Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

October 2, 2015

Cruise Ship Balmoral

Every now and then, a really large ship will utilize the Canal.  Usually I only get to see the same barges and commercial/industrial type vessels.  There was one night I was taking Russell to his truck when we saw the top of a massive ship towering over the buildings along Main Street.  We were unable to get down there in time to see what it was....it would have been gone by the time we stopped at all the lights and signs and turned into the park.

Last week, I happened to see a post on the Bourne Facebook page that a 750' cruise ship would be making it's way through the Canal, from Sagamore down to my end, that evening.  Russell and I jumped in the car and headed down to wait.  What can I say?  Small town excitement.  

I shot this while we waited.  That's the moon on the left.  Not bad for hand held and being pitch dark but for the moon and bridge lights.

Moon reflection on the water.

We waited around 20 minutes and finally saw it slooooowly making it's way towards us.  Yes, that's a fisherman in the foreground....the stripers have been biting and night fishing is very popular here.

The Balmoral started its voyage from Southampton, England and had already visiting Nova Scotia, Boston and Salem.  It was on its way to Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, the down the east coast to the Caribbean before returned home to England.  It's a 35 day cruise.

We could see lots of people lined up on the balconies, waving to us and whooping, and we all waved back too.

Safe travels, Balmoral!

16 comments:

  1. Wow, that was exciting. If I were there, I'd have been out there with you guys, too. Great pics of the moon and the reflection on the water... :)

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    1. Thanks Dee!!!! Right now there are a group of us on the Bourne page obsessively monitoring another cruise ship. The pilot boat has just met it, even as I write this, and as soon as it enters the Canal, I'm headed down there!

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  2. Great pix JoJo. I would like to have been on board not just taking photos. 35 day cruise eh? Must have deep pockets, those passengers.

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    1. Thanks Jo! Yes, they must be wealthy. The ship that's about to enter the Canal is a luxury ship with condos you can buy. It's on a world tour. The ship's name is The World. It's pouring down rain but I'm headed down there to take pics in a little while.

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  3. How exciting! I can't wait to live by the ocean and see these kinds of things. Five more years!!

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    1. I got pics of another one today! It's really cool for sure. I want to see a car carrier next time.

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  4. It's me again. Just so you know, those animated gifs are just pictures I find online. I just copy and paste them onto a post. That's it... :)

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    1. I'll have to try it. There are so many cool gifs out there! I'm seeing them show up on Facebook now too.

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  5. Wow, I would love to be on this ship... Great pics.

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    1. Thanks! Wouldn't that be fun? Someday I'd like to do an Alaskan cruise but it seems like that norovirus runs rampany on cruise ships these days.

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  6. These photos are quite spectacular!! Well done. I really love the one with the fisherman silhouette in the foreground!

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    1. Thanks Amy! At first I was like, 'darn fisherman in my shot!' But now I kinda like it too.

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  7. WOW, that is amazing! Glad you managed to get pictures!

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    1. Thanks! It was just happenstance that the post popped up on my newsfeed that the ship had just entered the Canal in Sandwich. They slow way down and it takes up to 20-30 minutes to go the 7+ miles so we had plenty of time to drive down there.

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  8. Lovely! I'd love a cruise trip.

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    1. Me too! But not to the Caribbean or Mexico; I'm all about Alaska!

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