Wednesday - November 12, 2008
Time to Say Goodbye - to Southampton
Because this was also November 11, Remembrance Day, things kicked off at 11 am with a flyover by 2 antique airplanes which dropped thousands of poppies over the ship. Mike and I were in the car in a queue waiting to drop our luggage when I heard the planes approaching.
Because we were stopped in traffic, I was able to leap out with my camera and get this photo of the planes and the mass of poppies trailing behind. I like to think that even though my father was one of the Canadian soldiers lucky enough to make it home from Europe at the end of WWII, he is now gone and one of those poppies was for him.
Then it was off to drop the rental car where the woman who checked us in told us that her great-great grandfather had died on the Titantic and that she wanted to take her daughter down to see this ship off because of the sense of history involved. A taxi took us back to the ship and this time we joined the queues to check in. It wasn't all that bad because Cunard had a band playing music from the twenties and thirties in the area where we waited and you could feel the excitement in the air. 
Once we had our embarkation cards and were called to get on board, we had the usual photo taken and then headed off to the gangway. Just as we arrived there, all passengers were stopped as a group of photographers and dignitaries were exiting the ship. Out came the Captain in his dress uniform, followed by a very tall elderly man, who I soon recognized to be none other than Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh! And because we were at the end of the gangway, he stopped smack dab in front of us. I think I was standing there with my mouth hanging open, thinking "Can I get my camera out in time to snap a photo?", when he looked straight at us and said "Have a good voyage and I hope you get there!" and then waltzed off. Now I know that he can be a bit of a loose cannon in the things that he has said over the years, but I wondered "Now what does he mean by that?"
Only later did we learn that the QE2 had actually run aground the night before or that morning on a sand bar and had to wait for the tide and a tug to get them off and into harbor. Thank goodness no damage was done. The weather had been particularly foul on November 10 with lots of rain and very strong winds, so the seas had been very rough. I assume that the Prince was making some reference to that incident. Questionable sentiments aside, it was a thrill to be standing so close to the man and to have him "wish us well" on the voyage.
Our actual departure began with military bands playing on shore, hordes of people lining the terminal pier, and even more lining the banks of Mayflower Park as the QE2 backed up from the terminal to the park area, surrounded by hundreds of small private and sightseeing boats. Everyone on board was waving their British flags and cheering, and the music system was playing such stirring music as "Rule Britannia", "Land of Hope and Glory", "Jerusalem", "Auld Lang Syne", etc. And then the fireworks began!
I have never seen anything like it, not even at Edinburgh for the New Year/Hogmany celebrations!! The sky was filled with color, and light and sound and smoke. It was like 10 minutes of solid grand finale. And when the smoke cleared, we went forward and out past the terminal again where there was a huge Bon Voyage sign lit up in fireworks, past the Isle of Wight, and out into the English Channel, with the flotilla of boats following us all the way.
It was an incredible to start to what should be an historic journey and we were lucky enough to have watched it all from the balcony of one of the posh cabins way up on the Signal Deck, where we had a cabin last winter on the voyage to Sydney. No, we were not upgraded, but our friends, David and Sarah, whom we had just visited at their lovely home in Cornwall three days earlier, had received a call from Cunard at 3:00 pm on November 10 offering them a last-minute cabin! And they had leaped at it. How they ever managed to get packed and down to Southampton so quickly, I will never know. I can only bow my head in admiration. But they invited us up for a Sail Away party, which was great fun and a fantastic view. I told David that it certainly paid to have friends in high places, and I meant that quite literally!