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	Queen Victoria Cruise Voyage V913: Mediterranean Medley II - 17th-30th August 2009 Day 1: 17th August - Southampton Departure
	This is the record of a 13 night cruise taken on board Cunard's Queen Victoria from Southampton on 17th August 2009. The party consisted of myself, wife, son and son's friend (both aged 17), in a balcony cabin and opposing inside cabin. Separate pages show the main ports visited, with images of the shipping and other transport systems encountered. This is not primarily a tourist travelogue. This page covers the departure from Southampton on Monday 17th August. Overall this was a hugely enjoyable cruise, and the few gripes detailed on subsequent pages did little to affect this. I found Queen Victoria to be a comfortable and well laid out ship. However I did not form an immediate affection for her. This my be due to her newness, but I did form an immediate attachment to Oriana in her first season, and also to Aurora on her first completed (but third scheduled) voyage, despite some misgivings about the open plan passenger flows. Queen Victoria maintains a similar design style throughout, loosely based on that of the first Queen Mary. Nothing stands out as being exceptional, but nothing offends either. She is virtually smoke free as cruise ships increasingly are, with only the casino as a no-go area if you prefer breathing air to smoke. The cruise experience has been immeasurably improved over the last few years for non-smokers, fug-filled rooms a thing of the past. The weather throughout was fantastic, with continuous sunshine from our sailaway past Cowes and the Nab Tower until sunset on the final sea day on the 29th August. If anything, temperatures were too high, hovering around the mid to upper 30°s until we made our final call at Gibraltar when it was a pleasant 28°C. Only on the return sea days did it drop below 20°C, although remaining sunny. The only rain was a very brief but heavy thundery shower as we left Palma. The cruise was initially advertised as a 12 night voyage. An extra day, and a call at Livorno (Pisa/Florence) was added by shortening the following minicruise from 4 to 3 nights. The map below reflects this revised itinerary. Finally, just 6 days before departure, we were informed that the Livorno and Civitavecchia calls were being transposed, which obviously saves fuel, and allows a weekday visit to Rome (more Vatican tour options than a Sunday?). The itinerary below shows the actual route taken - the map incorrectly shows Civitavecchia preceding Livorno. This late change caused us considerable annoyance since we had pre-booked tours of the Colosseum and Leaning Tower at Pisa. These were only changed after much effort and additional expense, so Cunard started the cruise with some ill feeling from us. Both Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2 were in port on 17th August, the former at the Mayflower Terminal and the latter at the new Ocean Terminal. Queen Victoria was due to depart first at 16:30, but was late due to a delayed delivery of bottled 'Cunard water'. Queen Mary 2 left first and we never came close to her. Both Ocean Scene and Ashleigh R of Blue Funnel Cruises were running harbour tours to see the departure of the two Queens. A day of dull weather brightened up as we left, giving a spectacular view of the Nab Tower. This weather continued over the following days, with mid to high 30s and blue skies every day, but visibility remaining good. This was too hot to do much walking in many of the ports. I An initial problem was that despite booking two adjacent cabins simultaneously with Cunard we were allocated different tables for dinner. This could not be rectified for the first evening, but we were promised a change for the second night. However, we all enjoyed the company on our separate two tables and our son decided that they preferred their existing table rather than risk a change of companions. I also had 120 free minutes of internet access as a Cunard Gold Club member, but the internet service was appallingly slow - quite the worst speeds encountered in all my years of cruising. Theoretically I could have wi-fi access in the cabin, bit not within my 120 free minutes. By day 5 I had used only 6 of my free minutes since I could not access any websites on numerous attempts. The ship is apparently being re-cabled (on a ship less than 2 years old?) but this will not be completed until September. With a crucial Ashes match in progress it was very irritating, plus I could not upload any of these web pages as they were completed as I have always been able to do in the past on P&O, Princess, Celebrity or RCI ships, and even on the QE2.

Calshot Spit is a one-mile long sand and shingle bank, located on the southern bank of the open end of Southampton Water, on the south coast of England. At the end of the spit are Calshot Castle (built by King Henry VIII), an RNLI lifeboat, a Coastguard station, several slipways, a former Royal Navy and Royal Air Force flying boat station and Calshot Activities Centre.

Calshot CastleThe castle is a low, circular, stone structure and was armed with large muzzle-loading guns. Its purpose, when it was built in 1539, was to protect access to the important harbour at Southampton from seaborne attack, by France or Spain from the English Channel via the Solent.

Calshot Naval Air Station was originally set up in 1913. Its choice as a location for operating flying boats is clear: the landing area is sheltered by land on the three sides of Southampton Water and by the Isle of Wight, several miles away, on the fourth side. In 1929 and 1931, Calshot was the venue for the Schneider Trophy, an international air race for seaplanes. The site is now used as a base for the RNLI, yachts and HM Coastguard. The hangars are home to Calshot Activities Centre and house indoor climbing walls, artificial ski slopes and a velodrome.

We passed the Nab Tower off the Isle of Wight at 19:30. This was the best view I have had of this ex-WW1 fortification.

The Nab Tower is a tower planned for anti-submarine protection in the Straits of Dover in World War I. It was sunk over the Nab rocks east of the Isle of Wight to replace a lightship after the war, and is a well known landmark for sailors in the Solent.

During the First World War the British Admiralty designed eight towers code named M-N that were to be built and positioned in the Straits of Dover to protect allied merchant shipping from German U-boats. Designed by civilian G.Menzies, the towers were to be linked together with steel nets and armed with two 4" guns with the idea of closing the English Channel to enemy ships. However by the end of the war in 1918 only one had been completed, at the cost of one million pounds, and was located at Shoreham Harbour, awaiting deployment. One other part-built structure was dismantled but there remained a 92 foot tall metal cylinder sitting on a raft of concrete. In 1920 the tower was towed by two paddle tugs to the Nab rock, a rock in the deep-water approach to the eastern Solent and previously marked by a lightship. Buoyancy was provided by the honeycomb construction of the concrete base, creating 18 water-tight compartments. When these were flooded, the structure sank and settled to rest at an angle of 3 degrees from vertical towards the northeast - a characteristic tilt which is obvious to this day.

It was manned as a lighthouse, and during World War II it provided some defence to the Solent approach, and shot down several aircraft. The lighthouse is still functional but since 1983 it has been unmanned, operated by Trinity House (www.trinityhouse.co.uk). In November 1999 the Nab was hit by a freighter , the Dole-America, carrying a cargo of bananas and pineapples. The ship was badly damaged and only avoided sinking by being run aground. The base of the tower suffered superficial and internal damage. Damage was repaired in 2001 (www.wikipaedia.com).