Waverley on the South Coast Part 2
Report by Martin Longhurst
Sunday 3 September 2006 was not as wet as Saturday but the wind had not dropped although it had veered to the west. On arrival at Southampton we were told that, as expected, the paddler would not be leaving the sheltered waters of the Solent. Nevertheless there were 50 hardy soles prepared to steam off from Berth 104 on the grey skied morning.
Unusually Waverley was berthed facing north west and had to steam up the River Test to turn before setting course for the open sea. This gave us the bonus of steaming past the Oriana which had arrived overnight.
We exchanged cheery waves with her passengers eating their breakfast in one of her splendid dining saloons.
Our Lady Patricia laid up at Marchwood for component recovery
Further down the harbour her sister ship Aurora was taking fuel from the tanker Whitchallenger.
The Hythe ferry Great Expectations passes Aurora
We then went below to a hearty breakfast in Waverley's own Dining Saloon.
The day's cruise was amended to include a call at Yarmouth, where about 35 joined us, before a four hour Solent cruise which took us back to Southampton so our Wight passengers could view the two liners.
Cenwulf enters Yarmouth Harbour while Waverley lies at the pier
Red Falcon heads for East Cowes
Red Jet 3 speeds past for Southampton
Aurora waits her departure at 5 pm
OOCL Qingdao departs while Red Jet 4 heads inbound to Southampton
Red Eagle heads for her berth with Aurora to the left and OOCL Qingdao to the right
Clydebuilt Shieldhall out of ballast to allow HLF funded restoration work to proceed
Unfortunately the day was not a financial success but was enjoyed by those on board. By the end of the day there was evidence that the wind was dropping which boded well for the Monday sailing.