Independence of the Seas was on her way into Southampton, and I saw her passing Fishbourne. I tried a photo but, as I was standing on the Wightlink terminal steps and there was a large tree in the way, the photo wasn't as successful as it would otherwise have been. She was a fabulous sight, though.
Poole is not too far, around 75 minutes if the traffic isn't too bad, from Portsmouth and we were there early so we had about an hour's wait, livened up by two disgruntled would-be Condor Ferries passengers kicking off at the woman behind the Condor check-in desk because they hadn't turned up in time for their sailing. One of the middle-aged men screwed up his ticket and threw it across the terminal in a fit of pique that would have embarrassed a two year old. Nice teddy chuck.
We boarded Barfleur - which had spent the previous summer down at Dover, chartered by DFDS and operating on their Dover-Calais route - and sailed on time at 0730.
The route out of Poole is a picturesque one, passing Brownsea Island and Sandbanks before leaving the harbour and Old Harry Rocks on the starboard side. For the geologically-inclined, the Old Harry Rocks are the counterparts of the Needles on the Isle of Wight. The chalk strata plunges underground and resurfaces at the Isle of Wight.
Sandbanks ferry Bramble Bush Bay
Cotentin, the freight ship on the Poole-Cherbourg route approached out of the mist and low sun as we cleared Poole Harbour
Despite the mist it was a fine sunny day and the shipping lanes were busy. These are cropped from the originals, as the ships were a little far away, even for my lens at the 400mm end.
Grande Angola
Öland
Bekau
On arrival in Cherbourg, we walked into town. On the way, we spotted a couple of items about the Titanic, as the ship had called into Cherbourg on her way to Cobh (Queenstown), Ireland and eventually to her sinking a few days later. I am not a Titanic fan, as I think the story has been done to death, but I got the compact camera out and took a couple of photos
We looked for something to eat and had the Café de Paris, next to the marina, recommended to us. We went inside and, before we could back out, we were being shown to our seats and handed menus. The reason for wanting to back out? It was decidedly upmarket and we were decidedly underdressed! However, that didn't bother them and the menu items were nowhere near as expensive as I'd feared.
Back at the terminal later, we photographed Irish Ferries' Oscar Wilde (the former Kronprins Harald of 1987) arriving but, unfortunately there was no good vantage point around the town or at the terminal to get an unobstructed photo of Barfleur (and no trip to France - or indeed to the UK mainland - is complete without seeing a Norbert Dentressangle lorry!).
We reboarded the ship at 1815, but not without a mini-drama involving the lift on the gangway; there are no stairs, just a huge lift which can accommodate a large number of foot passengers and, yesterday, the doors failed to open so a woman pressed the alarm button and we were quickly extricated by one of Barfleur's engineers.
We sailed on time at 1845 and Barfleur made her presence felt with a large amount of yellow and black smoke which drifted over the port and the town...I can't imagine she's too popular if she does that each time.
There's a bit of artistic license with the photo immediately below, I was playing with the colour balance in PSE and got this pleasing, but rather untruthful, deep golden colour. In reality, it was not *quite* that pronounced but I thought I'd include it anyway.
On this crossing, Barfleur needed the services of a pilot and the boat came alongside as soon as we were clear of the harbour to collect him. It must cost BF a fortune if that's required every time she enters and leaves Cherbourg.
Evidence of Barfleur's stint as Deal Seaways was on lifeboat 6, where a faint 'Deal Seaways' can be just about made out beneath the number 6 and the word 'Cherbourg'.
I took a few photos around the ship on the way back but, as I'd been up since 0230, I was getting to the can't-be-bothered-and-would-rather-sit-in-bar stage.
The Moon above the funnels
There was a fabulous sunset; the sky really was this colour.
We arrived back in Poole on time at 2200 were off the ship, out of the terminal and back in the car by half past ten and soon driving out of Poole (in my opinion, Dorset is one of the worst counties for being poorly signposted; there were diversions in place because Poole Bridge was shut, so people needed to use the Twin Sails Bridge instead, but few signs showing people from out of the area where to go).
We were back in Portsmouth quickly and I made the 2359 ferry with 15 minutes to spare. It was surprisingly busy, including one party of drunken women shrieking like banshees. One of them sounded like a deranged gibbon and the more sober passengers, me included, abandoned the area in search of a more peaceful part of the ship.
I was home by 0130. It had been an extremely long day but very pleasant. Barfleur is a nice little ship, clean, well looked after and was a pleasure to travel in.
