Adonia - and a pre-cruise maritime fix

23 August 2014 saw me driving down to my friend at Hythe as we were due to board Adonia the following day for an interesting 12 night cruise to the Iberian peninsular and Morocco. The highlight of this cruise was going to be sailing up the river Guadalquivir to Seville!

Since it was a Bank Holiday weekend I thought it better to go the day before and in any event - the Maritime Festival was on in Southampton.

I reached my friend's house around midday so after a snack we set off on the Hythe Ferry to Town Quay and walked round to the Ocean Terminal where the festival was being held. It was a lovely hot and sunny day and as we sailed over, the ferry paused mid-channel to let the RedJet ferry disembark at the exact moment a flypast came overhead of a Spitfire and another WW2 aircraft - perfect!

 

The events and exhibits were a bit mixed but it was good to see the work being down to restore some of the city's old trams and to be able to walk on board Shieldhall and the steam tug Challenge before a welcome ice-cream and a wander back to Town Quay to see Aurora and Independence of the Seas sail and the University ship Explorer move berth.

 

Afterwards we had a long wait for the ferry as it was full of football supporters! Then an early night ready for the morrow.