Some of you already know that I am about to "go off air" for a spell as I have to earn a crust now and again and be able to afford to keep the Defender and the Sport in the manner to which they are accustomed
I will be joining a ship called the Shenzhen Bay in South Korea shortly and then sailing for Shanghai, Shekou, Hong Kong, Panama Canal, New York/ New Jersey, Norfolk (Va) then back through Panama to Pusan and start all over again. The round trip Pusan to Pusan takes 8 weeks and I expect to be onboard until early March. Just incase any of you might be interested, you can follow my progress across the Pacific Ocean and through the canal on my employer's website at http://www.ponl.com/topic/home_page/langua...rplefinder
You can also find the schedule for the ship elsewhere on the website in the Vessel Locator part of the drop down menus along the home page header.
Just be warned though that the map with all the ship icons on it can take a while to download on a dial-up connection. Each green or white icon is a ship and if you click on it you will get it's name, the course and speed and the nearest piece of land's name. Currently (on the evening of the 8th) Shenzhen Bay is to the east of Japan headed for the Tsuraga Strait between Honshu and Hokkaido.

If you are even more interested and would like to see what the ship looks like you could go to a search engine and find a photo on the net or you could wait until we transit the Panama Canal on the 6th January, 18th January or the 3rd March. These dates are fairly accurate as the company schedules are made 12 months in advance and barring bad weather we can gereally stick to the schedule. On the 6th January we will be transiting Panama from south to north so you should watch the Miraflores, then Centennial Bridge then Gatun Locks webcams, usually we start a transit about 7am(Panama Time, about 1200/1300 GMT) but that can vary a lot. I will send either Biggles or Martin an email with the schedule for our transit times if I can on the day.
The Panama Canal webcams are loctated at and you can select whichever one you want to view . Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks are on the Pacific side of Lake Gatun and possibly the best view of the ship is from the webcam on the Centennial Bridge. Gatun Locks are on the Atlantic end of the canal and that webcam has a relatively narrow field of view. Some of the guys on here watched us go through when i was away on my last ship. http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html

If anybody wants to email me on board and ask questions etc then please feel free - Martin, RRUK, Biggles and MDP have my email address on the ship and I'm sure they would oblige by sending it to you by a PM. [/url] A Carbon Footprint is the mark a lump of coal makes when it's dropped on the ground.

Tata TDv8 HSE - Stornoway/ebony and straight grain walnut with towpack, Tasmods and an HST grille. Coming soon LEDs in the headlights
Staying - Epsom Green Defender 90 for playing off road

Last edited by Tim in Scotland on Thu Dec 08 2005 6:08pm. Edited 1 time in total

Tim - have a safe trip, a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.  RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE Zambezi silver,Alpaca.
On Order - LRX expected 2010
DO NOT CLICK HERE!

Wow, what a trip! When will you be going off-air? Ditto VA's comments... and see you in 2006!  

Friday night will be my last look-in here! A Carbon Footprint is the mark a lump of coal makes when it's dropped on the ground.

Tata TDv8 HSE - Stornoway/ebony and straight grain walnut with towpack, Tasmods and an HST grille. Coming soon LEDs in the headlights
Staying - Epsom Green Defender 90 for playing off road

Any chance of some duty free? Maybe a RRS import  RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE Zambezi silver,Alpaca.
On Order - LRX expected 2010
DO NOT CLICK HERE!

Only if it will fit in the overhead locker  A Carbon Footprint is the mark a lump of coal makes when it's dropped on the ground.

Tata TDv8 HSE - Stornoway/ebony and straight grain walnut with towpack, Tasmods and an HST grille. Coming soon LEDs in the headlights
Staying - Epsom Green Defender 90 for playing off road

So this is HOME for the next few months Tim



Enjoy the trip , have yourself a great xmas and new year.
 
" WITH MORE EXTRAS THAN A HOLLYWOOD EPIC "

That's the one - it's the 5th voyage I done on her since she was launched in 1994. She was one of the biggest containerships in the world when she was launched, with a container capacity of 4500 x 20foot containers but now she rates as a coastal feedership as we are now building ships of 10,000 x 20 foot containers that are not much longer but are 50% wider. These monsters are too wide to fit through the locks in the Panama Canal so they cannot be used on "round the world" services.
She is also one of 9 sisters of that class that we operate and is the same as my last one - Singapore Bay A Carbon Footprint is the mark a lump of coal makes when it's dropped on the ground.

Tata TDv8 HSE - Stornoway/ebony and straight grain walnut with towpack, Tasmods and an HST grille. Coming soon LEDs in the headlights
Staying - Epsom Green Defender 90 for playing off road

Tim,
Safe journey, Hope the seas stay calm this time round, will have a baileys with ice for you at Chritsmas and New Years eve.
Will keep in touch through the e-mails. Its out there somewhere. Second V10 Treg on the drive at the moment.

Cheers guys, maybe one of these days I'll get a ship that calls at Southampton and you can all come down, take a look round the ship and then go and look at the RRS's all parked in the mutlistorey export park down the road.
Oh and don't believe the cruise guides that tell you the Pacific Ocean is all blue skies and pretty gilrs in grass skirts............ the bits I see are anything but blue and tranquil, and I've yet to see a suntanned girl in a grass skirt waving at me from a dugout canoe! A Carbon Footprint is the mark a lump of coal makes when it's dropped on the ground.

Tata TDv8 HSE - Stornoway/ebony and straight grain walnut with towpack, Tasmods and an HST grille. Coming soon LEDs in the headlights
Staying - Epsom Green Defender 90 for playing off road

Last edited by Tim in Scotland on Thu Dec 08 2005 8:54pm. Edited 1 time in total

enjoy the trip Tim, and have a great Xmas and New Year,
maybe on your return, you could borrow the firms boat/ship for a weekend, so we could have a big RRS meet !!!!!!!! Good Luck