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.
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