Friday, April 7, 2023: Starting to Canada!
Info:
The “Atlantic Sail” is a Roll on / Roll off and container ship. She is 296 m (971 ft) long, 37 m (121 ft) wide, and has a draft of 9,9 m (32 ft) at the moment. She was built in 2016 and flies under the flag of Malta.
Diary:
Today the “Atlantic Sail” departed from Hamburg Harbour at 2:17 a.m. with only a four days delay. At the moment she is on her way to Antwerpen where she arrives at 11:00 p.m. Afterwards she sails on to Liverpool and finally across the Atlantic to Halifax.
On board there are Annie Way, Sally, and the lions Leona Loewenfeld and Leopold.
To be quite honest, I have the suspicion that the draft of almost 10 m (32 ft) is caused by our Leopold. He is quite heavy. And who knows, how many stowaways there will be on the vessel?
But first things first:
On March 28 we started from Linz to Hamburg, stayed at a hotel after about 600 km (375 miles) and went on the next day.
As the parking lot behind our hotel was unpaved and Annie Way rolled through a puddle of muddy water, she was a little bit dirty when we arrived in Hamburg. In Canada they seem to be somehow picky since we have had foot-and-mouth-disease in Europe, therefore cars have to be clean before they get on a ship. Annie Way would get an underbody washing at the harbour, but in the seven pages long manual about the delivery there was a long paragraph about the condition in which a car has to be and that you should drive to a truck wash not far from the harbour in case the vehicle is dirty. In order not to find yourself in trouble.
As I absolutely didn’t want to find myself in trouble I fed Navita with the address of the truck wash. She brought us there without any problems. I had some difficulties finding out how to work the various high-pressure cleaners in the box and consulted a lady in the box next to ours. That helped. Three minutes and four Euros later Annie Way looked like a new RV. Navita, our navigation system, got the address of the O’swald Quay at Hamburg Harbour, where we would say farewell to each other – if everything worked out well.
Sometimes I am a real nervous wreck, and the seven page manual for the car delivery made me get stomach ache. Normally the whole process takes two hours on average. It’s said there have been people who were finished after an hour.
Navita found the way to the building where I had to register for Annie Way’s delivery.
There was an absolute chaos at the parking lot. A number of trucks that felt like a hundred had a number of parking spaces that felt like maybe fifty. I turned into the parking lot at 1:03 p.m., and it took me almost ten minutes to drive around once trying to find a space to park. I finally lost my nerves and parked Annie Way in a no-parking zone. There was no other possibility. They would not tow Annie Way away. Many of the trucks also stood in no-parking spots – there was no other chance! I certainly took care that Annie Way would not prevent anyone from driving away.
I put on my safety vest and went into the building, where I turned left into the waiting room which was full of truck drivers. I asked where I could get a number. They showed me a container outside the building.
Okay. As soon as I entered the container, some truck drivers asked me if they could help me. There were numbers for trucks and numbers for cars. Annie Way is a car. One of the men pulled a number for me and told me to go back into the waiting room immediately because there were only two cars before my number.
As soon as I entered, the display showed my number and counter 8. Someone told me where I could find counter 8. It was on the second floor.
There a friendly gentleman wanted to see my passport. According to the seven page manual he also should have taken my driving licence, but he didn’t.
“To Halifax”, he said and wrote something on his computer.
Then he looked at me and seemed concerned. “Do you really want to drive in yourself?”, he asked.
“Yes, why do you ask?” My stomach shrunk to about a third of its size.
The gentleman took a piece of paper with a map and said, “Did you see the barriers outside?”
I agreed.
“Here’s a device. When it starts blinking and whistling, you drive from the parking lot to entrance number 2. This is here.” He marked the spot on the map.
“There you queue up. When it’s your turn the barrier will open and you drive forward to the second barrier. There you slip this paper into the slot.” He presented a thick, yellow sheet of paper with a bar code. “Then the barrier will open and you drive on. You have to take the yellow sheet with you. Go straight ahead along the first parking lot, then you can see the car park. Go inside and park your RV whereever you find a place. Then go to this container.” He marked a rectangle on the map. “There you’ll get further instructions.”
I thanked him and went back to Annie Way with the black disc, the map and the yellow sheet.
Meanwhile the chaos at the parking lot was no longer as terrible as before, and I even saw a vacant parking space. As soon as I had parked Annie Way there, the black disc started blinking and whistling.
So I drove to entrance number 2. There was a VW-bus before me. The first barrier went down behind it. The driver went on to the second barrier and tried to put his yellow sheet into the slot. There were two slots, one for trucks high up on a pole and one for cars. The upper one was too high up for the VW-bus, and the lower one was too low. After trying several times the driver came to the conclusion that he had to drive back a bit and get out of the car. But there were two workmen coming and they put the yellow sheet into the slot for him. The second barrier went up, and as soon as the vehicle went on, the first barrier rose for Annie Way, whereas the disc stopped whistling and blinking. I stopped before the pole to be able to get out, but one of the workmen took my yellow sheet and slipped it into the slot. The barrier opened immediately.
We went to the car parking lot which was less than 300 m from the entrance. No traffic at all, just nothing.
There were some hundred cars, most of them absolutely new. At the end I saw two mobile homes. So I parked Annie Way next to them.
As soon as I got out, another friendly gentleman hurried towards me and took the black disc and the yellow sheet. I handed Annie Way’s spare key to him, he took pictures – a lot of pictures! -, and after some minutes he said, “Your shuttle bus has just arrived. Your are finished, you can leave.” He signed the yellow sheet and handed it back to me as a confirmation of delivery.
That was it.
When I got off the shuttle bus at the exit, it was 2:01 p.m. The whole procedure had taken me less than half an hour!
While my stomach was expanding back to its normal size, I walked to the nearest train station (which was Hamburg Veddel) and went to Hamburg Main Station. My train back to Linz was due at 8:24 p.m., so I had a lot of time to eat something and take a loooong walk through the centre of Hamburg. I enjoyed both, the meal and the walk! I liked Hamburg so much that I am planning to stay there for some days in November when I pick up Annie Way after our great adventure.
As already stated, Annie Way is on her way to Canada.
If you google “Atlantic Sail”, you can follow the ship on a map.
By the way, the waves are only a little more than one metre at the moment. I almost feel sorry, that I am not on the ship.
On May 2 I will meet Annie Way, Sally, Leona Loewenfeld and Leopold again. Hopefully. Cross your fingers for us!