I, too, got the 2/20 date from my dealer. But he wouldn't give me a ship name. I'm now Googling like mad. I've confirmed that the SIRIUS LEADER is a vehicle carrier, but can't seem to find any tracking info. Yet.

More to come.

--dwf

 

The SIRIUS LEADER, callsign H3KF, is owned by the NYK Line, a Tokyo-based shipping company. It's flag is Panama, but at one point it looks like it was a Singapore-based ship. It can hold ~5190 cars and was built in 2000. Since it's going throught the Panama Canal, it's safe to assume that it's width is less than 110 ft.

The NYK Line site is down at the moment for upgrades. They sound like a big company (founded in 1885, Japan's largest maritime shipping yada-yada-yada), so I'm expecting the site to come back up by the time you read this.

None of this explains why it's not on SailWX at the moment...UNLESS it's in the Panama Canal right now -- gotta check those webcams. That would put it more than a day ahead of the DON CARLOS, consistent with the 2/20 date (The DC is expected on 2/21). This would make sense if they don't report position over radio since they're within the Canal itself -- more like they're being piloted via the Canal's system. Who knows.

Canal transit is roughly 10 hours if I'm reading the FAQ right, so maybe the SIRIUS LEADER will show up tomorrow sometime? Or maybe not because I'd expect SailWZ to have history...

ENOUGH for tonight. I'm surfing other threads.
--dwf

 

For those on the Don Pasquale, I found it's current position here: http://www.oceanweather.com/data/

Click on the Atlantic region and then the "Marine Observations" graphic.

Look at the center of the map about: 38N 47.5W for the ship SFQG which is the call sign for the Don Pasquale.

It's scheduled to make landfall at Brunswick, GA on 2/15/06, then onto the Panama Canal on 2/19/06 and finally into Port Hueneme, CA on 2/28/06.

Here is a picture of the tracking map, SFQG is highlighted in red.

It also looks like SFQG is now showing up in the SailWX ship tracking web site here: http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shi...html?call=SFQG.
BTW, if you're tracking other ships, you can look up the call sign at this web site and track it by using a URL similar to the one above and substitute the call SFQG for your ship's call sign (ie. the Don Carlos is SICN).

Boy do I wish our car made it on the Don Carlos, alas every day brings the car a little closer, almost makes me wish I lived in Georgia!!!

Dave

 

Yep, just what I was thinking...I can see it now, all the cars being unloaded in the slippery wintry stuff..and maybe they'll dump tons of salt all over the ground to help get rid of it and the cars will be full of all this slushy salty mess...Yaaaay, just what I've always wanted for my brand new car that I haven't seen yet. Now I didn't just over think that, did I?

 

The race is on to post the first pictures of Production Week 4 MINIs !!

 

Hey there guys! I've kind of lost my enthusiasm ever since Grimace got on the ship. Havent checked back in here much. Glad to see that some of you guys will be taking delivery soon!!! I'm excited to see pics

 

For me, I'm getting more excited now that my car is on the water! I'm even more excited as of yesterday..this is what showed up at my door:



Blizzak REVO1's mounted and ready to go. I'm no longer worried about big snow with summer only tires. I'd still prefer to pick up my car during some nice driving weather, but if it's gonna be snowy, I say BRING IT ON!!!!

Jason

 

Hey, Stefanie, glad to see that you got Jason sold.

Jasonsmf, nice looking wheels - did you get them from Tirerack? I only see two snows in your pic, are you going to run with just the two? Tirerack wouldn't sell me only two snows for my wife's MINI - they insist on snow tires on all four wheels. If you got just the two, let us know how well it works as next season I may buy four snows and split them between the two MINIs.

 

I actually did go with 4 snow tires, 195/60-15's. The wheels are 15x6.5 Sport Edition F2's. This was a entire combo from Tirerack. In past years, I have been running two snow tires on the back of my Ford Ranger, with performance all season's on the front. It sure can get good traction for accelerating, but when it comes to turning or stopping, this is the worst handling snow vehicle I have ever had the pleasure of driving!! With the MINI on it's way, I decided it was time to invest in the whole set, for my safety and to make winter driving a little more enjoyable.

Jason

 

It's snowing pretty hard in Philly. The forcast is for a Nor' Easter and 12+ inches of the white stuff. The storm will be moving up the northeast corridor
to New York and northern Jersey. I sure hope our spanking new Mini's are inside, protected from the impending bad weather!

 

I have visions of 12-18 inches of snow covering all of the MINIs at the port. I'm glad the Boheme made it to Newark before these storms went out to sea.

 

The K Line ships, like the Ingolstadt, do not participate in the weather observation program and therefore, do not show up on sailwx.info. Not sure if the same is true for the NYK Line or other non-WW carriers.

 

Likely seeing as we have NOTHING on these other ships. They're invisible. Between this and a down website (NYK), it's like it's 1990 with these people. If I'm a customer of a logistics company whose website is down for more than 5 minutes, I'm not a happy customer.

But then, this is an industry that gave us the term RoRo (Roll-on, Roll-off) for auto transport.

--dwf

 

That's what RoRo is???

 

The Integrity is getting close to New York!

 

The OL is now showing my Cooper at the distribution center. That means it's probably already on the way to Chicago!

EDIT: My delivery day moved up a day to the 15th!!!

 

The OL has me at the VDC too. In my neighborhood we have an official snowfall of 16" and not far from here they got 18". Much the same was expected for NY/NJ so it could take a little longer to get the cars ready for transport to the dealer. Whatever!

 

That could definitely delay things ... Damn weather :impatient

 

So far NY has gotten 20.2" and they're expecting another 10"-12" before it's over. This does not instill confidence that there won't be any delays. If they're out of doors our Mini's look like W/W gum drops.

 

Not quite sure what that means, but in any case I see the Integrity has been stalling off the cost for quite a while now ..this doens't look good

 

The Integrity sailed about 100 miles since noon today. It's sitting 230 miles from NYC now according to the latest position fix from sailwx, which is probably behind her actual position. She's probably about 100 - 125 miles out.

 

According to Accuweather, it looks like NYC got at least twice as much snow as Baltimore.

Since the Ingolstadt was never scheduled to go to NYC anyway, and its first stop is in Baltimore ... I was wondering if anyone who lives in Baltimore can speak directly to what conditions might be like near the docks?

Thanks in advance!

 

. . . about 12" right here in Baltimore.

 

That doesn't sound too bad, in the sense that I thought it would be much worse ... I know the MINI's aren't getting unloaded there, but I was just curious how long the rest of the cargo unloading may be delayed as a result of the snow. Thanks!

 

A bit heavier than we thought but as long as the roads are plowed on I-95 between DC and NY - I'm not complaining.