MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Queen Mary 2 Madness

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Who would have thought that the historic visit of the Queen Mary 2 to Port Elizabeth would have garnered such interest?

Who would have thought that the visit would also be a money spinner for the many restaurants, pubs and shops with a view of the harbour?

Writing about the impending visit of the Queen Mary 2 I made the suggestion to ABYC Members as well as readers of MyPE that the deck at the Algoa Bay Yacht Club would be an ideal viewing point for a couple of sundowners to wish the Queen Mary 2 bon voyage en route to Cape Town. For the ABYC, Monday is a pretty dead day as the Chartroom Restaurant is closed and only die hard members pop in for a bit of a chat and a Fanta Brown or two. In fact the pub has been working on reduced hours these past couple of weeks.

Colour me impressed and thankful to all those who heeded the call to join us, retweeted and liked my suggestion of a sundowner at ABYC. That the yacht club was caught unguarded is an understatement as members and the public thronged the pub and deck upstairs and others started a braai fire (on which they braaied crayfish later – lucky bastards!) whilst we waited for the enormous Queen Mary 2 to leave her moorings.

Like the stately ladies after which she is known she quietly and unassumingly slipped her moorings and was escorted out of the harbour by Portnet tugs, her massive engines and bow thrusters doing most of the work whilst the tugs stood by in case they were needed. Enthralled onlookers chewed up bandwidth and memory as they eagerly recorded the historic event.

See an image of the crowded ABYC Deck here: Thanks for visit Queen Mary – isn’t it amazing what a little bit of well timed marketing can do?

See also: Watchit.

Click here to share your image/s of the Queen Mary 2’s visit to Port Elizabeth.

Queen Mary 2 Stern
The Queen Mary 2 was visible for kilometres
Queen Mary 2 South End
Queen Mary 2 image taken from the robots in front of the South End Museum

Images from the Twitterverse:


https://twitter.com/PeterGii/status/321238773767753729

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. so all the more reason for our waterfront development to go ahead… we need more interesting ships bringing liveliness to our city..we WILL support it