RCC ANTWERP arrived in Southampton Eastern Docks early this morning. She needed to load for her next trip which will be to Singapore & China via Bremerhaven. The trouble is her Tesla cargo was required in the Western Docks. She has now moved across to the Western docks and by now unloading will have commenced. The problem with this sort of operation is maintaining the ship’s trim especially for her next voyage to Bremerhaven. Last month when she was loaded at Pier 80 the cars for Southampton will have been loaded assuming that they would be the last to be unloaded. The plan for loading in Eastern docks would have assumed that the ship was empty. So a new plan will have had to be created probably involving lots of ballast. This is precisely the sort of situation that can lead to a HOEGH OSAKA incident if the crew are not vigilant. The good news is that I don’t think much will have been loaded this morning.
TRITON ACE continues to progress across the Atlantic at 17.8kts 900nm E of Bermuda
At midday she was N32.7 W46.5. This shows her about 150nm east of the normal route in an attempt to avoid the worst of the Atlantic weather tomorrow.
She will arrive in Zeebrugge on 20 Nov and Southampton on 22 Nov
I shall announce the winner of the TRITON ACE competition later today.
GRAND AURORA is attempting to keep clear of Tropical Storm Iota in the Caribbean.
This storm is intensifying rapidly and will soon become a full blown hurricane.
GRAND AURORA is heading for the Mona passage but is hugging the north coast of Colombia. This will keep her clear of the storms path and also put her on the less violent south side. Nevertheless, I’m sure the crew will have checked and rechecked the cargo lashings.
Her ETA for Zeebrugge is 24 Nov and I estimate she should arrive in Southampton on 26/27 Nov.
TOSCANA No update to her position has been received but I estimate she will progressing up the Red Sea
She will arrive in Zeebrugge on 27 Nov
GLOVIS CRYSTAL departed Pier 80 at 6:20pm local yesterday and is making good progress down the Pacific coast. Her ETA for Balboa is 01:00 23 Nov and so I estimate she will arrive in Zeebrugge on 5 Dec and Southampton a couple of days later.
TANNHAUSER is currently making 14 kts across the Bay of Bengal
At midday she was at N6.1 E92.9
She will arrive at Suez on 25 Nov and Zeebrugge of 6 Dec.
RCC AMSTERDAM At midday she was in the process of moving alongside Pier 80.
I can now announce that
she will be coming to Europe!
I estimate she will arrive in Zeebrugge around 7 Dec
GLOVIS SUN will be coming to Pier 80 to load in the coming days however I suspect that she will be heading to Asia
There is still time for another shipment to Europe!……
However it looks as though there could be possibly 2 more shipments.
I am fairly sure one will be
GLOVIS CAPTAIN arriving in Zeebrugge around 14 Dec
I have yet to identify the second ship but another arriving just before Christmas may be on the cards. If so, this is really late and it will pose a real challenge for all these cars to be delivered in Q4
Nevertheless it looks like the Q4 deliveries to Europe are on track to break the record.
