RCC ANTWERP has just 460 nm left to run to the Panama Canal.
At midday Z her position was N8.7 W85.4 which is about 50nm off the coast of Costa Rica.
She continues to maintain 16 kts and is on schedule to arrive at the Panama Canal anchorage tomorrow evening.
I'll post a bit on the Panama Canal tomorrow.
I still expect her to arrive in Zeebrugge around 11 Nov and Southampton a couple of days after that. We will be able to firm up those dates once she has completed her Canal transit.
The weather is looking fine both for her transit and her Caribbean crossing. She won’t be affected by Hurricane Zeta.
Just a reminder that the RCC ANTWERP competition will close when the ship enters the Panama Canal - so don’t delay,
enter now!
TRITON ACE continues to load at Pier 80. At the moment she is due to depart Pier 80 in the small hours of Friday morning however this may be brought forward to tomorrow night to allow GRAND AURORA to dock. (This is still being negotiated) She will be heading for Zeebrugge. I have her pencilled in to arrive in Zeebrugge around 20 Nov.
GRAND AURORA will arrive in Benicia tonight and then the plan is to move alongside Pier 80 tomorrow night once it becomes available. She may have to anchor in the Bay for the night if TRITON ACE doesn’t vacate the dock for her. I don’t think GRAND AURORA will be coming to Europe.
TOSCANA has now passed Taiwan and has entered the South China Sea and once again I am not receiving a position via satellite from her. This is a shame since her last terrestrial position report showed that she had slowed from a steady 16 kts to 13 kts. I’m a little surprised at that because there is a potential Typhoon to be avoided and if she had kept her speed up, or even actually sped up a bit, I reckon she would have been well clear but now it seems she may have committed to pass behind it. The storm in question is at the moment called Tropical Depression Twentytwo however by the time it crosses the Philippines and enters the South China Sea it will have developed into a Cat 1 typhoon. Anyway, we’ll see how the storm develops over the next 24hrs and in particular it’s rate of advance - there is still the hope that TOSCANA can cross its path and get on the less dangerous south side. Shame about not knowing exactly where she is though ….
UPDATE. GRAND AURORA IS COMING TO EUROPE.