Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
Aug 6th 2012, 5:23 am
#46
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
Who is 'Pudsey'? I thought it was a bear which appears at every BBC "Children In Need" charity fundraising event, normally held every November.
Aug 6th 2012, 6:29 am
#47
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Aug 6th 2012, 9:20 am
#48
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
Eh? Is this Pudsey a human who owns a dog in the kennels on the QM2 or is Pudsey a dog? 
Aug 6th 2012, 3:34 pm
#49
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
I met up with If1 and her spouse (K & N) in New York City yesterday; they are very excited about embarking the QM2 this afternoon! 
I'll be watching the bridge webcam at 5pm to see the ship approaching the Verrazano Bridge.
By the way, last month when we were on the QM2 we actually heard a surprise announcement from the Captain as we were finishing our dinner. He said that we may be surprised to see that we were going under the Verazzano Bridge again (we were all thinking WTF?). It turned out that one of the passengers had had a medical emergency and they were returning to NY to get him off the ship. We hadn't even felt the ship turning around!
We headed off back to the top deck with a camera and my spouse took some nice pics of the sun setting over Staten island.
We found out later that the ship didn't need to dock again; it had had to turn around a little way out to sea as it couldn't turn around in a busy shipping lane. The Captain told us that he didn't want to risk having a helicopter hovering above the ship to take a sick passenger off (as winching him up would have been a very unpleasant experience for him) and that the Port Authority of NY & NJ helped out by sending a boat out alongside the QM2 to receive the sick passenger.
The passenger had had a heart attack. He was British and transported to a hospital in New Jersey. I have no idea if he survived or not.
Last week on one of the Discovery TV channels here in the US my son had recorded a documentary about the Queen Mary; even before the QM2 had departed from New York a passenger had had a heart attack and they had to unload him; this put the ship's departure back by 2 hours and the tide was rising. The funnel of the Queen Mary is only just a few inches below the Verrazano Bridge and the Captain had to head dead centre of the bridge to avoid hitting it.
If you can, try and watch the webcam (via the link below) just a few minutes after 5pm (ET) in the US or 10pm (UK time) to see the ship as she leaves NY harbour and goes under the Verrazano!
http://www.cunard.com/Ships/Queen-Ma...ridge-Web-Cam/
I'll be watching the bridge webcam at 5pm to see the ship approaching the Verrazano Bridge.
By the way, last month when we were on the QM2 we actually heard a surprise announcement from the Captain as we were finishing our dinner. He said that we may be surprised to see that we were going under the Verazzano Bridge again (we were all thinking WTF?
). It turned out that one of the passengers had had a medical emergency and they were returning to NY to get him off the ship. We hadn't even felt the ship turning around!We headed off back to the top deck with a camera and my spouse took some nice pics of the sun setting over Staten island.
We found out later that the ship didn't need to dock again; it had had to turn around a little way out to sea as it couldn't turn around in a busy shipping lane. The Captain told us that he didn't want to risk having a helicopter hovering above the ship to take a sick passenger off (as winching him up would have been a very unpleasant experience for him) and that the Port Authority of NY & NJ helped out by sending a boat out alongside the QM2 to receive the sick passenger.
The passenger had had a heart attack. He was British and transported to a hospital in New Jersey. I have no idea if he survived or not.
Last week on one of the Discovery TV channels here in the US my son had recorded a documentary about the Queen Mary; even before the QM2 had departed from New York a passenger had had a heart attack and they had to unload him; this put the ship's departure back by 2 hours and the tide was rising. The funnel of the Queen Mary is only just a few inches below the Verrazano Bridge and the Captain had to head dead centre of the bridge to avoid hitting it.
If you can, try and watch the webcam (via the link below) just a few minutes after 5pm (ET) in the US or 10pm (UK time) to see the ship as she leaves NY harbour and goes under the Verrazano!
http://www.cunard.com/Ships/Queen-Ma...ridge-Web-Cam/
There is a little more than a few inches clearance when the QM2 sails under the Verrazano Bridge....approx 13 ft. Still not a great distance in terms of the size of the ship.
Aug 6th 2012, 6:51 pm
#50
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
Aug 7th 2012, 1:19 am
#51
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
Aug 7th 2012, 1:46 am
#52
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
13 ft clearance is at high tide. They wouldn't risk a large cruise ship with thousands of people on board clearing a bridge with a few inches.
Last edited by Jerseygirl; Aug 7th 2012 at 2:31 am.
Aug 7th 2012, 10:59 am
#53
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
So, why aren't we hearing from the folks on the ship lately?
Aug 7th 2012, 11:26 am
#54
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
About Pudsey...did you know that Simon Cowell flew him over to the US in his private plane from the UK ?
http://www.justsimoncowell.com/news/4554830946/It's-A-Dogs-Life---BGT-Winner-Pudsey-Flies-To-America-on-Simon-Cowell's-Private-Jet/2867670
http://www.justsimoncowell.com/news/4554830946/It's-A-Dogs-Life---BGT-Winner-Pudsey-Flies-To-America-on-Simon-Cowell's-Private-Jet/2867670
Aug 7th 2012, 11:50 am
#55
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Aug 7th 2012, 12:28 pm
#56
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
If you watch this superb documentary (which was broadcast on US television for the first time last week and only just added to Youtube last Friday) it shows just how tight the clearance is for the funnel to go under the Verrazano Bridge at high tide. The ship was delayed due to a medical emergency.
Watch it from exactly 10 mins into the video; it goes under the bridge at 14 mins 44 secs and you can see how little clearance there is
(Can you imagine being the Captain and having to say to the CEO at Cunard/Carnival that you have miscalculated and bashed their 800 Million GB Pound ship into a bridge?!
)
Aug 10th 2012, 4:31 am
#57
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
Aug 10th 2012, 4:37 am
#58
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Aug 10th 2012, 4:57 am
#59
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Re: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Voyage, New York to Southampton
Good thinking! Where are you now?
