Pandemic Port Life - 30 July 2020

2020 was a year like no other in the life of the Port of Southampton and this picture reflects some of what that year meant as viewed from Mayflower Park.

It is unusual to see a Cunard ship on 101 but that's where Queen Victoria was today, taking a break from other south coast resting places. Alongside were the bunker vessel Whitonia and the Veolia waste disposal vessel Seagreen, both well known to habitués of the port. My pictures usually show one or the other with a cruise ship but rarely both. In the background is P&O Arcadia on 106, also taking a break from short distance cruising between Hampshire and Dorset.

A part of the background, starboard of Queen Victoria might go unremarked in photographs up until now but the slightly majestic Solent Mills is now undergoing demolition to be replaced by who knows what. There are, apparently, good reasons to demolish rather than preserve the building but it is sad to see it thus reduced.

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