A late evening flight out of Liverpool to Pisa on Thursday the 11 May in the company of Bruce Peter formed the start of an extended weekend in Italy, ending in France on the Sunday. Landing at Pisa airport we flew directly over Livorno where one of the large new Moby ships was in along with the Moby Vincent in her new livery berthed as ever just forward of her rival sister Corsica Marina Seconda. Also just about visible could be seen the Moby Love, presumably in winter lay up: in any event, there can be few better starts to a weekend away than an eyeful of Sealink as the first glimpse of your destination country.
Pisa airport is but a short amble to the town centre and our residence for the night, the Hotel La Pace. Barely had we wandered through the revolving door and Bruce was reaching for the camera and comparing the lobby’s décor with that of the Michelangelo. The third member of our party, Richard Seville, finally emerged rather later after Brucey and I had enjoyed a superb town-centre dinner. Delayed by firstly the M25 and then by Ryanair, his journey had been a stressful one which conveniently went to back up one of Bruce’s provocative theories (or wind-ups, depending how seriously you take him) that life in the north is generally much more enjoyable than in the south: our journey had in contrast been a genial and stress-free experience, although I did find myself slightly behind schedule enroute to picking up Bruce from Wigan station after detouring through Leigh only to find that Leythers have such modern inconveniences as rush hours now. And then there was a bit of a do as we expressed conflicting opinion on the wide selection of flapjacks available in one of the airport shops.
The following morning we boarded an early train up coast to Genoa, a 30 second stumble out of the hotel followed by a three hour coastal journey in – delight of delights – an old-style compartment carriage. Our target was the Scotia Prince and we had that ever-pleasant wander down from the railway station into the vast bowl-shaped port. Heading past the cruise terminal where the Sapphire was berthed, a selection of the usual Genoese suspects could be seen on the main ferry berths: Tirrenia’s Janas and Athara together with GNV’s Excellent. Amongst these slab-siders we could see no sign of our little ship’s flying saucer funnel – having checked the day before, she had been docked in one of the main operational berths but now she was nowhere to be seen. Eventually she was espied in the shipyards on the other side of the harbour, a taxi ride away but at least she was still in town. A quick check into the terminal showed the departures board telling us what we fortunately already knew: our booked sailing to Tangier was cancelled due to her engine problems of a couple of weeks ago. The COMANAV ticket desk explained that they were unsure if the subsequent week’s crossing would go ahead but in any event it didn’t seem likely things would really get back into full gear until the return of the Ouzoud which once again has been chartered from El Salam for this Summer.
Our taxi driver deposited us outside the shipyards at the Eastern end of the harbour and we wandered in – with a series of distinguished and notable ferries alongside it was clear that we were in peak refit season. The Marrakech, Sardinia Regina and Moby Drea were in drydock, whilst alongside in a line were SNCM’s Ile De Beaute and her ex-fleetmate Mistral Express (ex-Esterel). Tucked away in her usual corner was the little Tadla with the laid-up Tirrenia flyer Taurus nearby. Further back could be found the Moby Fantasy, Tirrenia’s Calabria, GNV’s Fantastic and the Isole delle Stelle of Lloyd Sardegna. |
