Exmouth, Western Australia, Saturday 19th February 2005.
As part of the 2005 World Cruise QE2 was scheduled to spend the day - Saturday 19th February 2005 - in a small port in Western Australia called Exmouth. Coincidentally i live only about 20 miles from it's 'namesake' Exmouth in Devon UK.
This would have been QE2's first call into Exmouth and also it's final Australian port on this World Cruise. From WA QE2 was heading for Bali.
The weather forecast for the day wasn't good but on anchoring it was decided that it was just below the limit to run the tenders and as such, i was dispatched on the 1st tender, together with the Shore Excursions staff, to go ashore to greet the officials and set up the shore party in preparation for the passengers to be transported ashore.
As soon as we got the 1st tender in the water it became obvious that this was going to be a difficult day! We proceeded into port and discovered just how difficult it actually was in reality!
As this was going to be our last call into Australia it was deemed an 'exit port' and as such, no 'Exit' paperwork could be completed until arrival here! Once alongside i spoke to the agent and Harbour master and both held out very little prospect of being able to safely run a full day's tender schedule and the resulting passenger tours and time ashore. This was so sad as the majority of the locals had spent many hours in the run up to our call preparing cakes etc for sale to the passengers as well as stocking up on local souvenirs. They were soooo excited!
The Agent, Harbour Master and Australian Officials returned to the ship to speak with the Captain and eventually the decision was taken to abort the call.
However this wasn't quite as simple as at first it seemed. We had a classical trio onboard who were due to leave in Exmouth - whoever thought that to be a good idea? - fly back to Perth and from there return to UK.
So, once the decision was made, a tender, with the agent, brought the Trio ashore together with their instruments, a Violin, a viola and a double bass! The agent then had a rearrange the transport to take the Trio to the local airport, not difficult but it was not without it's pitfalls! Nobody in Cunard Entertainment Department in Princess HQ in Santa Clarita Ca had thought about taking a Double Bass onto the type of aircraft that flew this route down to Perth! After frantic phone calls to QANTAS the agent came back with the bad news that the Double Bass was too big to fit on the aircraft and would have to go by road. Cue one very distressed and annoyed Double Bass player! The agent made another couple of phone calls and booked a 'Ute' to drive the Double Bass the 775 miles - 13 hours! - to Perth airport. The driver was a typical Aussie out-backer, when i asked him how long it would take him he answered; "If i drive non stop and only have breaks to refuel and pee, eating on the road i'll do it in 12 hours - as long as the police don't catch me!"
Initially the Double Bass player was reluctant to be parted from his Double Bass but the agent told him that he would be liable for his air fare to UK if he missed the flight that evening and that the Double Bass would be safe - which i understand it was!
So once the abort decision was taken and announced the Tour Manager then, much to his credit, walked the length of Exmouth and personally apologised to all the locals concerned for the inconvenience caused by the decision to cancel.
He did come back to the jetty with a local Aussie delicacy, meat pies, plus a few cakes that he'd bought and truly delicious they were as well! He also managed to make the purchase of a few locally branded items, including a couple of ' Exmouth WA' Polo shirts. One of which i still have to this day and the other became one of the Security Department's donations to the World Cruise Charity auction. I think that, due to it being a 'one off' it raised a healthy amount as well.
Finally, some time around lunchtime we were finished, the officials return to shore, the shore party returned to QE2, the tenders were 'safely stowed for sea', the anchor recovered and QE2 set sail for Bali with the passengers wondering just what they had sadly missed.
