Received an email from my MA Friday Apr 19th that my CountryMan is aboard the California Highway. When I looked at the data he sent the ship had left around 00:40 and as of the 20th @ 03:00 it is docked in Southampton. Presumably dropping CM and loading Minis from Oxford. Ship is supposed to arrive in Brunswick, GA on the 1st of May.

With that timeline I could be picking it up around May 15th, figuring two weeks for it to get off the ship, inspection, transport to Palm Harbor, FL (near Tampa), prep and tinting. I'd better get on it and sell my Grand Cherokee if I want to transfer the plate.

Anyone else aboard? Mine had arrived at the port on the 8th or 9th from what I can tell.

Mini Online still shows awaiting transport, but from what I hear that is pretty standard.

Tracking the California Highway... http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/def...0&type_color=7

Really is amazing how many ships are out there, we sure do have a lot of stuff in the wrong place moving about. If you look at that picture of the ship from this link (http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shi...MMSI=352732000) it appears you could fit a bazillion Minis on there!

 

My MINI came over on the last run of the California Highway which docked in Brunswick on 02April. I got the car, in-hand, on the 11th from Ferman MINI.

Hopefully you'll see the car sooner than you estimate.

p.s.: Where are you taking the car to have the windows tinted?
I went to Window Kote here in St Pete. $200 got me all the windows PLUS the windshield visor tint. They do awesome work.

 

Thanks for the information, based on that it is possible I could pick it up in three weeks! Possibly around May 11th, which would be perfect.

Gary Mack, my MA, has a guy he sent my GFs car to for tint. Did a great job. I think it also was around $200, but do not recall. She has a 2012 Convertible BR Green she calls MONTE and will be 2yrs old in Aug, and the tint still looks great. I am just going to have him tint it prior to me picking up like she did. We're over in Sanford, just north or Orlando and Ferman is the closest Mini dealer participating in the AAA buying program, so I am going there as well. Otherwise, I'd probably get it done around here.

 

I was hoping that my Mini would have made it on the California Highway, but I doubt it. My mini arrived at port on 04/17 so it probably didn't make it on before CH set sail on 04/19. It looks like Georgia Highway is arriving at Bremerhaven today I expect my Mini will set sail on it in a few days.

 

Just found out that our new Spice Orange Turbo Cabrio is also on the CH. Would love to share info as we track it into Baltimore, then finally Brunswick. Our is headed up here to Knoxville. Hoping to see it by around May 10th or so! It does appear that it will arrive on time into Baltimore because the last Lat/Long position given was nearing the east coast of the US. Finally it's on the way - Ordered on 3/23 and Production/VIN was received on 3/25

Latitude, Longitude
40.60961,-58.44259

 

When I go to track it still shows off Europe. What site are you using to track?

 

You were correct, for the life of me I could not go back and find that link with those lat/long coordinates??

Looked again tonight and the ship is listed as recently checking in and is about 450 miles off the coast of Deleware. According to the schedule for this ship (posted as a PDF on the K-Line website) the CH is due into Baltimore on the 28th (tomorrow) as it lists the estimated day of departure as the 29th. It also lists the day of departure for Brunswick of May 2nd, that means an offload of May 1 or so

Below are the last coordinates I got and Ive been plugging them into this website to get a pinpoint location. To find the current ship lat/long, just use Marinetraffic.com website to hover over the last reported position - look in lower left of your browser and it will display the lat/long

Take care - sounds like we should have them soon

Latitude, Longitude
38.02,-67.95

 

Here is the lat/long website I forgot to paste into the above message. Use the data entry area on the right side of the page

http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html

 

Odd that it reported there, that's about 200m due east of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. I think they only report positions in those green grids that show up on the sites, like MarineTraffic.com.

You are correct on the dates, Marine Traffic show arrival in Baltimore at 21:00 on the 28th and according to the info my MA sent arrival in Brunswick, GA is May 1st.

Not sure, I think this tracking stuff makes it seem even longer!

 

FWIW I See that our ship is offloading again after one stop already. It's sitting at the Dundalk terminal. I'm not able to find a singe webcam to watch it.

However if you can watch it leave the terminal (and it's daylight) on it's way to Brunswick, there is one traffic cam that points toward the harbor and you could see it.

It's mounted on the Francis Scott Key bridge (I-695)

http://www.chart.state.md.us/video/v...4606363d235daa

 

The ship unloads on the left side of the canal and then move to the Broening Hwy Plant on the right side of the canal to load up some vehicles. It stays in the Baltimore port for, at least, two days. It drove me nuts!

 

Wondering if it's loading now, if next step is to leave harbor headed for Brunswick or if it will load/unload again there in Baltimore before leaving?

It has already made one stop on the west/south side of the harbor and has now moved to the east/north side
Thanks

 

It's now docked on the Broening Hwy side ... loading tomorrow. Hopefully, since it's a weekday (where mine landed on that side on Easter Sunday), you will see her leave Baltimore sometime tomorrow by 6pm.

 

Noticed this afternoon at work that the CH left dock. It is not out of Chesapeake Bay and underway. Looks like it is scheduled for arrival late on the 1st, sometime around 10pm. Had said 05 UTC on the 2nd earlier, says 03 UTC on the 2nd now.

 

Just checked and California Highway is still off the AIS grid - should come back into zone 13 on the grid sometime this evening and we can trace it as it comes into Brunswick - getting closer!

 

Thought I'd post some pics of Ginger - she just arrived today! Hard to find pics of a Spice Orange vert with Toffee leather interior. Had a wonderful drive this evening to see Lee Strobel present his story when he wrote the book "The Case for Christ". Great evening and what a great car!

 

Nice looking ride. Love the colors.

I picked mine up today. The ride home was great, am so happy with this car.

 

Plan Nine we need pictures.

 

Love to see pics of the car that arrived on the same boat as mine!

 

Thought I'd sahre some luggage we bought for our new Convertible Cooper S
There is a set of custom luggage available to fit the (real small) boot that the convertible has BUT we wanted something unique and durable
This is what we bought and they are suprising large inside, very well made, lot's of extra pockets for storage, Come with a heavy duty shoulder strap and when installed in the boot, leave even a little room above
Fitting them in requires turning them bottom first, then dropping them down. First put one in, then pull it tight to the left or right - they are snug because the boot is not square on the base but has a "jog" in each corner. You'll have to gently tug the dog bags into each corner BUT they fit!
. . . and they are only $50 each for a "his and hers" set

http://www.boytharness.com

The Dog handlers bag
Item #: MR3012 Dog Handlers bag

 

Took a few minutes this morning to replace the chrome with black trim today. I had already "pre-ordered" the trim pieces for grill (top and bottom), headlights and tailights . . . so this morning while the missus was still sleeping, I went outside and traded chrome for black - love the new look and with the viper stripe, I think black is a better feel/look? Agree? Also posted a few pics of the clips and how I removed them. BEST ADVICE??

. . . . LOOK at your new part as you read this OR as you begin to remove old chrome pieces, it will help you understand how it is engineered, thus making it easier to understand how to remove it!

Needle nose pliers helps a ton when removing the upper trim . . . just squeeze gently until the metal "tab" that is doing all the grabbing is compressed enough that it can pass the body metal cleanly. ALSO MUST REMOVE 4 SCREWS from the top trim before you start working the clips (see pic of me removing 2 screws in middle - there is also 1 screw on each end of the trim piece).

Bottom piece removeal starts by finding the tab on each end that locks it in place (peek behind it) then push down on it while grabbing the end and pull toward you, it WILL pop off but it feels like it will break first!. It also moves out after you push down on the tab quite a bit, then stops hard before asking you to "pull a little harder", then it finally releases. Look at your new part BEFORE YOU START YANKING AWAY and it's easy to see how the bottom trim "works".

Headlight rings are removed by lifting the bonnet lid, then using needle nose pliers like in the image of my using them to remove top grill piece.

Rear tailights seemed impossible at first BUT to make it easy all you really need is a right angle pick (picture below, second one from top). Can be bought at Home Depot for $5-6 for a whole mixed pick set. Insert the pick in BETWEEN the tailight and the chrome trim (not the body and the chrome trim) and then rotate your pick so the point is pushing into the trim (underneath it as you can not see it at this point) and is exerting force away from the center of the tailight - essentially you are stretching the trim "larger". Look at your replacement black trim and you'll see where to put pressure (where the clips are). Start at the top . . . once you get one, they all kind of come at once. Go slow, and with the right angle pick, these trim pieces actually were the easiest to replace.

This post was EXTREMELY helpful in learning the process
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...cw-grille.html

 

Ok, finally took some pics today before and after putting my rack bars on.

 

Here's with the bars.

 

Very nice car! Love the black and red theme and LOVE the interior - well done - enjoy her!!

 

Nine Plan Failed - Great looking car red and black looks great on the CMs.