| After a quick lunch at Monsieur Hulot, we took a taxi to Ocean Village as we were booked on the Blue Funnel sailaway trip. Originally due to run 5pm-7pm, it would have missed Ventura, Eclipse, Vicky or more than one. Harmony then was listed for 6pm but on the 19th they brought it forward to 5pm so I contacted Blue Funnel to find out what was happening. They decided to move their trip to 4pm-6pm to accommodate. On the 21st, the listings showed Ventura starboard instead of port for a quick departure while the container ship, HS Mozart was scheduled to leave SCT1 at 5pm, which would result in Harmony being delayed. By this morning, HS Mozart had been put back until 11pm while Blue Funnel assured me over two days they and Rob, the skipper, would do their best "to get as much out of it as we can". Since they stayed out longer when Quantum of the Seas sailed in 2014 at the time we should have been back in the Village, things looked hopeful for something similar. John and Roz Kennedy as well as Andrew and Donna Cooke were also on the boat. Well no sooner had we left than things started going wrong. Harmony was changed to 5.30pm while the skipper insisted Vicky would be sailing at 6pm when it was still 4.30pm, before finally saying what it was. Eclipse was delayed due to loading stores. The skipper had no idea Harmony would go to the Upper Swinging Ground to turn despite her already having done it two days prior and was far too big to go astern to the Middle Swinging Ground. He said Arcadia and Vicky were built side by side and swapped over, which wasn't true. It was well publicised the original Queen Victoria was transferred to P&O when mostly built due to them wanting to make what would become Vicky more like Mary. Arcadia entered service April 2005, Vicky in December 2007 with several changes including being longer and heavier, with a massive Grand Lobby so how the hell could they be built together???? Vicky went first and down came the rain! Ventura went to turn and we went back for her after leaving Vicky. We then went to Harmony, with him saying if Eclipse went first we'd go to her then wait at Dock Head. Well that's exactly what happened just after Harmony moved off only we continued back to Ocean Village, only finding out by the time we got to the VTS Tower. A lot of people were very angry, particularly those who had travelled some distance to see Harmony sail not move off the berth. John and Roz decided to go to Calshot since Town Quay, Mayflower Park and Hythe marina were packed and we went with them. Harmony hadn't even reached her original berth by the time we drove down West Quay Road and passed Town Quay at 6.30pm which made the skipper's decision more frustrating when he gave us an extra half an hour for Quantum. Calshot was packed too but Harmony was coming around Fawley while Eclipse was passing Cowes. We got them before the rain started again then they dropped us off before heading home. |
