Saturday 19th February 2005 saw the one and only visit of QE2 to another 'minor' WA coastal location, Exmouth. Exmouth is about 800 miles north of Perth and is the home to an US Communications base as well as a joint US/Aust solar Observatory.
Sadly on the day the swell was just too great to make operating a tender service too dangerous and the visit was cancelled, on arrival. However by this time the landing party had already gone ashore, together with the Tour Staff, who then had to break the sad news to the locals. These lovely people were just soo excited that QE2 was visiting their town, that the cancellation was a body blow. They had been baking like nobody's business to ensure that they had enough cakes etc to feed a ravenous ship of passengers, after all they might not have eaten for an hour of so by the time they'd got ashore!!
But the problems didn't end there, as Exmouth was scheduled to be the last Australian port and as such the port where all the final exit paperwork was to be completed - good planning there Cunard!! It was also the port where the Classical Trio were to depart QE2, not that they'd performed since QE2 had left Fremantle[Perth] 2 days before! The Classical Trio was made up of 2 violinists and a double bass, and were booked to fly back to Perth for onward flights back to UK. They were booked on a 'white knuckle' aircraft to take then south to Perth Int airport, unfortunately this plane wasn't big enough to take the double bass as well, more good planning there! The agent then came up with a solution, in that he arranged for a local truck driver to take the Bass back to Perth in his 'ute'. The double bass player was not impressed with this but had to accept it when, he was told that if he failed to make the flight he would be charged the full flight back to UK, and any extra costs incurred, he reluctantly agreed, 'kissed' his Double Bass goodbye and off it went by road to Perth. Before he left i asked the driver how long it would take him and his answer amuses me to this day. "If i drive straight there i can do it in 13 hours, including refueling, but if i have to stop for a 'zizz', then it'll take me 14 hours!"
So despite the passengers not being allowed ashore, we still disembarked, 3 classical musicians, and took onboard, for about 3 hours anyway, a group of Australian Officials.
But, being a 'switched on' type of Security Officer, i took advantage of the situation to make the purchase of several 'Exmouth WA' branded items so as to be able to donate them to the WC Auction later on in the voyage! The Polo Shirt made a staggering amount of money, but it was the ONLY one onboard, well apart from one i'd bought for myself that is!
As an small aside, in UK i actually live only about 20 miles from Exmouth Devon and have spent many an hour sampling it's delights in my previous life!!
