Maiden and final call to Albany (Oz), 4 March 2008

[Chris]

Albany in Australia only welcomed QE2 once - on her farewell World Cruise. The town was so absolutely delighted to have QE2 visit for those short 10 hours. There was a little article I found about the preparation - Steve Young must have been very excited!

<... link no longer working...>

And the video for those of you who haven't seen it - showcasing the Cannon Shot that made us all jump

[Malcolm]

And the video for those of you who haven't seen it - showcasing the Cannon Shot that made us all jump

I've never heard it before! Thank you for posting the clip. Where's this post been? It's only just shown up on my computer after five days

[Chris]

It must have been hiding? 

Yes, the cannon gave us quite a startle!!

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

It must have been so exciting for the town of Albany in Western Australia to experience a visit by QE2 only once during her entire service life, and this visit happening during her farewell world cruise.

I enjoyed the video above, and was prepared for the canon shot -- it was wonderful to hear her whistle immediately afterwards in response!

Pity the article mentioned by Chris is no longer available...

P.S. Could we work out the date of this visit please?

[Thomas Hypher]

Isabelle,

Sam Warwick's (Ron Warwick's Son) QE2 website is a great resource for working out where QE2 was from 1996 until her retirement, being accurate except the timings and location of her final Cunard era refit and after 9/11 (QE2 not going to New York for a period of time) as far as I can tell:

https://www.qe2.org.uk/itinerary.html

The date appears to have been Tuesday 4th March 2008 for Albany

Coincidentally the video was also uploaded on the same day.

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Coincidentally the video was also uploaded on the same day.

You got me there, Thomas! The start of the video actually gives the date. Well spotted!

Sam Warwick's dates are 98% correct, being correct in all cases where no last minute change was made to the itinerary. They are definitely good dates, unless and until we find out that circumstances dictated a change of plan.

And as both dates coincide, we now know when the good people of Albany got to see QE2!

[Lynda Bradford]

Soo graceful and beautiful. 

The video captures QE2's beautiful lines and how she glides through the water.  One to watch time and time again.  Thanks Chris for posting this way back in 2009 and thanks also to Isabelle for finding this topic.

Happy days! 

[Andy Holloway]

Saturday 19th February 2005 saw the one and only visit of QE2 to another 'minor' WA coastal location, Exmouth.  Exmouth is about 800 miles north of Perth and is the home to an US Communications base as well as a joint US/Aust solar Observatory. 

Sadly on the day the swell was just too great to make operating a tender service too dangerous and the visit was cancelled, on arrival. However by this time the landing party had already gone ashore, together with the Tour Staff, who then had to break the sad news to the locals. These lovely people were just soo excited that QE2 was visiting their town, that the cancellation was a body blow. They had been baking like nobody's business to ensure that they had enough cakes etc to feed a ravenous ship of passengers, after all they might not have eaten for an hour of so by the time they'd got ashore!!

But the problems didn't end there, as Exmouth was scheduled to be the last Australian port and as such the port where all the final exit paperwork was to be completed - good planning there Cunard!!  It was also the port where the Classical Trio were to depart QE2, not that they'd performed since QE2 had left Fremantle[Perth] 2 days before!  The Classical Trio was made up of 2 violinists and a double bass, and were booked to fly back to Perth for onward flights back to UK.  They were booked on a 'white knuckle' aircraft to take then south to Perth Int airport, unfortunately this plane wasn't big enough to take the double bass as well, more good planning there!  The agent then came up with a solution, in that he arranged for a local truck driver to take the Bass back to Perth in his 'ute'. The double bass player was not impressed with this but had to accept it when, he was told that if he failed to make the flight he would be charged the full flight back to UK, and any extra costs incurred, he reluctantly agreed, 'kissed' his Double Bass goodbye and off it went by road to Perth. Before he left i asked the driver how long it would take him and his answer amuses me to this day. "If i drive straight there i can do it in 13 hours, including refueling, but if i have to stop for a 'zizz', then it'll take me 14 hours!"

So despite the passengers not being allowed ashore, we still disembarked, 3 classical musicians, and took onboard, for about 3 hours anyway, a group of Australian Officials.

But, being a 'switched on' type of Security Officer, i took advantage of the situation to make the purchase of several 'Exmouth WA' branded items so as to be able to donate them to the WC Auction later on in the voyage!  The Polo Shirt made a staggering amount of money, but it was the ONLY one onboard, well apart from one i'd bought for myself that is! 

As an small aside, in UK i actually live only about 20 miles from Exmouth Devon and have spent many an hour sampling it's delights in my previous life!! 

[Lynda Bradford]

Excellent story Andy and glad that reading this topic reminded you of the visit to Western Australia.   

How sad that the passengers could not go ashore and sample the baking delights.  Reminded me of a round Britain cruise, calling at Greenock.  We went for a walk along the promenade and decided to support a local church group who were holding a coffee morning to raise funds.  We gladly paid the £4 to support the fund raising, but really only wanted a cup of tea.  Well we were presented with tray after try of home baking and it was so hard to refuse as we knew how much effort had been put into the baking.  But as you can imagine, having just come off QM2, the last thing we needed was another cake.