QV Mediterranean Medley Cruise - Gibraltar 29 Apr 09

12th August 2009

Well, in ship terms this wasn’t the most productive cruise I’ve been on, but Gibraltar came up trumps as always. Despite the fact that I had seen most of the bunkering tanker fleet before, the port call still manage to produce 77 new ships, which by coincidence was exactly the same number of new sightings as it produced last time around. In addition to that the weather was excellent – not an accusation you could level at all of the other ports of call. As I had pretty much “done” the landside of Gibraltar on our last visit, I decided to stay on the ship this time. This was easy to sell to She Who Must be Obeyed as a strategy promoting a little bit of marital togetherness and quality time but, in fact, it meant that I could sit on the balcony all day, binoculars in one hand and camera in the other so both sides of the argument were satisfactorily addressed. This time around I’ve grouped the photos of individual ships together as far as possible, so the ships will appear in roughly the order in which they were first seen. The few exceptions are some that were seen as we were approaching Gibraltar in the morning but which didn’t actually turn up in the Straits or in the anchorage until a good deal later in the day. Wherever possible, I’ve listed any movement information that I could find from the web. The Gibraltar Port Authority site has been, as ever, an absolute mine of information. It’s a real gem of a site – far and away the most comprehensive I’ve ever seen in terms of movement information. On the other hand I was a bit disappointed to find that the Port of Algeciras site appears to have gone a major revamp. The port itself is now called Port of Algeciras Bay and the movement info section seems to have disappeared. If anyone has discovered it tucked away in some obscure corner of the site I’d be very much obliged if you could let me know where it’s gone.

QV Gibraltar	Global Hemera	Tow	Hull 127
Pantanassa	Messana	Michail Mimis	Pioner Karelii
Irene	USS Wasp	USS Wasp	Shen Nong Feng