QV arrives in port early, I am guessing due to bad weather.

[Lanky Lad]

I was just having a nosy and found QV bound for La Coruna even though she is not due until tomorrow.

 

The see looks pretty rough, so I am sure there will be some relieved passengers.

[Host Hattie]

Medical emergency perhaps ?

[si_boy]

According to met office sea state rough to high seas, with force 9 wind, might have docked a day early due to the weather. QV back to Southampton on Friday and off to Bruges and Amsterdam for NYE. Let’s hope the winds drop and the sea state calms.

[Host Hattie]

Sounds nasty, hope everyone enjoys their evening in La Coruna.

[Queenie1603]

We are looking forward to boarding her tomorrow. We arrived in S’ton early as dire weather predicted in UK. ********** has given her arrival time as 9 am - late - she maybe battling gales in the Channel or ********** is wrong. God speed to her and all on her right now.

[sogne]

We are looking forward to boarding her tomorrow. We arrived in S’ton early as dire weather predicted in UK. ********** has given her arrival time as 9 am - late - she maybe battling gales in the Channel or ********** is wrong. God speed to her and all on her right now.

 

 

AIS has her now SW of Portland Bill at 13 knots with an ETA to Nab Pilot of 0500 29th which is exactly what I would expect

[bluemarble]

Also, the Southampton VTS web site which is generally very good at keeping up-to-date on schedule changes is showing an on-time arrival of 6:30 am for QV.

[bluemarble]

I have a question for our experts on navigation in the Solent. While tracking QV's approach to Southampton last night, I noticed she took the more direct route around the west side of the Isle of Wight (which I believe is referred to as the "Needles" direction on the Southampton VTS web site) rather than the more typical route from the "Nab" around the east side of the island. What factors determine when a cruise ship approaching from the west end of the English Channel will take that apparently shorter route into Southampton? Is it a matter of pilot availability? Traffic/tidal/weather conditions? Other?

[si_boy]

The weather last night and this morning in the south of England was atrocious with driving rain and high winds which might have impacted the navigation route.

Onboard now and just heard that QV will not be stopping at Zeebrugge due to the weather and will be going direct to Amsterdam for NYE. To be expected given the recent weather.

[Host Hattie]

That's a shame, hope the trip isn't too bumpy. Have a great time, we were onboard for NYE 2 years ago and really enjoyed it.

[LadyL1]

I have a question for our experts on navigation in the Solent. While tracking QV's approach to Southampton last night, I noticed she took the more direct route around the west side of the Isle of Wight (which I believe is referred to as the "Needles" direction on the Southampton VTS web site) rather than the more typical route from the "Nab" around the east side of the island. What factors determine when a cruise ship approaching from the west end of the English Channel will take that apparently shorter route into Southampton? Is it a matter of pilot availability? Traffic/tidal/weather conditions? Other?

 

I am not an expert but having lived on the Isle of wight and enjoyed sailing in the Solent, I have a little knowledge on this.

Sometime during the late 1990"s (I think) it was decided that it was too expensive to continue dredging the very shallow channel on the westerly course that goes out past The Needles. Also there was concern about coastal erosion both on the mainland side and IOW. Some of the very small ships still ocaasionally use this route, but it must have been a very high tide for the QV to enter Southampton this way.

[sogne]

I have a question for our experts on navigation in the Solent. While tracking QV's approach to Southampton last night, I noticed she took the more direct route around the west side of the Isle of Wight (which I believe is referred to as the "Needles" direction on the Southampton VTS web site) rather than the more typical route from the "Nab" around the east side of the island. What factors determine when a cruise ship approaching from the west end of the English Channel will take that apparently shorter route into Southampton? Is it a matter of pilot availability? Traffic/tidal/weather conditions? Other?

 

 

all 3 of these conditions, been through many times professionally but also on QV with Christopher Rynd, my guess is possibly pilot boarding at the Nab might have been difficult.

[bluemarble]

Thanks for the replies to my query about QV's route into Southampton this morning. It's great to have so many informed sources of information on this board to be able to tap into even for a question like this one which is not really specific to Cunard.

 

Regards, John

[sogne]

all 3 of these conditions, been through many times professionally but also on QV with Christopher Rynd, my guess is possibly pilot boarding at the Nab might have been difficult.

 

 

ps It also saves about 1 hour

[mumsey]

We were on this cruise.We were told by the Commodore that bad weather was expected so our speed was increased to almost maximum in order to arrive early in La Coruna and avoid the bad weather.Some passengers took advantage of this and went ashore for the evening.The following day we were advised to expect a rough start from La Coruna and so it proved.It was never frightening,however,and only what one might expect from the Bay of Biscay.We had a comfortable night with only a little movement.We had problems disembarking at Southampton as a strong gust of wind blew QV away from the dock and the air bridge was damaged.It was unable to be used and we eventually disembarked using 2 gangways.

 

 

 

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[Host Hattie]

Thanks mumsey, I hope you enjoyed Christmas on board.