Here is the last photo of the Porgy coming into Southampton before she slipped behind the webcam. I have a screen capture that shows the ship positions ten minutes earlier (when the webcam photo shown below was taken), but I am not sure if you really need that. This is the only photo that shows the Porgy close enough to identify her.

 

Oh, that won't be me. I gave up when I saw the time, and the 10 minute + 10 minute delay. It's not even my boat! Why would I be up in the middle of the night posting about i.... Oh wait.




I may have missed in the excitement. Are you both still waiting on a train?

 

Good job getting that last pic, RayRatt! Did those tugs move out of the way a bit (or did they move to help it park?)? I saw that almost immediately after the first camera, the sun started coming up, but I went to bed, where I need to go back to.

 

Well mine is officially booked for the Elektra! I knew it would be, but it is very comforting to see my VIN show up when I search for it.


Also, you guys are crazy stalking the boat as it comes in! (I will prob do the same thing for the Elektra)

 

Well, the car has been received at the terminal and is booked on the Porgy. Lets hope the car gets aboard and not be stranded at port.

 

Does ASK-MINI CS say anything different than "...is being transported to the port of exit?" when you get checked in/booked at the port? That was the last I had heard from UAL_/Ray, so I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Did anyone (successfully) stalk the train?

 

I tried stalking the train, I put my VIN in every spot, but nothing worked.

 

Well I finally figured out how to track & trace my mini's vin # on the shipping website. My mini is officially booked on the Elektra departing on Sept. 1st with Banannastand's mini headed for NYC - ETA is Sept. 9th.

I'm just going to have make myself very busy for the next 2 weeks so I don't make myself crazy wondering where it is every moment of the day. Yeah right - that's all I'll be doing. LOL

By the way - congrats to everyone who's mini was completed this week!

 

The last update I got from the ASK-MINI automated line (4 am PDT today) was "Your vehicle was released to a carrier and is awaiting transportation to the port of exit." The automated message only changes once a day as best I can tell.

The ASK-MINI live desk told me yesterday (6 pm) "Your vehicle is being transported to the port of exit." Today (at 9:00 am PDT), the live desk told me "Your vehicle is at the port of exit waiting for a shipping vessel."

 

Yes, that tool was great. The people at ASK-MINI are unable to track or report anything after the cars arrive at the dock. Knowing your car was booked and loaded is great.

Twiggy was "received at the terminal" at 3;00 pm (7:00 am PDT). However, as of right now, the Wallenius tracking system does not yet show Twiggy has been loaded - but I have no doubts about her being in line.

I would just as soon be the LAST car loaded. As you saw from the video showing how cars are packed together on the ship, the last car loaded is always the first car unloaded. And, when Porgy gets to the Port Hueneme VDC, I would like to be the first MINI off the ship and thus be the first car processed!

Interestingly, the Wallenius tracking site shows Twiggy was actually booked for this sailing on July 7, 2009. I did not order my MINI until August 1st. But, my MA told me that they gave me the production slot they had obtained for a car ordered on June 23rd - so that explains how they booked the car before I knew I wanted it!

 

OK folks, it is less than 2-1/2 hours until the Porgy is scheduled to leave the dock. The original departure time was 6:00 pm, but I see it is now been moved back to 8:30 pm (I guess they wanted to be sure Twiggy was loaded?).

As UAL_Kingpin told us yesterday, you can track her (and see a picture every ten minutes) here:
http://www.ais-live.co.uk/Webcams/so...tonwebcam.html

After the Porgy gets out of view there, try watching her on this live webcam:
http://www.ais-live.co.uk/Webcams/solentwebcam.html

You can toggle back and forth by clicking on the two webcam links at the upper left side of those screens.

 

Yeah - they have my mini booked as of 8/10/09 and it arrived at the port on 8/27/09. I did order my car on 8/6/09 so it might be my car for the booking but who knows. The most important thing is that my baby will set sail on 9/1st.

 

So.. ummm... question I never thought I'd be asking a couple weeks ago, but....


Is the So'ton webcam frozen? Timestamp I'm seeing (yes, I've "manual refresh"ed) is 16:15, which was hours ago, no? And it looks cloudier than the other cam a couple miles toward the Channel...

 

The timestamp on the picture I was looking at 20 minutes ago was 19:25:16 - the timestamp for the overhead tracking map was 19:39:38. Ten minutes later, the photo timestamp was 19:35:16 and the picture had changed - it showed a large ship in the middle. Now, the ship is gone and the timestamp is 19:45:16. So, obviously the picture is updating OK - your connection may be faulty?

The photo is always up to ten minutes behind - but you already know that. Try reloading and see if things thaw.

 

I just saw that Twiggy was loaded on the Porgy at 4:57 pm. The original departure time was 6:00 pm, but it has been delayed to 8:30 pm (12:30 pm west coast time).

I think I ought to call the harbor master and tell him to get the show on the road - time is wasting and I am getting anxious!

 

Meh... It's my computer at work. I remoted home, and the cam is doing just fine (well, 10-20 minutes in arrears or whatever).

You're gonna be the one that calls the VDP to expedite your car's release, aren't you?

 

I wish! Actually, there is one thing we all need to do - make sure your MA has your MINI listed as "Priority 1" rather than Priority 3. Priority 1 is for cars that are already sold to a customer. The advantage is that the VDC will process all the Priority 1 cars before any of the others.

 

Well, the sun is setting in England - and the Porgy is still sitting at berth 34/35. I hope she is well on her way by the time all you working folks get home today. Meanwhile, I will keep watch for you.

 

I have to say, even though I know all of our MINIs are hitting the States at about the same time, I am quite jealous of all of you whose MINIs are leaving on a boat today!!!!

Congrats that they all made it tho!

 

And away we go!!! I thought I would be able to do a screen capture at 9:15 since the Porgy was in a direct line with the camera - but, she was almost a mile away and it was too dark to see anything. Maybe I can catch her with the Solent webcam in an hour or so when she passes by.

[well, I watched the Porgy go by the Solent webcam around 2:20 pm PDT (10:20 pm in England) - pitch black and only a couple lights to show there was a ship in the picture... like last night when she was coming into the harbor. The Porgy is presently traveling at 14.4 knots - once she gets out into the open seas I suspect she will pick up speed.]

The Porgy pulled away from the Southampton dock at 9:06 pm (1:06 pm PDT). I sure am glad all us west-coasters got our cars loaded! Now, all we need to do is wait a couple weeks until the Porgy gets to the Panama Canal (Manznillo) at 7:00 pm on September 8th.

 

STATUS FOR AUGUST 28, 2009

Banannastand, NY, 8/26 production completed, waiting for Elektra 9/1 departure, destination New York VDC

Blouise, NY, 8/28 production completed, waiting for Elektra 9/1 departure, destination New York VDC

JcM1n1, SoCal, aboard Porgy, ETA CA 9/18

Kencwallace, VA, (no status report)

Maui Meg, NJ, 8/26 production completed, waiting for Elektra 9/1 departure, destination New York VDC

N666BK, NJ, aboard Undine, ETA NY 9/4

Neverfifty, VA, aboard Undine, ETA NY 9/4

Norcaltinkerbell, NorCal, aboard Porgy, ETA CA 9/18

RayRatt, WA, "Twiggy" aboard Porgy, ETA CA 9/18

UAL_Kingpin's friend, SoCal, aboard Porgy, ETA CA 9/18

Y2K Falcon, TX, paint shop

SHIP TRACKING INFORMATION

Ship name - - - Callsign - - -Destination - - - - -ETA - -Who is aboard
Elektra - - - - - SIWB - - - - -New York, NY - - - - 9/10
Elektra - - - - - SIWB - - - - -Brunswick, GA - - - -9/15
Porgy - - - - - 2EZS8 - - - - Port Hueneme, CA - - 9/18 - JcM1n1, Norcaltinkerbell, RayRatt, UAL_Kingpin's friend
Undine - - - - - SHJC - - - - - New York, NY - - - -9/4 - -N666BK, Neverfifty

Use this site to track ship by NAME
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/dat...HIP&level1=220

Use this site to track ship by CALLSIGN (works better for open ocean tracking)
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/index.html

 

*cough* *cough*

 

Since your MINI started production a day after mine, I would think you should be in final assembly today - and certainly by tomorrow. In any case, you almost certainly can be sure your car has a sure bet to get on the Electra on Tuesday.

Any update?

 

I swore I wasn't going to start tracking the Porgy after it left the Southampton Harbor. But, I just had to try out the marinetraffic.com tracking system (it works good - thanks for the link UAL_Kingpin).

So, now it is time to sit back and quit worrying - it's party time!!

 

In looking at the Wallenius Wilhelmsen tracking page, I just noticed that the vast majority of the vehicles were loaded onto the Porgy between 8:20 am and 3:30 pm - but, there were 7 cars loaded a couple minutes before 5 pm (four were MINIs). One of those four MINIs was Twiggy. Talk about cutting it close!

The Porgy was originally scheduled to depart at 6 pm - so I am very thankful that someone held the boat for my MINI. Twiggy would have been very lonely if she had to wait another two weeks on the dock.