QM2 location (Merged threads)

[Ray66]

Thanks both of you for those photos. I looked at the webcams thread this morning which showed the QM2 still at sea so I guess they have frozen again.

[bluemarble]

18 minutes ago, Ray66 said:

Thanks both of you for those photos. I looked at the webcams thread this morning which showed the QM2 still at sea so I guess they have frozen again.

 

I think the QE webcam has been stuck on "unavailable due to satellite strength" for about a week now. The other two webcams froze a couple days ago, not long after the QV webcam finally came back to like after being "unavailable" for quite a while.

Edited July 15, 2020 by bluemarble

[IB2]

She’s just coming into view out of my dining room window, so I guess she is on her way back to Weymouth.

[bluemarble]

Just now, IB2 said:

She’s just coming into view out of my dining room window, so I guess she is on her way back to Weymouth.

 

That's correct. QM2 is reporting Weymouth as her destination for tomorrow morning via AIS.

 

I see there are currently six cruise ships at Weymouth (Azura, Britannia, Ventura, Carnival Valor, Marella Explorer and Marella Discovery). Marella Explorer 2 is reporting "Portland" as her destination tomorrow morning. If none of the ships currently there depart before tomorrow morning, we have the potential for eight cruise ships to be at Weymouth/Portland tomorrow. I'll be keeping an eye on that one.

 

I hadn't noticed before, but Torquay is now hosting a cruise ship as well (Carnival Breeze).

[bluemarble]

3 hours ago, bluemarble said:

I think the QE webcam has been stuck on "unavailable due to satellite strength" for about a week now. The other two webcams froze a couple days ago, not long after the QV webcam finally came back to life after being "unavailable" for quite a while.

 

The QM2 and QV webcams may be "unstuck" now. At least they are currently showing new nighttime scenes which are appropriate for their current locations in the English Channel, so we can hope.

Edited July 15, 2020 by bluemarble
Corrected typo in the original quoted post

[bluemarble]

12 hours ago, bluemarble said:

That's correct. QM2 is reporting Weymouth as her destination for tomorrow morning via AIS.

 

I see there are currently six cruise ships at Weymouth (Azura, Britannia, Ventura, Carnival Valor, Marella Explorer and Marella Discovery). Marella Explorer 2 is reporting "Portland" as her destination tomorrow morning. If none of the ships currently there depart before tomorrow morning, we have the potential for eight cruise ships to be at Weymouth/Portland tomorrow. I'll be keeping an eye on that one.

 

I hadn't noticed before, but Torquay is now hosting a cruise ship as well (Carnival Breeze).

 

I see we do have eight cruise ships between Weymouth and Portland this morning with Marella Discovery having repositioned from Weymouth Bay to dock within Portland Harbour early this morning prior to the arrival of Marella Explorer 2 and QM2.

 

Anchored in Weymouth Bay this morning are the seven cruise ships QM2, Azura, Britannia, Ventura, Carnival Valor, Marella Explorer and Marella Explorer 2.

[IB2]

26 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

 

I see we do have eight cruise ships between Weymouth and Portland this morning with Marella Discovery having repositioned from Weymouth Bay to dock within Portland Harbour early this morning prior to the arrival of Marella Explorer 2 and QM2.

 

Anchored in Weymouth Bay this morning are the seven cruise ships QM2, Azura, Britannia, Ventura, Carnival Valor, Marella Explorer and Marella Explorer 2.

Out the window we have just Carnival Magic currently, with Majesty of the Seas doing circuits further out to sea and Hebridean Sky hiding just around the corner.

[bluemarble]

This morning there are eight cruise ships in Weymouth Bay (including QM2) with the arrival of Carnival Magic a couple hours ago (albeit just a bit south of the other seven ships). Still, I think that's a new high for the number of cruise ships there. Plus the one cruise ship docked nearby within Portland Harbour for a total of nine cruise ships at Weymouth and Portland combined this morning. Would love to see a youtube video of that.

[bluemarble]

That was a brief stop for Carnival Magic. She got underway again about 9:00am, now heading to Civitavecchia, after only about 2.5 hours at Weymouth/Portland.

[LadyL1]

1 hour ago, bluemarble said:

This morning there are eight cruise ships in Weymouth Bay (including QM2) with the arrival of Carnival Magic a couple hours ago (albeit just a bit south of the other seven ships). Still, I think that's a new high for the number of cruise ships there. Plus the one cruise ship docked nearby within Portland Harbour for a total of nine cruise ships at Weymouth and Portland combined this morning. Would love to see a youtube video of that.

I did post a photo of Weymouth Bay on the thread "How are things where you are?", on Monday. Unless you are in a small craft or in the air it is virtually impossible to see all the ships at once from the headland. Carnival Valor was directly behind Britannia, and one could only just glimpse the funnel poking above the superstructure of ship in front. QM2 was anchored furthest south, and would need a hike up the coastal path for a good clear view, and we did not have our walking boots with us. Perhaps we will go again next week but try and photograph from a different location. There were so many people with serious photographic equipment taking photos of a sight rarely seen in the past.

 

[bluemarble]

4 hours ago, LadyL1 said:

I did post a photo of Weymouth Bay on the thread "How are things where you are?", on Monday. Unless you are in a small craft or in the air it is virtually impossible to see all the ships at once from the headland. Carnival Valor was directly behind Britannia, and one could only just glimpse the funnel poking above the superstructure of ship in front. QM2 was anchored furthest south, and would need a hike up the coastal path for a good clear view, and we did not have our walking boots with us. Perhaps we will go again next week but try and photograph from a different location. There were so many people with serious photographic equipment taking photos of a sight rarely seen in the past.

 

Thanks, LadyL1. I have belatedly "liked" your photo on the "How are things where you are?" thread. Always good to see photos of the Cunard ships wherever they may be.

 

We have been posting some links to videos and photo spreads of the ships at Weymouth on the "Queen Victoria current location" thread. Some of the best on that thread were from the first time there were seven cruise ships at Weymouth on May 24th. That's when Queen Victoria was there together with the six P&O ships. Some of those were taken from the air, perhaps from drones.

 

Was hoping some enterprising soul would be able to capture a similar video or photo spread of all eight/nine ships at Weymouth/Portland this morning. But since Carnival Magic didn't stick around very long, the window of opportunity for that was very small.

[bluemarble]

By the way, the count of cruise ships at Weymouth/Portland has started to rival Manila. There was a mass exodus of cruise ships from Manila starting the first week of July. This past Tuesday (July 14th) they were only eight cruise ships left at Manila, down from their high of 34 in late June. Since then, two Royal Caribbean ships have returned to Manila.

[bluemarble]

More musical chairs at Weymouth/Portland today where QM2 is. Carnival Breeze arrived at Portland Harbour about 6:30am this morning and Marella Discovery is now in Weymouth Bay as of about 9:00am. Now, Arcadia has arrived to take over Ventura's spot who has moved to a new spot a bit further south in the bay. So as of this posting around noon, it looks like there are now nine cruise ships in Weymouth Bay and one in Portland Harbour.

 

P.S. For comparison, there are currently only four cruise ships anchored in Manilla Bay at the moment (where QE had been for a couple months along with so many other cruise ships). Three cruise ships are temporarily out to sea and it looks like another is now heading back out to sea there.

Edited July 18, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

Here's a video I was hoping for.

 

 

Looks like they managed to catch a few shots of Arcadia before she took off. She was only there for a couple hours before returning to Poole and I don't think she's in the full panoramic shot of all the cruise ships at the 1:54 mark of the video. Some good shots of QM2 are included.

[bluemarble]

Here's today's contribution showing QM2 on the Isle of Wight webcam at Cowes as she's now on her way back to Weymouth tomorrow morning.

 

 

QE repositioned to Weymouth this morning and QV is there as well. For a moment I thought we might have a "Three Queens" meeting in Weymouth Bay tomorrow. However, QV is scheduled to be back in Southampton tomorrow, so that meeting will have to wait. Maybe that will happen on Friday? I'll be keeping an eye on it.

[bluemarble]

Just noticed there have been ten cruise ships anchored in Weymouth Bay today (August 17th) since the arrival of Azura this afternoon. Looking back at previous posts on this thread, we had nine cruise ships in Weymouth Bay for a couple hours and one in Portland Harbour on July 18th. Now we have ten cruise ships (including the three Cunard Queens) together in the bay (along with two tankers).

 

I think it's time for a port diagram from marinetraffic to document the occasion (this time for Weymouth/Portland rather than Manila as we had been doing for QE earlier).

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

And then there were none. Three days later and all ten of the cruise ships that were in Weymouth Bay on Monday have departed. Some of them indicate they will returning over the next few days (including QM2 and QE). But as of this evening, there are just two tankers and a Royal Navy minesweeper in the bay.

 

[Matelot70]

1 hour ago, bluemarble said:

And then there were none. Three days later and all ten of the cruise ships that were in Weymouth Bay on Monday have departed. Some of them indicate they will returning over the next few days (including QM2 and QE). But as of this evening, there are just two tankers and a Royal Navy minesweeper in the bay.

 

The 1750 BBC shipping forecast is for Force 9 SW winds in Portland Sea Area so I guess they are heading around the corner of the Kent coast for better shelter. Quite unusually strong winds for this time of year.

[bluemarble]

Just noticed QM2 departed Weymouth shortly after 8:00pm yesterday evening. Apparently it's now QM2's turn to head to Teignmouth. QV spent a few days there in July.

[Lanky Lad]

This camera is really for watching trains, but QM2, Azura and Ventura can be seen as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ1aRKKn4nQ

[Host Hattie]

The police helicopter based just up the road from us posted this on Twitter today

[Solent Richard]

Yesterday, 16 September, Queen Mary 2 called into Southampton.

 

We were enjoying  pre-dinner sunset cocktails with friends on our balcony as she sailed out along the Solent amidst a rather spectacular red sky backdrop..

 

 

[Vict0riann]

On the HAL forum someone posted the link to a U-Tube video of the HAL ships in Torbay, but at around the 8.30 minute mark there is a visit to QM2 I thought you might be interested in.  She needs some paint.  All the ships look rather neglected and sad.  Hope the link works.

 

 

https://youtu.be/M3olufdaDrY 

[LadyL1]

So sad! We should be on an Atlantic crossing just now 😢.

[IB2]

5 minutes ago, LadyL1 said:

So sad! We should be on an Atlantic crossing just now 😢.

Maybe, having just watched the military storm a tanker out of my window, this evening it is safer to be on land.