chase the light

It was a grey day down at the docks as the Queen Mary 2 rode out of the port to continue on its maiden voyage around the world. It stopped in Long Beach on Wednesday to pull up to the original Queen Mary to exchange greetings and whistle blows. It’s now off to Hawaii, Singapore and wherever else. She’s the world’s largest cruise ship at the moment. I guess that means there’s another one being built that is bigger. Thought I’d go hang out and watch it disappear into the fog. Which it did. It’s a pretty damn big boat. So big it can’t turn around in the channel, so when they arrived they turned it around out by the lighthouse and then backed it into the berth. Watch for the kayaker in the video. He’s in the first shot and looks like a little ant in the two lighthouse shots. I wish kayaks actually went that fast. And yes we have a suspension bridge in Los Angeles. I call it the Golden Green Bridge. I made that up, clever huh?

So how does she stack up against the 100 year old Titanic? Longer at 1,132 feet vs. 838 feet for Titanic. Weighing in at 151,000 gross tons vs. 25 tons. Height of 236 feet vs. 175 feet. 157,000 horsepower vs 30,000hp. 3,873 passengers and crew vs. 3,547. In an odd little mention on the Queen Mary 2 website… “Extra thick steel hull for strength and stability for Atlantic crossings”. Ya know, just in case something, oh I don’t know, might happen.