Well this was an unexpected bonus on the 4th February 2008 as the ships in Southampton weren't returning until March and I hadn't expected to see this pretty little ship until December. Fred Olsen's latest acquistion, Balmoral, wasnt supposed to be here. They had bought the former Crown Odyssey/Norwegian Crown from NCL in 2006 but allowed them to charter her until November 2007 to finished the scheduled cruises. Once she was handed over she headed for the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg to stretch her by 30 metres, thus her tonnage would increase from 34,250grt to 43,000grt. Her maiden voyage would be from Dover on the 30th January 2008 - until it all went wrong! Pre-inaugural celebrations were the first to be cancelled as there was a delay. She apparently listed when they flooded the dry dock so once she emerged she was taken to another dock behind. She was delivered and headed for Dover where more problems were discovered. On the 28th January Fred Olsen were forced to announce the maiden voyage was cancelled as well. Her next cruise, a twenty night voyage to the Caribbean from Dover on the 13th February, was still expected to go ahead. Which is why her arriving in Southampton came as a surprise, albeit a pleasant one. She had been in Dover previously and was originally due to dock in 102 (as City was occupied by a Dutch naval vessel) for 12.30am on the 4th but for some reason, possibly the weather as it was bad again, she continued past the Isle of Wight doing a leisurely 7-11 knots and just hung around. Her time of arrival kept changing and she was also due to be moved to 101 between 10.30-11am. She began to turn in the Channel just before 2am and slowly made her way towards Southampton, her arrival time now 12.30pm and docking in 101. But what was she doing here and how long would her visit last?
After some sleep (though not much as I wanted to know what she was up to and if she'd ever get here) I got up and kept an eye on AIS and the ship locater. Finally she did turn towards Nab and was going faster but then for some reason she did a 360 degree turn. Her pilot boarded at 10am and this unexpected show was on the road! It was a glorious morning. You'd have thought it was summer if people hadn't been dressed in winter clothing. It was also quite mild. As there was no way she would dock for 12.30pm, having not even reached Cowes by 11.15am, we took our time going to the marina. Mostly empty - bliss! A few obvious tourists taking pics of anything moving on the water, couple of dog walkers, but generally we had the place almost to ourselves. And Hotspur IV was back! Couple of weeks ago, my dad said, but reckoned he forgot to tell me.
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