Last updated 11:22, Monday, 17 November 2008

THE QE2’s final voyage last week made headlines after it turned into one of those great British cock-ups which newspapers revel in.

Off to Dubai: And it won’t be going via Cumbria’s coast

Reiver is above that sort of thing, of course, but I can report that a Cumbrian who was on board had an eerie premonition about this mishap.

The 70,000-ton vessel’s last cruise before it sails to Dubai for a new life as a floating hotel ended when it ran aground on a sandbank off Southampton. She had to be towed free by a flotilla of tugs in a less than dignified manner.

The passengers included Roland Stanwix – known to his friends as Dinky – of Stanwix Park Holiday Centre at Silloth.

Dinky has enjoyed many cruises on the QE2 and has become friends with the captain, a chap from Sunderland.

They were chatting on the vessel’s final cruise when the captain mentioned that he’d heard great things about Solway sunsets and he was tempted to visit the area next time he was back in the north.

“Good idea,” said Dinky. “But don’t come on the QE2,” he joked. “You’ll never get her through the sandbanks.”

The rest is history. And any idea the captain may have had about paying his Cumbrian friend a surprise visit on the QE2 is surely now stuck in the sand.