Shipping: The Home Stretch & Arrival in Port Everglades

Note to Readers: This article was continually updated while the freighter was heading to Port Everglades.  Positions read from most recent at the top to earliest at the bottom.

Position as of Saturday, February 2, 2014 at 12:11 PM EST.

Latitude: 26.0970 N, Longitude: -80.1273 W, Course: 000  Speed: 0.0 knots, Time: 05:11 UTC
(12:11 AM EST)

February 2, 2014, at 12:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, the freighter, BBC Africa, with Guided Discovery aboard, arrived at Port Everglades Florida completing a 40 day 10,694 nautical mile journey that began in Koahsiung Taiwan on December 23, 2013.

The journey comes to a successful conclusion

Almost there

This also marks the completion of Jeff Druek's 12 Step Program.  I am not longer dependent on Friday photos for weekly highs.  Starting tomorrow I can see and touch the boat whenever I need a fix.

Position as of Saturday, February 1, 2014 at 8:30 PM EST.

Latitude: 25.16581, Longitude: -80.06486, Course: 023  Speed: 15.3 knots, Time: 01:04 UTC
(8:04 PM EST)

A picture is worth a thousand words.



BBC Africa just southeast of Miami

Position as of Saturday, February 1, 2014 at 11:00 AM EST.

Latitude: 23.82056, Longitude: -82.15826, Course: 059  Speed: 16.0 knots, Time: 15:59 UTC
(10:59 AM EST)

We were having a lovely breakfast at our favorite Sarasota restaurant, Savory Street, when I checked Marine Traffic for the freighter's position.  She had literally just come back into range.  The position report showed her northeast of Havana Cuba and southwest of Key West on a northeast course.  She was making a very fast 16.0 knots.  Note: She rounded Cuba's northwest corner as predicted.

The ship is exactly 194 nautical miles from Port Everglades.  At 16 knots she will arrive at the port in 12 hours, which puts her on track for the predicted 11:00 PM EST docking.

Speaking of "position," ours also changed today.  We departed our one month rental in Bradenton for a suite at the Candlewood Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.  This places us 1.2 miles and 3 minutes away from Marina Bay Marina, the marina where Guided Discovery will be commissioned.

Since December 1, we have made a series of three moves.  First from Chicago to Sarasota, where we stayed for the month of December.  Then to Bradenton and now to Fort Lauderdale.  We have one more move and that, finally, is onto Guided Discovery on February 10.

Our Sarasota Palm Air rental was a 2,100 square foot three bedroom two bath single family.  The Bradenton Heritage Harbor two bedroom townhome was 1,150 square feet.  The Candlewood Hotel is a 500 square foot one bedroom suite. We have been steadily working our way down to a smaller space. When we make the final move to the 63 we will up our interior floor space to about 800 square feet.  It will feel "palatial."

News Flash Friday at 9:48 AM EST.

The shipping agent, Sevenstar Yacht Transport, is estimating the freighter's arrival in Port Everglades on Saturday at 11:00 PM EST.  They indicate that offloading will commence once the vessel and yachts have been cleared by US Customs on Sunday morning.

BBC Africa is still out of range.  Based the Sevenstar report time (9:48 AM), she is 37 hours from Port Everglades.  Assuming a speed of 12.6 knots, that places her 466 nautical miles from touchdown.  It is still unclear on which side she rounded Cuba.

Position as of Wednesday, January 29, 2014 at 11:59 PM EST.

Latitude: 9.921942, Longitude: -79.9636 Course: 347  Speed: 12.3 Knots, Time: 13:03 UTC
(8:03 AM EST)

Wednesday morning, at 4:51 AM, BBC Africa hauled anchor and headed for the Gatun Lock.  At 5:21 AM she had traversed the lock system and 25 minutes later had by-passed the Atlantic anchorage on her way to Colon and the Gulf of Mexico.  We missed seeing her in the lock.

At 8:03 AM her AIS position showed her in the Gulf moving north at 12.3 knots on a course of 347 degrees.  This strongly suggests she is headed for the northwest corner of Cuba and, therefore, a 1,300 nautical mile run to Port Everglades.

Considering that her last reported position is as of 8:03AM and that I was checking at midnight indicates that BBC Africa is again out of range.

Position as of Wednesday, January 29, 2014 at 12:30 AM EST.

Latitude: 9.255647, Longitude -79.91595 Course: 230  Speed: 0.1 Knots, Time: 00:57 UTC

Disregard the course.  The speed of 0.1 indicates that the freighter is not moving.

BBC Africa arrived at the Gatun Lock at mid-afternoon on Tuesday and dropped anchor in Lake Gatun.  She is awaiting transit of the Gatun Lock and her completion of the Panama Canal.

Once clear of the canal at Colon, she will be approximately 1,286 nautical miles from Port Everglades assuming BBC Africa goes around Cuba's south east end.  Assuming an average speed of 12.5 knots, she will make 300 nautical miles per day and cover the remaining distance in 4.3 days.  That will put her in port late Sunday or early Monday assuming my calculation are correct. The freight agent's recently revised estimate that she would make port by Saturday, February 1, will likely be revised again. 

Note: If BBC Africa decides to round Cuba's north west corner, the mileage to Port Everglades is 1,300 nautical miles.

Shipping: Catching "Her" in Panama Canal

BBC Africa was still at anchor on the Pacific side when we went to bed last night.  Below is the position report:

Time            Position Type                  Port          Speed  Course   Latitude Longitude
28-01-2014  Midnight           PACIFIC ANCH   0.2       171        8.864674 -79.52852  
00:55 UTC

Since the two previous position reports showed essentially the same Latitude and Longitude, I concluded she was still at anchor despite showing a speed of 0.2 knots and course of 171 degrees.

This morning (i.e., Tuesday, January 28 at 6:15 AM to be precise), I awoke and said to Diana, who was lightly sleeping, I think I will check to see BBC Africa's current status.  I went to my "lucky link" and saw the following position report on Marne Traffic.

Time            Position Type                  Port         Speed  Course   Latitude Longitude
28-01-2014  Departure          PACIFIC ANCH   0.0       
09:51 UTC

The report was missing speed, course and LAT/LON position information.  Still the word "Departure" strongly suggested that BBC Africa could be on the move.  Based on my previous time calculations, the reported time of 09:51 UTC, should have translated to 4:51 AM EST.  If that was the case we, to use a perfect cliché, "missed the boat."

Well that turned out not to be true.  The distance from the Pacific Anchorage to the Mirafores lock is approximately 11 nautical miles.  Hence, at 6 to 7 knots, BBC Africa could have covered that distance in less than two hours.  However, I figured that out as I was writing this article.  At the time I thought we had lost the opportunity to view her on the Mirafores Lock webcam.

Using the Ipad I tried to access the Mirafores Lock webcam without success.  I was unable to get an image (thanks to Steve Jobs' refusal to have Flash on the Ipad).  So I went to the laptop where I was able to get an image of an empty lock. Whether we were too early or too late was not clear.

Not quite ready to give up, I tried another of my stored links and this time hit pay dirt.  It showed the BBC Africa in the canal and just approaching the lock.  Note: I had tried this link earlier and BBC Africa did not appear anywhere.

So I went back to the Mirafores Lock webcam link.  There was a passenger ship in lock.  I stayed on the image waiting for the time stamp to change and BINGO, at 6:29 AM EST the bow of BBC Africa came into view.

BBC Africa comes into view

Minutes later, Guided Discovery, sitting behind a mega yacht, with her bow facing the freighter's starboard side, came into view.  Pure luck.



BBC Africa with Guided Discovery in view

Eight minutes later, the freighter exited the lock and headed into Lake Mirafores. 



BBC Africa exits the lock into Lake Mirafores

She had traveled 11 miles from her Pacific side anchorage, traversed a triple lock, which lifted her 85 feet into Lake Mirafores, and was on her way to the Gatun Locks on the Atlantic Side.  Based on what I've read, she should exit the canal at Colon in about 8 to 10 hours.

Reader Note:  In case you have not figured it out, the "Her" in the article's title stands for both the freighter and Guided Discovery.

All I can say is wow.  We saw our boat as she went through the Panama Canal.  Pure luck or maybe, just maybe, the product of tracking her as she crossed the Pacific.  Who knows.  But it sure felt good.

Written by Les.

Shipping: Tracking BBC Africa from Taiwan to the Panama Canal

Reader Note: This article was updated periodically while Guided Discovery was in transit.
The latest position information appears at the top of the article.

Position as of Sunday, January 26, 2014 (7:00 PM EST) - ARRIVAL AT THE PANAMA CANAL PACIFIC ANCHORAGE

Latitude 8.604988° N, longitude -79.50576° W.  Heading: 009° Speed: 10.8 knots  Time: 22:04 UTC (7:04 PM EST)

The freighter's course of 009 and speed of 10.8 knots at 22:04 UTC suggests that she was approaching the Pacific anchorage.   At 23:19 UTC, an hour later, she was dead in the water.  Marine Traffic shows a green diamond symbol indicating a cargo vessel at anchor.  The next question, which I was UNABLE to answer despite considerable effort, was when she was scheduled to arrive at the Mirafores Lock. Oh well.  I'll just keep checking every hour.
 
Position as of Sunday, January 26, 2014 (12:30 AM EST)

Latitude 7.000325° N, longitude -81.63625° W.  Heading: 092° Speed: 12.7 knots  Time: 23:21 UTC (8:21 PM EST)

The freighter is just south of Isla Island and 238 nautical miles from Balboa.  She should arrive at the first lock, Mirafores, 19 hours from now (Sunday at 3:21 PM).  Note: My estimated ETA is getting better as the ship gets closer.

We should be able to see her on the webcam using the link below.

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Miraflores

It appears from the link below that AIS tracking will become more frequent as she gets closer to the canal entrance.

http://shiptrackingais.blogspot.com/p/panamacanalais.html

Position as of Saturday, January 25, 2014 (5:00 PM EST)

Latitude 7.596123° N, longitude -83.17248° W.  Heading: 121° Speed: 12.7 knots  Time: 10:36 UTC (5:36 AM EST)

The freighter crossed the border with Costa Rica and Panama at 5:36 AM.  She is now 317 nautical miles from Balboa. 

Note: Data acquired through my "lucky" Dick Singer Ipad link.

Position as of Friday, January 24, 2014 (2:30 PM EST)

Latitude 12.71561° N, longitude -90.45235 W.  Heading: 128° Speed: 12.6 knots  Time: 17:30 UTC (12:30 PM EST)

Well its Friday and, of course, no photos.  We just have to make do with position information.

The freighter is again "in range" so we can see her exact position, which is slightly north and west of  El Salvador's capital city of San Salvador.  She is now approximately 912 miles from Balboa.  She is making 302 nautical miles per day.  That should put her at the canal entrance in Balboa in 2.6 days.  Adjusting for time, arrival at the canal will be just after midnight on Monday (1/27).

Explanatory Note: The Panama Canal's length is 50 miles from the deep waters of the Atlantic to the deep waters of the Pacific.  The average ship will traverse it in 8 to 10 hours.  There are six steps  or locks.  The first three raise the ship 85 feet to the main elevation of the canal.   The next three lower is back to sea level.

Outer Reef forwarded the update they received from the shipping agent today.  It predicts that the freighter will reach the canal on Sunday at 7:00AM.  It also upped the ETA at Port Everglades by one day to February 1st.

Position as of Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (4:30PM EST)

Latitude 15.41813° N, longitude -96.30194° W.  Heading: 076° Speed: 13.9 knots  Time: 06:53 UTC

The BBC Africa's midday position is now just south and west of Salina Cruz Mexico.  This puts her approximately 223 miles from the border with Guatemala.  She is presently 50 miles off shore and tracking the shoreline.

On the ipad with my "lucky link" to www.marinetraffic.com I am able to get the exact position.  When I use my laptop and Google the same website I get two day "old" information placing the boat hundreds of miles north. 

Maybe there is something to Jeff's 12 step program.  The business of tracking the freighter is challenging and keeps me occupied (just joking) while waiting for the big day when she arrives in Port Everglades.


Position as of Monday, January 20, 2014 (2:00PM EST)

Latitude 18.39474° N, longitude -104.7247° W.  Heading: 120° Speed: 12.6 knots  Time: 15:22 UTC

The BBC is now adjacent to Tecoman, which is south and west of Guadalajara (Mexico).

My daughter, Lesley, called me moments ago and informed me that based on my interpretation of yesterday's position (see below), the BBC Africa did not have a prayer of making it to Port Everglades by January 31 if she was, in fact, 2,510 miles from Balboa as previously reported.  This caused me to back track and redo my calculations.

Using the link below, I recalculated the distance to Balboa using a straight line nautical distance instead of the road distance (2,510) calculated with my ipad map.  As of today, the distance from her present position is approximately 1,866 miles.  At 302 nautical miles per day (12.6 kts x 24 hours), she should arrive in Balboa in six days (January 26.)

Again using the same link, I calculated the distance as 1,479 miles from the Panama Canal to the southeast tip of Cuba (870 miles) and from their to Port Everglades (609 miles).  That represents another five days of travel.  Assuming no traffic issues, she could arrive in Port Everglades on January 31.

http://www.freemaptools.com/measure-distance.htm 

Finally, I reviewed yesterday's article and in addition to my distance error, it appears that I could not even get the day of the week straight.  Note the correction in red.

Position as of Sunday, January 19, 2014 (2:40PM EST)

Latitude 20.63564° N, longitude -108.8125° W.  Heading: 124° Speed: 12.9 knots  Time: 18:52 UTC

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-108.7505/centery:20.59772/zoom:8/mmsi:304881000

The BBC Africa is now adjacent to Puerto Vallarta Mexico.  This places her 4,040 km or 2,510 miles from the Panama Canal entrance at Balboa.  The ship is making approximately 310 miles per day.

Correction: The distance calculation of 2,510 miles in not correct.  I erroneously used my ipad map to calculate the distance, which on that map is in "road miles."  Oops.  See correction is the article above.

Here's some news.  We will be able to follow the freighter's progress with live webcams.

Position as of Thursday, January 17, 2014 (12:20PM EST)

Latitude 28.78049° N, longitude -116.5622° W.  Heading: 168° Speed: 13.1 knots  Time: 14:56 UTC

The BBC Africa is now "in range," which means that we can track her progress with the link below.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-116.4768/centery:28.20626/zoom:8/mmsi:304881000

She is approximately 100 miles south of Ensenada on southeast on a course of 168°.  She is adjacent to Isla Cedros on the Baja California peninsula. 

Looking back vat the article below, it would appear that BBC Africa either made port Wednesday (1/15) or Thursday (1/16).  Her distance from Ensenada of 100 miles suggests that she sailed early this morning. 

She is now headed for the Panama Canal.  Her ETA for Balboa, where she will begin the transit of the canal, is January 26.

According to the shipping agents, her scheduled arrival in Port Everglades is January 31.

Position as of Tuesday, January 15, 2014 (8:00PM EST):

Today, the position information is not a clear.  My "special" link to www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/index/itineraries/all/mmsi:30488100/shipname:BBC%20AFRICA shows the midday position as latitude 30.83891° N, longitude -119.6184° W on a heading of 81 degrees at 13.8 knots.  Google Earth show this position as still "way out" in the Pacific, which is probably not correct. 

Marine Traffic also shows BBC Africa's ETA to Ensenada as Tuesday at 8:00 UTC (12:00 noon local time).  Based on that estimate, she would have made port yesterday and would be on her way by now.  www.fleetmon.com shows the same ETA.

Ensenada's lat/lon is 31.8578° N, 116.6058° W.  In relation to the reported position (latitude 30.83891° North, longitude -119.6184° West), BBC Africa at midday today was slightly south and west of Ensenada.  This could suggest that she made port yesterday is now headed south.  However, her course of 81 degrees argues against this.  Therefore, based on the "evidence" I would guess she has not made port.

Notes. 

1. My error was not to record the positions each day.  If I had done so my sense of the BBC Africa's location would have been more clear.

2. I expected that the Marine Traffic website would show a location symbol once the ship was close to land.  This does not seem to be the case.  I based this assumption on my initial tracking while the ship was traversing north from Kaohsiung to Taipei.

3. Outer Reef has not amended the January 24 ETA at Port Everglades.

Position as of January 10, 2014:

The BBC Africa's midday position was latitude 30.54141° N, longitude -142.7571 ° W.  She was making 12.5 knots on a heading of 90 degrees.  This places the freighter north and east of the big Hawaiian Island headed for the port of Ensenada (Baja California, Mexico).  She should arrive there on Tuesday at 8:00 UTC (12:00 noon local time).  She has approximately 1,200 miles to go.  Stay tuned.

Shipping: Finding BBC Africa

I now fully understand Jeff Druek's 12 step program.  Step one is he tells you that there will be no more photos.  Steps 2 through 11, according to Jeff, is tracking the freighter's position.  Actually, steps 2-11 are trying to figure out the freighter's position. "Trying to figure out" versus "tracking" is a significant difference.  Read on.

These steps can occupy a considerable amount of time.  Here's a short history:

• Guided Discovery was loaded on the BBC Africa on December 22.
• The ship sailed for Taipei the following day.
• The freighter's position was just off Taipei on December 25 (Latitude 25.47618, Longitude 121.5771).  She was traveling at 9 knots on a heading of 43 degrees.

You will recall that I included a link to a vessel tracking website (see below).  I returned to that web site several times since Christmas Day only to discover that the BBC Africa's position was unchanged.  So, I figured maybe she was out of range and waited for Outer Reef to send me an update.  Oops, no word from Outer Reef, which is still true as of this writing.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:121.5771/centery:25.47618/zoom:8/oldmmsi:304881000/olddate:lastknown

Meanwhile, on Thursday, January 2, Diana and I had dinner with our good friends Dick and Marjorie at the Bird Key Yacht Club.  While sitting at the bar, Dick and I attempted to locate the BBC Africa's position using my Ipad.  The link again showed that the ship was still just off Taipei.  Since we knew that was not right we started searching other vessel tracking websites and, "bingo," we found her position.  I wrote down the latitude and longitude on a napkin and then located another website that would pinpoint the location using the coordinates.  Again success.  She had moved a lot further east.

Because it had been so easy to get the latest position I did not bother to make the website a favorite or keep the napkin (big mistake).  We went on to have a wonderful dinner with our friends.

So the next day (Friday) I tried to locate BBC Africa's position.  I tried all three vessel tracking websites (see below) and could not get an update.  In fact, some of the information actually went backwards.  I repeated my effort on Saturday without success and again on Sunday morning and, again, without success. 

www.marinetraffic.com
www.vesselfinder.com
www.fleetmon.com/en/vessels/Bbc_Africa_52608‎

Note: I need to qualify "without success."  These websites do provide some information like "using engine under way," but do not give you a ship's exact position.  They will, however, sell you the information and they are not shy about their fee ($440 at Marine Traffic).  According to Fleetmon, her next port of call is Ensinda with an ETA of 8 days.  Only problem is there in no such place as "Ensinada."  There is an Ensenada in Baja California Mexico, which happens to be the only deep water port in Baja California.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensenada,_Baja_California#Maritime_industry

Then this afternoon we happened to be driving north on Tamiami Trail and since we were close to Dick and Marjorie we gave then a call and got invited to their home.  While there I shared my 12 steps frustration with Dick and, thinking perhaps that Dick was a lucky charm, tried again.  Again no success. 

Turns out Dick was the lucky charm.  He suggested I look at the browsing history on the Ipad and "bingo" we successfully located the web address that produced the position last Thursday.  I  immediately made it a favorite (see below)

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/index/itineraries/all/mmsi:3048810000/shipname:BBC%AFRICA

Note: Using the above link I could not get the data on my laptop or on my other Ipad.  It looks like I got VERY lucky last Thursday.

The BBC Africa "midday position" at 10:47 UTC on January 25 was latitude 30.60368 north and longitude -172.9149 east moving at 13.2 knots on a heading of 88 degrees. Using Google Earth, we put the coordinates in the search bar and located her position as just northwest of the Hawaiian Islands.

Her "midnight position" (at 23:30 UTC - 10:00 PM EST), is latitude 30.59844 north and longitude -169.6817 east.  She has slowed to 13.0 knots and is still heading 88 degrees.  Her course puts her on track for Ensenada, Baja California Mexico.   So, it turns out my original guess of Vancouver British Columbia was incorrect.

So it turn out that Jeff Druek's 12 step program really works.  Well sort of.

Written by Les.