Monthly Archives: August 2015

What will we do with the drunken sailor?

Apparently the captain picked up rather a lot of Sangria in Barcelona; approaching Gibraltar and the impressively straight lines the ships been pulling have been replaced by distinctly wobbly ones.

I’ve heard back from the dealer telling me all’s on target; I replied with the photo of the Progress Ace departing Barcelona and said “I know” 🙂 Plans to complete the stalking of the Progress Ace call at Sheerness continue. I’ve had Google Maps out and though I won’t be able to get too close, the mouth of the Medway shouldn’t be too large to deal with…

Approaching Gibraltar

Departing Barcelona

During the night we docked in Barcelona. I found a live webcam overlooking the harbour area and with 99% confidence can say the blob on the horizon’s the Progress Ace. There simply weren’t any other ships in and out that could have been confused with it 🙂 Isn’t exactly the closest picture though…

Extrapolating back 10 minutes from the first signal reported after departure at 13:00, 10 minutes backwards would have put the ship about the black cross marked on the map. Hence…

No Sitges detour pls!

A couple of hours and she’ll be docked in Barcelona. Hope the crew doesn’t bunk off to Sitges for a day at the beach! 🙂

Updated ETA 2015-08-13 03:00 UTC

So the ETA’s been updated as I’d already anticipated… though it’s even later than I’d suggested but, however, it’s now in line for an early shift for the dock drivers so I guess the Captain’s just slowing down to save a bit of fuel as there’s no point rushing… Ho Hum.

No chance for 15:00

At this rate we’ll be getting in to Barcelona shortly before midnight, not the 15:00 planned. Still, at least they’re not as far behind as I’d first anticipated 🙂 I wonder if the dock-drivers will be around at midnight though to decant the cars due for Barcelona…

Passed Sicily

So today’s been a good day! Progress of the Progress Ace has continued apace, zipping along off the south coast of Sicily – not at full speed, only 14 odd knots but I guess that as it’s a busy thoroughfare.

However, that’s not the most interesting development today. Mitsui O.S.K. published the next itinerary for the Progress Ace and it looks very like my much anticipated precious cargo may not even disembark at Zeebrugge as a couple of days later, currently scheduled for the 23rd August from 13:06 through 21:06, the Progress should be docked at Sheerness. This was a turn up as, as I doubtless blogged earlier my research suggested that I’d be decanted in Zeebrugge and then having missed the likely connection on the 17th since Progress is a bit behind schedule the next UECC carrier crossing to Southampton wasn’t due until the 24th – leaving it very doubtful that the promised delivery on the 1st would be achievable. Instead arriving on UK soil on the 23rd puts the 1st back on the cards. Happy bunny here.

So on to the next stage of Mazda stalking preparation… how close to Sheerness Dock can I get and what’s the chances of a decent shot of the Progress Ace? 🙂

Enroute Barcelona, approaching Malta

Enroute Barcelona, passed Crete

Barcelona bound…

The nightmare delay that was the Suez canal fading into bad and slightly bitter memory; we’re steaming apace towards Barcelona now in earnest.