It was nice to see Ventura at sea as we headed towards Portsmouth. We’d most recently seen her on another steamship cruise down the Solent a month earlier, and she was a ship we were familiar with, having cruised on her to Belgium in 2017 and to the Canary Islands and Portugal in 2021.

As we neared Portsmouth we also had the pleasure of seeing the hovercraft head out in the opposite direction.

It was nice to see some people down on the Round Tower and around Gunwharf waving as we came back in past Old Portsmouth to the port.

And that concludes our trip aboard the world’s only ocean-going paddle steamship. It wasn’t quite the day we’d wanted but it was a nice day out nevertheless and we’re always happy when we’re on the water somewhere. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before Waverley has another season down here on the south coast, and when she does then we’ll try to get that circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight done again.

That was the plan, anyway.

We’d seen how many people were planning to board as we approached the island so made the sensible decision to get ourselves some lunch on board before the ship filled up. Our expectation was that we’d be eating as we set off again and then we could head outside to admire the views of the Isle of Wight from the deck alongside all the new passengers.

We finished our fish and chips, and the ship still hadn’t moved. We headed outside to find a lot of glum-looking faces. After a few more minutes there was an announcement. Waverley had developed a fault which they could fix but which would take too much time to complete the planned circumnavigation of the island. New boarding passengers were being issued refunds or the opportunity to sail again on a later sailing, and those of us with tickets from Portsmouth were being offered a partial refund equivalent to us having taken the cheaper Portsmouth to Yarmouth return trip instead. We thought it might be a bit churlish to accept that refund for a historic ship being run as well as she could be that had simply had an unforeseen issue so didn’t bother.

Meanwhile, Waverley was going to remain docked at Yarmouth and we were free to explore ashore for several hours if we wanted. And of course we did. However, we hadn’t been planning to do so originally so didn’t know what there would be to see.

As we disembarked Waverley we could see planes flying overhead spraying mind-control mist over the island. It’s the only way to keep the people there content with their lives. Luckily, we wouldn’t be ashore long enough to fall victim to its insidious ways. During our few hours in Yarmouth we would see plenty of other aircraft too, including an American B-52 bomber briefly, as there was an air show taking place in Bournemouth at that time.

To reach Yarmouth we had to walk down its pier. Yarmouth Pier originally dates to 1876, but being wooden and prone to woodworm it’s been restored and rebuilt many times since then.

We could see from the pier and from the maps on our phones that there was a castle very close by. In fact, from our maps it appeared to be the only thing to see in Yarmouth, but we had also spotted some pubs so knew we wouldn’t have too much trouble spending some time in the tiny town. To the castle first, then, and we passed a colourful mosaic mural on the way to it.

Yarmouth Castle is one of the Device Forts built under the orders of Henry VIII to protect the UK from potential attacks from Catholic countries encouraged to do so by the Pope, unhappy that Henry had broken from the church. Roughly square in shape and with an arrow-shaped bastion on its landward side – the first of these forts to be built that way – Yarmouth Castle was to protect the approach to the Solent from the west side of the Isle of Wight. It originally had a moat around it, but this has since been filled in and part of that land now forms what is now the adjoining George Hotel.

Yarmouth Castle is small but it’s definitely worth a look around. A lot of its interior layouts seem to reflect the earlier history of the fortifications, while on top it feels more as if you’re experiencing the Victorian occupation period. The castle was ready to be used in numerous conflicts right up until the Second World War although actual action was somewhat thin on the ground.

From the top of Yarmouth Castle there was a nice view down the pier and to Waverley docked at the end of it.

We decided to see if there was anything in Yarmouth that wasn’t appearing on the map. After a stroll up and down the streets, not really would be the answer there. We didn’t venture inside St James’ Church but if we had then we would have seen a statue of the seventeenth-century admiral Sir Robert Holmes. The face is his but the body is that of the French king Louis XIV. Holmes acquired the unfinished statue during a raid and forced the sculptor to complete it with his own likeness.

We had thought it would be fairly easy to get a drink as the town was small but there were a decent number of pubs. However, it was also very busy, partly because Waverley had arrived and all the people who should have been on her and sailing around the Isle of Wight were now in town. We eventually found space and some decent drinks in the Wheatsheaf.

There didn’t seem to be a lot of point in spending much more time in Yarmouth, so after a few photos from the small beach area on the eastern side of the pier we made our way back to the paddle steamer.

In the final part of this short series covering our day on Waverley I’ll show what we saw and got up to on the return trip across the Solent from the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth. And by that I mean I’ll just be posting some photos of the cruise back over the Solent because we didn’t do anything at all.

In this first part of this short series covering our day’s experience aboard Waverley I’ll show photos of the trip out from Portsmouth to Yarmouth. If you’re the sort of person looking for facts about Waverley then you can find those out, along with its history, on the ship’s website. As always, this is more a travelogue and less a review.

An important thing to note right away is where to board Paddle Steamer Waverley in Portsmouth. Stupidly, because we’ve lived here all our lives, we thought we knew where the ferries came and left, and this turned out to be very, very wrong. It also doesn’t help that there are two Isle of Wight ferry departure points in Portsmouth depending on whether you want to go to Fishbourne or Ryde and the signs around the Gunwharf area and Portsmouth and Southsea train station where we were directed to find the ferry are ambiguous at best.

Great story, Mark. Now are you going to tell me where to find Waverley in Portsmouth?

Yes, I do apologise. Go into Portsmouth and Southsea train station and walk to the far end of the platform – the bit towards the water – and you’ll see signs in there. It’s effectively part of the train station, accessible from inside it, but not outside it (except by water, of course). If, like us, you see signs outside the station for the Isle of Wight ferry then don’t follow them to the Wightlink Ferry Terminal like we did or you’ll suddenly be speed-walking your way back when you realise how wrong you are. If you’re looking on Google Maps then find the ferry route that is marked Portsmouth to Ryde, and that’s where you need to be, even though you’re not going to Ryde at all. Hopefully, that’s all clear. Never say I’m not helpful.

So, eventually at the terminal, huge number of people waiting, but we were soon aboard and we weren’t long in leaving and a chance to see the familiar sights of the Portsmouth skyline from the water. The Spinnaker Tower, Gunwharf, HMS Warrior, the buildings along the front at Spice Island and Old Portsmouth, the Round Tower, and the Hot Walls.

We didn’t have quite the same weather or class of vessel or size of waving or just interested crowds when departing Portsmouth as we’d had when we’d cruised out of this stretch of the harbour a year earlier on Scarlet Lady, but it’s interesting to compare the photos here and from that post. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, and I’ll make no apologies for local bias, but Portsmouth is one of the best cities in the world to sail in or out of if you like history and just general interest. More cruise companies should use Portsmouth as their start and end point, and hopefully they will now that the new cruise terminal is being built at the port; it would be absolutely fantastic to see a company like P&O Cruises, for instance, run a few itineraries from Portsmouth for their smaller vessels (Aurora and Arcadia).

Away from Portsmouth and onto the Solent, and we stayed outside long enough on the deck to enjoy the mild excitement of the pilot getting offloaded from Waverley back onto his boat. If you’ve never cruised and never seen a pilot boat coming alongside for the pilot to embark or disembark then it’s an interesting spectacle, and if you have cruised before and seen this before then it’s still interesting because everything’s interesting on the water. You can just tell that everyone peering over the side as the boat edged closer and closer to Waverley had seen this all before and they’d see it all again.

A bonus experience of our cruise aboard Paddle Steamer Waverley out of Portsmouth when we did it was that we got to pass close by the aircraft carrier, HMS Prince Of Wales. Completed after Britain had handed the national racists a gun to shoot itself in the foot, her subsequent disappointing service and broken-down condition symbolised all that is wrong with Brexit and is the reason why we lovingly referred to her as HMS Metaphor. First-time readers of this site might be thinking “Woah! There was no need for a political jibe there!” and regular readers will be thinking “Ah, good, I can now check off the Politics square on my Mark’s Travel Post bingo card.” My site, my rules.

We headed inside Waverley at this point. There’s only so long we can go without a drink at sea, after all. We stopped briefly for a look at the engine room as one of the benefits of boarding these small steamships is you’re granted far more access than you would on a modern cruise ship. However, with a day circling around the Isle of Wight to come (spoiler: we thought) we decided that we’d give it more of a nose later on, and made our way to one of the lounges to see what the bar had to offer. With Waverley being Scottish-based we had to see what the Caledonia Best was like, and it was impossible not to liken the lounge to a Scottish pub; the upholstery and bar were ridiculously similar to an inn we’d stayed at in Scotland years ago.

And that’s how we enjoyed the rest of this pleasant cruise across the Solent on Waverley towards the Isle of Wight: a drink in the lounge, then a wander outside to see the views, then back inside, and repeat.

I’ll finish this first part of our Paddle Steamer Waverley cruise experience as the ship pulled up at the pier at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. We were amazed by the queue of people waiting to get on the ship and hoped that enough already aboard were going to be spending the day ashore to not leave it feeling rammed.

In the next post in this series I’ll take us on our cruise around the Isle of Wight… unless something unexpected happens that causes that not to take place. Sadly for all those people on the pier at Yarmouth, that’s exactly what occurs.

So, brace yourself. This is mostly going to be photos containing even less information than accompanies the outward part of this Solent cruise. As I mentioned in that write-up, if you want facts and figures about the ship then there are plenty of better, more-detailed sources on the web, and you can always hit the Steamship Shieldhall website itself, especially since you’re going to be interested in booking a short trip on this historic vessel for yourself. Yes, you are.

The story so far…

We had boarded Shieldhall in Southampton and had sailed down the Solent passing a number of cruise ships berthed at the city’s docks.

And now the thrilling conclusion…

We headed back.

The first thing we saw was that Sky Princess had departed Southampton and was on her way out to sea. An announcement was made that Shieldhall would start sounding her steam whistle with the intention that Sky Princess would signal back, potentially using her Love Boat theme horn. Well, the intention was nice, the steam whistle was broadly terrifying, and Sky Princess roundly ignored us. Now, as it happened, I knew who was captaining Sky Princess since we’d cruised on Sky Princess a few times by this point, so I tweeted to Heikki Laakkonen, expressing my disappointment. He tweeted back almost immediately telling me that I should have told the captain of Shieldhall to speed up and get closer. Okay, so not great that this Princess Cruises ship didn’t sound her horn, but top marks to the captain replying quickly and explaining why. How can you not like that?

A little further along the stretch of water towards Southampton we spotted the P&O Cruises ship Ventura heading out. This time we were a lot closer and this time there was a proper back-and-forth battle of the ship’s horns and whistles that you can hear in the video below (temporarily removed). You’ll also get a good look at what it’s like to cruise past a medium-sized cruise ship from the water.

Both P&O’s Iona (and our views on Iona are well-known) and Norwegian’s Prima (pretty, but pricy!) were both still alongside as we brought our cruise on Steamship Shieldhall to a close.

After disembarking I found myself attracted to shots of razor wire and concrete. This doubtlessly confused some of the other steamship passengers, although if any of them had seen how many pints I’d had on board they might have concluded – wrongly – that I was simply drunk. I mean, I was tipsy, sure, but I do love the industrial look, and when it comes to ports, Southampton’s got its fair share of grit and grime and rust.

A couple of final points about the post-cruise period, one of which might be of actual use. I know! Helpful information in this post!? Surely not! Well, if you look on a map at the area where people park and you have to walk down to where Shieldhall is berthed in Southampton, you might spot a small bridge crossing over the train tracks and joining with Milbrook Point Road. And you might think to yourself “Well, this is handy, because after we get off the steamship we can head that way (since we’re not driving) and get to a pub in fairly short order, rather than traipsing all through the port area once again.” If you do think this to yourself then congratulations or my deepest sympathy for thinking in the same way as us. However, you can’t do this as we discovered. The bridge is (or at least, was) fenced off. You may want to factor that into your reckoning if you wisely choose to leave the car behind so you can spend some money at the bar on board.

The second point is related to the first, in that having discovered we couldn’t take the route we’d planned, we did the only remaining thing (well, other than call for a taxi, but we couldn’t be bothered) and started walking. We got as far as the roundabout between Western Avenue and West Bay Road before a car pulled up and one of the volunteers from the ship, recognising us as having been aboard, then gave us a lift to the dock gates. What a bloody star!

So that’s the cruise on Shieldhall to see the cruise ships in Southampton covered. Would we do it again? Hell, yes! In fact, almost certainly, and quite likely fairly frequently. If you get good weather then it’s great on deck, lovely views to be had, and just plain interesting. Even if you stay inside, you’ve got the engine room to see and food and drinks to be enjoyed. We had a great time on Shieldhall.

We booked a hotel for the night and headed down one Saturday in order to try one of their sailings titled “Steam to the Solent cruise and see the cruise ships depart.” The NCP car park serves us well when we travel to Southampton and it was a lovely day for a walk to the port. But check the distance if you’re thinking of doing the same thing because some people aren’t as agile and fit as us. Wait a minute. Most people are more agile and fit than us. Okay, well, still check the distance. It’s a bit of a walk and it’s not the most attractive of scenery on the way, although you will see some of the cruise ships you’re about to see from the water, only from land. Wow! What a treat!

Boarding was a painless affair. A quick check of the tickets we’d purchased, then up the gangway. There were lots of spaces to sit down on deck but quite a few already taken. However, we found the all-important beverage-dispensing location, purchased some fabulous beers, and found a shady spot to wait for the sail away.

Let’s quickly talk about one of Southampton port’s landmarks. It’s not something you’ll see from every cruise that departs Southampton, but if you’re lucky enough to be berthed at the western end of the port, or your ship is required to turn around in that area, or if you book a cruise on Shieldhall which happens to be near that area too, then you just might be treated to the sight of Southampton’s Great Big Pile of Rubbish.

What a sight that is. Nothing says Southampton quite like it. Rusting metal and discarded crap piled high. And interestingly, not too far from where all the now common-as-muck Tesla cars are stored just behind it. When you think of Tesla, do you think of a pile of crap? You probably do if you remember that Elon Musk is connected to it, and it’s hard not to combine all those elements in your mind when you’re at this part of Southampton.

Hey! I didn’t come here to read about your views on Billionaire Incel Boy! Get on with the write-up about Shieldhall, you!

Fine. I’m not going to cover much of the steamship here because there will be far better sources online for that. You want the history and power output and how much Shieldhall weighs, and things like that? My friend, you want Wikipedia’s entry on SS Shieldhall, not this rambling stream of consciousness around a load of photographs taken on a cruise down the Solent. What were you thinking, coming here like that? Here’s the place you visit on the internet to see pictures of cruise ships that happened to be in Southampton port on a Saturday in August, 2022, as seen from a steamship chugging past them on the water. Somebody, somewhere, somewhen in the future may need this information. That’s what I’m here for.

The first cruise ship we passed on Shieldhall was one of P&O‘s two Grand-class ships, Ventura. It’s no secret to our stalkers that we are immensely fond of the Grand-class design and general size, and we’ve cruised on Ventura a few times now. This website has a menu and from it there’s a Cruises section, and from that there’s a P&O Cruises sections, and from that there’s a Ventura section. And guess what!? From that you can see the cruises we’ve taken on Ventura. We like Ventura.

Shieldhall next passed a very different cruise ship. This was the Norwegian Cruise Line ship, Prima. We’ve never cruised with NCL before, and in fact, nobody had cruised on Prima before as we sailed past because she was just entering service with a shakedown trip. We’ve read that some people don’t like the artwork. We liked the artwork. We’ve read that some people don’t like that shape of the bow. We liked that too. We’ve read that some people didn’t like the idea of people sliding past their balconies. Now, admittedly, we wouldn’t want to be in those balconies because we like cruise ships for the sea views, not the tubes filled with wet, screaming kids and adults. But that’s just us. However, overall, we thought Prima looked really interesting. And then we checked the prices to cruise on her and thought yeah, no thanks.

The third of the four cruise ships docked in Southampton on that day came swiftly upon us. This was another P&O ship, but this was Iona. Oh dear. We’ve cruised on Iona. You can read about it here: Cruise: Iona Seacation. You know how much I said we liked Ventura up above? Well, turn that upside down and that’s our feelings about Iona. Not good. Not good for us, anyway. It was just the one cruise, and we’re not averse to giving ships or lines or ports or countries second chances, but they’ve got to be good deals with enough else to distract and impress in case the thing we’re offering a chance of redemption to fails to grab hold of the opportunity. That’s more-or-less my way of saying you’d almost have to pay us to cruise on Iona again. Almost. Not a fan of the design, and especially not the way the wrap-around promenade now stuffs up night viewing and sea views from lower balconies. Not happy to see all the Carnival ships going the same route either. Oh well. There’s a ship for everyone, and this particular design of ship is for the tasteless masses. If you’re part of the tasteless masses then you might enjoy Iona.

The final ship we cruised past as Shieldhall continued on her merry way down the sunny Solent was Princess Cruises‘ Sky Princess.

Princess Cruises is the line that suits us the best (for now). Our first cruise was with Princess, the most cruises we’ve taken have been with Princess, and they tread that line between being not the best for families and not the best for the elderly that works perfectly for us, the child-free, middle-aged couple you’re beginning to realise you can’t stand.

At the time of writing this (March 2023) we’ve also cruised on Sky Princess herself three times, although only the first cruise is currently written up and the second one is in progress. There are things we like about Sky Princess and things we don’t, and three cruises on the same ship in just over a year was, with the benefit of hindsight, too many. We felt a little bit done with her by the end, even though in each case it was a combination of destinations and value for money that had us booking cruises in the first place. Certainly, if you’ve not cruised before then Sky Princess would be a great first cruise ship to choose if you’re anything like us. But, fortunately, very few people are like us so, whatever you do, ask questions and seek way more details as well as explaining your own tastes and likes and age and family situation before doing something stupid like booking a cruise based off some recommendation online. The internet is full of terrible, terrible information.

For the remainder of this first part of the write-up about our cruise down the Solent on Steamship Shieldhall I’m going to let the photos do the talking. These are mostly of the views from the ship back to Southampton, across to the Isle of Wight, and even towards our home in Portsmouth in the distance, but a few snaps from when we took a look at the engine room area are included too. Yes, if you take a trip on a steamship like Shieldhall then you can go and take a look at the engines if you’re so inclined. They don’t let you do that on modern cruise ships, so something for the engineers out there. Again, you can find better pictures and videos of the ship herself elsewhere online; this is about the experience you can expect if you sail past the cruise ships instead.

In the concluding part of our Shieldhall cruise I’ll cover the return to Southampton, so you can expect many of the same photos but taken at a slightly later time of the day when I’d had many more beers aboard. That’s the sort of quality content you don’t find elsewhere on the web. You’ll also see a couple of the ships we’d already passed, now sailing out of the Solent themselves, and get to hear the battle of the noisy sea buggers as one ship’s horn takes on Shieldhall’s terrifying steam whistle.