three, the losing manager was probably likely to lose his job, so it was dubbed, predictably, by the media as 'El Sackico', a play on 'El Clasico'. Thankfully, Saints won 1-3, which was only our second win of a so-far chastening return to the Premier League. Unfortunately the ever-irritating Reading also won, meaning we are still second from bottom, jeez, I hate Reading after they pipped us to the Championship title last season...but I was amused to see Portsmouth lost - again. :o)

We were supposed to have left the anchorage at 1930, although it took 20 minutes to raise the anchor and it was nearer 2000 by the time we began to move.
We were scheduled to arrive at Le Havre the following morning.

To be continued...