Sunday, February 12, 2012

Ship Gazing

Sunday 12th February, 2012

Woke up this morning feeling really refreshed after a great nights sleep.  The day looked much nicer out too, clear blue skies and the sun was shining.  

After lunch we thought we would take a trip down to Outer Harbour and see the three ships that were in port.  There was Athena (the baby of them all), Crystal Serenity and Celebrity Century. 

We got down there just after 3pm.  Maybe there wasn't as many people as there were on Saturday when the Queen Mary2 was in, but there were still quite a few on the roads and down by the water.  We got talking to some of the people waiting and one of them said that one of the ships was due to sail out at 4.00pm.  We decided to stay and wait and watch it sail.


Next we heard it wouldn't be sailing until 5.00pm and another one would be sailing at 6.00pm.  OK, we'll hang around and see both sail out.  The largest of the three, Crystal Serenity, wasn't sailing until 11.00pm and we had decided to come back to watch that sail.  We thought it might look spectacular with all of it's lights blazing.  Then we heard that they had brought it forward and would now be sailing at 9.00pm.

Confusion reigned.  Nobody had any idea.  We got on the phone and Googled the ships but nothing really came up as to when the times of departure were.  Each new person that came down to the water had a different time.

So, we sat and waited and waited.  5.00pm came and went and there was no movement.  Around 5.15pm the Athena started to move away from the wharf.  She was a tiny ship compared to the other two.  She had spent the last couple of months sailing in the South Australian waters going from Adelaide to Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln.  This trip she was going to Freemantle.  There were a lot of people on board.




By now we were getting terribly sunburnt.  This was not in our original plans to watch the ships leave.  I hadn't bought any sunburn cream with us and there wasn't any in the car.  Tony did bring his hat thank goodness.  Saved him from getting a burnt scalp, face, nose and ears.

After the Athena sailed we decided to wait for the Celebrity Century to leave.  It wasn't  too long to wait for 6.00pm.  While chatting to other people word came through that it wasn't sailing until 7.00pm now.  Oh well, seeing we are here we may as well stay.

With all three ships lined up along the wharf that one was the hardest to see because it was the last one in the line.  We decided to wait, we had nothing else to do.  Shortly after 7.00pm she left.  She was much larger than Athena but not as big as Crystal Serenity.  I thought she was a much nicer looking ship than Serenity, long and slender.




With only one ship left and most of the people saying she was going to leave at 11.00pm we left and went to get some dinner.  We decided to go and get a pizza from our favourite pizza shop at West Beach.  We ate it while watching the planes land and take off and then went back to Outer Harbour.


The boat (no, ship.....I gotta get used to calling it a ship) looked magnificent all lit up.  You could see it from miles away.  We sat and waited in the car, we had bought no jackets with us, and it was starting to feel cool, until around 10.30pm when we wandered off to the vantage point by the water.  It was quite surprising the number of people that had come out to see the ship sail, even people with babies in prams.


It left at 11.00pm, not with all of it's lights on though, so I was a little disappointed with that, but it still looked great as it moved through the water with barely a noise.


What a way to spend an afternoon and evening.  Who says nothing happens in Adelaide?

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