Boudicca arrived in St Peter Port an hour late and dropped anchor around 1pm. Marco Polo was already in, originally due to sail at that time. This was the first time I had seen this 19,860grt classic even though she'd been in Southampton. She had her maiden voyage for the Baltic Shipping Company in 1965 as Alexandr Pushkin, doing fulltime cruising from 1975. Between 1981-85 she did her first cruises for Transocean Tours under charter, with more charters following until 1990 when she was laid up for a year. After she was bought and refurbished, she emerged in 1993 as Marco Polo for Orient Line, not to be confused with the original Orient Lines. NCL bought the company in 1998 but in 2007 it was announced the ship had been sold, curtailing her itinerary and getting no replacement. Her final voyage was in March 2008 from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon where she would take up her new role for Transocean Tours. She would be replacing Arielle in the British summer market cruising from Tilbury most of the year. Unfortunately we had an excursion so couldn't see her leave from Boudicca. We did pass her on the tender though.
|
