Sea Princess (II), Boudicca & Aurora
Quite a change of schedule on the 12th May 2007.  Originally Sea Princess was due in for 6.30am with departure 5pm then subsequently changed to 4.45pm.  However, the day before while the sailing remained the same, the arrival had now been put back to 11am.  There was no way realistically she could turnaround in under six hours.  So despite the sunshine and showers forecast with wind we decided to brave the marina.  We arrived just as Sea Princess was coming past Calshot while Aurora was in the usual 106 with Boudicca unusually in 38/9 AND portside rather than starboard and Sea Princess heading for 101.  We knew from the VTS radar she already had the Lady Madeleine tug attached since Nab when they picked up the pilot.  It was fairly breezy but tolerable.  Soon after Sea Princess passed Fawley refinery around 10am something very strange happened - she started to drift off course portside while still making her way towards the docks forward.
By 10.10am she was starting to right herself and get back on course.
The Red Funnel ferries, normally so close to the ships coming in or out, were surprisingly quite far away so we guessed something was up.  More so when after the drifting incident, the tug Lyndhurst appeared and waited the other side of the pier for her.
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			(C) Copyright Patricia Dempsey 12th May 2007 Not to be reproduced without permission