07 August 2010

Arcadia, 6 August 2010

Arcadia

IMO 9226906
Built 2005, Fincantieri Porto Maghera, Italy
Tonnage 82 972 GT
Length 285,30 m
Width 32,20 m
Draft 7,80 m
2 556 passengers
5 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 51 840 kW
2 azipods
3 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

Arcadia, P&O Cruises' sole Vista-class cruise ship, came to be with the company by something of an accident. She was originally slated to become Cunard Line's Queen Victoria, but after her construction had already proceeded quite far Cunard decided they wanted to make large-scale changes to the design of the ship, based on their experiences with the Queen Mary 2. The final result was that Cunard ordered a brand-new ship to become their Queen Victoria, and the ship originally laid down as the Queen Victoria was transferred instead to P&O Cruises, becoming their Arcadia.

Photographs below for the Arcadia departing Helsinki West Harbour on 6 August 2010, photographed from Vattuniemi. Click on the image(s) to view full size.

Arcadia with Hernesaari in the background and just one sailboat in the foreground.
As you can see, sailboats were quite plentiful this day, following the Arcadia all the way out to sea.
My co-conspirers were rather cross with the sailboats being in front of the ship all the time. I actually think they add a rather nice atmosphere and make the pictures more unique (while admittedly diminishing the photo's documentary value).
Heading out to sea, with most of the sailboats still following...

2 comments:

  1. Tero Söderholm08 August, 2010 01:53

    Nice shots, Kalle.
    I like those escorting sailboats around ! They make these photos,just like You say: more unic. And they give some "3D-perspective",too.
    Tero

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  2. Thank you, Tero. We are in complete agreeance on this. And as you say, the sailboats do give the photos a more 3-D perspective or better impression of depth, which is often missing from photos taken from Vattuniemi.

    Not to nitpic, but I believe the word is written "unique" rather than "unic". But I got your point so no reason to complain.

    Kalle

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