No visits to Maker’s this week, as the cruise ships kept coming.
On Wednesday (31 Jan), Queen Mary 2 (QM2). Slightly less boring, as she’s apparently the “only ocean liner in service in the world”.
(Unlike “normal” cruise ships, ocean liners carry people, things, and mail. JR and family arrived in SA on one such vessel in the 70s, which may or may not have traversed the Suez Canal in her lifetime, according to DBB’s sleuthing:)
QM2 is “post-Panamax” – too wide (fat) to fit through the Panama Canal when she was first built in 2003, and before the Canal was expanded in 2016.
Lots of other interesting stuff about this one (kennels, a notably huge library, celebs like Dave Brubeck, and notable “things” like a first ed. of Harry Potter).
(Not info available about the tug.)
Didn’t get to see the thing up close thanks to pale Brits (some of the 2000+ passengers onboard) piling into tour coaches or stumbling around with suitcases looking for their hotels.
Next day it was gone, and then there’s an announcement about a dramatic and sudden change in itinerary to avoid the Red Sea. On her next voyage.
Two excellent recent Loadstar podcasts:
To re-visit for deets:
- Extra emissions by Cape detour (large, but still better than air freight)
- Communication factor re. changes to plans/contracts (*** NB. example: asking an airline passenger to pay a surcharge to get off the plane after an unexpected re-routing)