The text in Yellow is from the Official "Log Of the Cruise". My personal comments are in red under the "Official" comments. If you want to see a larger view of any picture, just click on the picture shown here.
37° 48.553' North, 122° 24.355' West, Pier 35
Once all pre-departure checks had been completed and the Captain had made his departure broadcast, Regal Princess slipped her moorings to commence the first leg of Cruise G210A. Once clear of our berth headway was made passing south of Alcatraz Island commonly known as 'The Rock' and by 5:30 P.M. we had exited San Francisco Bay, passing under the Golden Gate Bridge with San Francisco on our port side and Marin Peninsula to our starboard. We then navigated our way through the Traffic Separation Schemes to our pilot disembarkation area, with the effects of adverse weather conditions and the concentration of traffic the pilot disembarked Regal Princess at the slightly later than planned time of 6:50 P.M. Once the pilot launch was clear a northwesterly heading was set.
We arrived at the pier at 12:10 P.M., in time to begin boarding. Long lines. Had to walk all the way to the back of the pier to check in, as there were all the buses up front unloading cruise passengers. Long walk back to the boarding area. Caryl almost tripped going over the lower gangway, because of the high step. This is for the HANDICAPPED passengers. Anyway, we got on board, and found our cabin. Large window.
This is the Regal Princess (Princess Lines stock photo).
Regal
Princess from the city side of Pier 35.
Standard
boarding picture, just after one had to undress for the metal detector!
Alcatraz
Island, with our escorting Coast Guard ship.
Alcatraz,
SF Harbor, and a Ferry boat.
SF
Dock, the WWII Liberty ship and Golden Gate in the background.
Looking
Aft, Toward the Funnel.
Looking
Forward, Toward the Bridge.
SF
Skyline from the Regal Princess.
We
are departing the dock. Notice the fireboat salutes behind us.
Looking
up at the Golden Gate Bridge from the water.
Won't
be seeing you for 11 day!
The sea was very rough outside the SF Harbor.
At dinner, we could look out the stern windows (I know, some of you old salts will be correcting me, saying they are portholes. Portholes are not 10 feet high by 5 feet wide!). The sea was running about 14 to 22 feet from what the table captain told me. The ship hit a wave, and seemed to stop! The coffee cups, saucers, and milk pitchers came out of the cabinet behind me, and we heard a lot more stuff hitting the floor from all over the room!
We
got shanghaied by the Pirates!
© by Keith L. Smyth, 2002