Stupendous Ships

I thought it might be worth a jaunt to the harbour to go and see a couple of big boats that were in at the time. The QE2 and the Queen Victoria rendezvouzed within Sydney as one made its maiden stop at Sydney, the other its final. The QE2 is perhaps, save the Titanic, the most famous ship in the world.

Shown here left, the QE2 has cruised the ocean for over five million miles since its inaugural voyage in 1969, two years after completion. It has carried over 2 million passengers during that time, and is now on its final global cruise, after which time it will become a floating hotel.

Andy and I found a nice spot at the Royal Botanical Gardens, or so we thought, but it turned out that thousands of others had turned out for the 'passing' of the QE2 and Queen Victoria - a salute if you like, with lots of horns blaring, and spectators cheering. See above for our boring little view of the scenes...lol

The QE2 was, and still is, a whopper of a ship. Though much smaller than we are used to see nowadays, she still is over 70,000 tonnes and almost 300 metres long, with 12 decks and enough space for 1791 passengers, including of course Her Majesty (and 1000+ crew). She is also one of the fastest at 32.5 knots - which is quite an achievement when you consider how massive she is!

This photo, which i did not take, gives you and idea of the scale when compared to the skyscrapers in the background. A engineering marvel; this is after all a ship that has officially faced 130mph winds from Hurricane Luis, and a rogue wave estimated to be 95ft high!

Anyway the purpose of the event was to allow a Royal Rendevouz as one passed the other. Queen Victoria, which was moored by the Opera House in Circular Quay (couldn't go under the harbour bridge as its simply too big), first reversing out and then sailing out to sea as the QE2 came in.

As you can see the Queen Victoria is much bigger, and whilst not the biggest (I believe that's the Queen Mary 2) its a whopper.
At 90,000 tonnes and able to carry more than 2000 passengers, not to mention crew, she is Cunard's latest vessel, only coming into service in December 2007. She sits higher in the water than QE2, though heavier, at only 8m draft (depth below the waterline) compared to QE2's 12m but this has got much to do with modern technology and design.

At 6.30pm they cruised past each other, with the Sydney Harbour Fire Department boats saluting with huge arcs of water from their jets, horns blaring, people waving and a mass flotilla of small vessels to see the giants out of the harbour and

say goodbye to the mighty QE2, who really is Queen of The Seas. Quite a sight to behold, and much more moving than expected.