The Queen Elizabeth II is headed for Cape Town, South Africa. This just in from BBC News:

Cunard sold the Southampton-based liner for £50m to the United Arab Emirates real estate developer Nakheel.

It had planned to refurbish the ship and open it as a floating hotel in Dubai but that has been put on hold.

The QE2 will now go to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town, where there is a shortage of hotel rooms.

According to the report, the QE2 is planning on staying in Cape Town for 18 months set to coincide with the June 2010 Fifa World Cup and the trip will delay refurbishment of the famed ocean liner.  Reasoning behind this decision , “QE2 is simply a victim of the recession.”

The ship is expected to be moved to South Africa under its own power, but the sale contract with Cunard meant it could not carry passengers as a cruise ship.

READ MORE at BBC

Above image via Calshot observer on flickr

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Maritime Journal Online writes of the QE2 entering port early Tuesday morning:

On its way into its home port at Southampton the ship ran hard aground on a sandbank at Calshot at the top of the Southampton Water approach. Most passengers were asleep at the time and no one was injured. Five tugs, one from Solent Tugs and four from Svitzer, which were all waiting for the QE2’s arrival at Southampton, came rushing to the rescue.

The QE2 was quickly freed by the tugs on the rising tide although, once started on its backwards path, it had a narrow miss with the Hill Head side of the approach. The liner made it safely into Southampton harbour just 25 minutes later than scheduled to be greeted by the Duke of Edinburgh, who led the farewell ceremonies. As divers checked the hull to see if any damage had been sustained, a Tiger Moth dropped a million poppies on the ship to mark the 90th anniversary of the World War 1 Armistice. Passengers who had paid up to £28,000 to be on QE2’s final voyage watched as a single RAF Harrier jet hovered over the vessel and dipped its nose in tribute. Two surveyors from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency fully inspected the ship and, together with the diver’s evidence, concluded it was not damaged and thus safe to undertake its final voyage. [Continue Reading →]

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Photo by AurelioZen

NewYorkology tells us of the first / last ever meeting of its three grand ships;

Cunard’s one-time-only royal rendezvous of its three queens — the QE2, QM2 and recently christened Queen Victoria — will be celebrated at 7 p.m. on January 13 with a harbor fireworks show as the three grand cruise liners meet near the Statue of Liberty.

The QE2 and Queen Victoria will arrive in tandem (likely pre-sunrise) from Southampton, England. During the day, the QE2 will be docked at Manhattan’s Pier 92 and the Queen Victoria nearby at Pier 88. The Queen Mary 2 will arrive separately (also early morning,) and dock in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

All three have bridge cams (Queen Victoria, QM2 and QE2) and Cruise Critic Ben Lyons is blogging the voyage.

UPDATE:

Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press

The New York Times has reported on the festivities. They write:

In the annals of maritime history, the Queens’ sailing was momentous. It was the first time in the 168-year history of the Cunard Line, the owner of the liners, that it had three ships named after British queens in the same port at the same time. The company arranged the ships’ schedules so that they departed from New York City ports simultaneously.

The Queens’ meeting, witnessed by thousands on shore and on board, will also be their last, company officials said.

“They are not programmed to meet in any other port,” Cunard’s president, Carol Marlow, said during an afternoon news conference at Pier 88 in Manhattan, with the docked Queen Victoria visible in background. “This is a spine-tingling time.”

The Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard’s longest-serving ship, left Manhattan for its 26th and final around-the-world journey — a farewell tour that will usher in its retirement in November, when the liner will become a floating hotel in Dubai. The Queen Victoria, which came into service last month, embarked on its maiden world cruise. And the Queen Mary 2, the largest trans-Atlantic liner ever built, weighing about 151,400 gross tons, sailed to the Caribbean from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

Click HERE to continue reading.

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• Q.E. 2 Makes Her Final Visit to New York
• Name The World’s Largest Cruise Ship
• Notable Captains: Paul Wright, Master Of Cunard’s Queen Victoria
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• Despite Valiant Efforts, QE2 Sets Sail For Dubai