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A bit rough on QE2

jgsmuzzy

By jgsmuzzy,
in Cunard Line

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cunardqueen

cunardqueen

Posted
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Did you cross the Bay of Biscay at high speed? I was told by an officer that they normally crank her up to 30 knots for that part - one reason why we've booked the Med. for next year!

 

 

Hi cant exactly recall the speed for crossing the bay, but it was a fast run about the 24 knots mark, we did have a few flat outers going from Malaga-Malta and again from Malta -Athens and Alexandria - Palermo the latter being our fastest at 29.1 knots.

A couple of funny runs was going from Marmaris-Alexandria we headed way out in a < shape out into the Med in a south westerly direction before turning back and heading for Alexandria and possibly the strangest ones of all were the 2 loop the loop patterns off the south coast off England, all designed so we keep above the 16 knots, Kindly explained to our table by the 34 yr old Staff Captain, seemingly she doesnt handle to well under that speed.

Even during the night on the Alexandria Palermo run we were doing the 29.1 knots with it being especially bad between 2.00am and 6.30 it QE2 was still flat out "because its quiet and everybody is in bed by then "

Reminded me of the good old days when the crossings were 5 days and it was 28 knots come hell or high water till New York.. How times have changed.

I rather suspect on our trip we will have a few high speed days to look out for

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pnhmrk

pnhmrk

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I was told by an officer that they normally crank her up to 30 knots for that part

 

That should be good fun:) I'll keep an eye on our speed as we cross Biscay next week. I thought that she never went above 20 anymore to economise on fuel:(

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TJL

TJL

Posted
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On the Canadian Crossing we did 30 knots!

 

I was one that one, too.

And there was very little in the way of noise or vibration.

There seems to be this myth spread around that the ol' gal's going to shake herself to bits if she attempts anything so much as service speed. Pah!

 

Tim.......waiting with bated breath for Ken C. to reply ;)

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Anteeta

Anteeta

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Isn't Anteeta on it at the moment?

 

Yes I was, and sadly now I'm back and you're on your Christmas voyage to the Canaries et al. I hope you have a wonderful holiday. We enjoyed every minute. Can't say I noticed much in the way of 'rough'. There was a bit of roll on 2 or 3 days (Azores out and Maderia on the return leg), but nothing compared to N Atlantic on Capt McNaught's maiden in April 03.

 

The ship regularly travels at 27 knots and seems to relish the speed. Indeed the main noise and juddering came when she was travelling at much lower speeds. The journey of some 100 miles up the Mississippi to New Orleans was fairly noisy as the speed was little above 10 knots.

 

Capt. McNaught reduced the speed approaching Funchal by a few knots to make the journey 'more comfortable'. This resulted in us arriving a little later than anticipated, but I guess the smoother travel was appreciated by many.

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transat_jon

transat_jon

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And there was very little in the way of noise or vibration.

There seems to be this myth spread around that the ol' gal's going to shake herself to bits if she attempts anything so much as service speed. Pah!

 

I've also been on a 30 knot crossing. It was smooth and quiet (it is not the vibration that you feel as a passenger that is aging the ship, it is the wear and tear on the propulsion system).

 

The faster you go the smoother it gets, two reasons :

i) The more force the props are producing the harder they are pushed in to the thrust blocks. Going slow they "wobble" about a bit, at ten knots and manoevering the vibration can be collossal.

ii) The bilge keels and stabilisers work better the faster you go so you roll less.

 

The problem is faster you run, the more power you need, the more power going through the propulsion system, the more wear happens. 20 knots needs about 40,000 hp, 30 knots needs 100,000 hp.

 

This means that you need to 3 engines to hit 20 knots, and 8 to hit 30 knots; causing wear and tear on 5 more engines. Also the electrical system runs hotter and has more strain on it, same the motors. The prop shaft and props have about another 500 tons of force to transfer. All this means things will wear out sooner.

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rjms74

rjms74

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Anteeta,

 

Great tohear you had a good recent cruise on QE2. I noted with interest your reference to the April 2003 maiden crossing for Ian McNaught as Captain and yes there was one day evening when I think from memory it was a force 9/10 and the very rough!!! That being said I seem to recall that 5 out of 6 days were very calm for April & indeed the Atlantic!!

 

That being said my Oct 2004 Med cruise was even worse weather than on that crossing as we left S/hampton and hit a very violent storm with many passengers sick & lots of movement!!!

 

Kind Regards,

 

 

RJMS74

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cunardqueen

cunardqueen

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That being said my Oct 2004 Med cruise was even worse weather than on that crossing as we left S/hampton and hit a very violent storm with many passengers sick & lots of movement!!!

 

Kind Regards,

 

 

RJMS74

 

RJMS74 Now you see why we were so late docking! l woke up in the early hours with the curtins at an obscure angle and the dresser top items on the floor.. and realised l was sober and it wasnt a dream!!!:eek: we also had to anchor of France for a couple of hours till the sea conditions calmed down before making a run for it during a break in the weather!An extra lunch onboard as well. One of the p&o ships had missed a port and arrived in the evening prior to her scheduled arrival time.

We also passed the QM2 in the Bay of Biscay encountering heavy seas heading south. How lucky those QM2 passengers must have been to see QE2:D !!!!

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