World Cruising on Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth2

Yesterday morning the 90,000 Queen Victoria arrived in Sydney at 6:30 a.m., waking up all harbourside residents on a Saturday morning.  It blared its signal horn all the way to the Overseas Passenger Terminal and apparently this can be heard over 16 kilometres away.  This is Queen Vic’s maiden voyage to Sydney. 

This morning Queen Victoria’s older sister QE2 arrived, again waking up harbourside residents at 6.30 a.m.  This marks QE2’s 30th anniversary since her maiden visit to Sydney.

At 6:30 p.m., these two grand ladies of the ocean crossed each other at Fort Denison, sounding a Whistle Salute with their signal horns.   Sydney sailors, in their traditional fashion, turned out in force watching these two ships manoeuvring into position and then accompanied Queen Victoria on her journey out of the harbour.

Last year when Queen Mary 2 and QE2 rendezvoused in Sydney, the harbour was a scene of madness and traffic on the roads came to a gridlock as everyone was heading for the harbour to witness this eventful occasion.  It was no different this time around.

Sadly this is QE2’s last voyage and she will be leaving the Cunard fleet to take up residence in Dubai as a floating hotel.

Helen