On the Atlantic!

Tuesday 21 July
At long last Sequel is on the Atlantic! Picture below courtesy of Starclass Yacht Transport's Facebook page and another way to follow the progress of the ship back to the Netherland's which may not get underway until Thursday.

Sequel loaded on to the Atlantic - at last!

Sequel is in the middle of ship - looking quite small and with her blue winter cover on the hood. 

Next post from Rotterdam - but still no idea when.

Alongside the Atlantic

Monday 20 July

We spent the weekend 'enjoying' the very hot sunshine, mostly hiding under sun umbrellas and driving around in the air-conditioned VW Up we have hired, and even swam in the sea once and then today, finally, we took Sequel alongside the Atlantic.

Sequel was returned to the water with the least amount of fuss and it took less than half an hour to cross to the port of Split. We soon discovered that the way off the boat, which had been troubling me, was to climb on to Sequel's rails and up and over the rails of the ship.

Now suffering from a massive feeling of anti-climax having waited so long for this to happen and still without a clue as to when the Atlantic will reach Rotterdam. But home tomorrow to cool down and more following 'vessel finder' avidly every day to see where the Atlantic is.

Approaching Atlantic 

Alongside, note the crane at the front of Atlantic and where to climb off Sequel and on to the ship

Aboard the Atlantic

Three boats on deck, room for Sequel and a large catamaran

Split, Croatia

Thursday 16 July 

Up at 3 a.m to fly Easyjet to Split. Gatwick heaving with holiday makers even at 4 a.m.  but enough staff on duty to get through security in good time and landed a few minutes early at Split airport which is actually nearer to a place called Togir and where we had decided to stay. We had also decided to hire a car and drove straight to the marina to check on Sequel. Sequel absolutely fine if a little warm and the temperature in our cabin up to 34 degrees. Found a small amount of shade down the side of the boat while Bruce changed some of the straps attached to the cover over the main part of the boat, the straps being a bit like a bungee and most of which had lost their boyingyness. Hard to imagine that he had spent his time at home deciding that this was a job to be done before Sequel sails home to the Netherlands - ended up joining in and have at last (possibly a bit too late now) learned to tie a bowline - but will probably have forgotten anyway if it crops up again.

News of ship not getting any better. Got really excited as we could see on vessel finder that the Atlantic was heading for Split to arrive Thursday afternoon! And then the next time we looked it was heading for a port just outside of Venice. Could not believe it - thought we had missed it. Then calmed down, thought it through and came to the conclusion it would return to Split. And then an email from the agents to say 'it was pretty much set in stone' that the Atlantic would be back in Split by Tueday 21 and we should be alongside by 8 a.m. that morning. Not so good as our flights home booked for that morning and due at the airport at 8 a.m. But along with this email was the name of the main man of Starclass-yacht transport and we were able to contact him direct and have arranged to go alongside the Atlantic sometime on Monday instead. This does mean, disappointingly, that we will not witness Sequel being loaded.

Friday 17

Ventured into Trogir last night for our evening meal and were yet again horrified by the amount of people. It looks like it is probably a lovely old town, set entirely on a small island of its own, but it was hard to tell through the crowds. 

Back to the boat shortly after 9 a.m. for a meeting with the Croatian agent who has been organising customs clearance and producing a T2L document (to prove community status) so Sequel can be shipped. There is yet another agent in Rotterdam to clear her back into the Netherlands. And we thought we were all part of one lovely big community. 

** So then time for some sightseeing and off we went to Split. Really losing heart to begin with as it all seemed so busy again and so much traffic but finally found somewhere to park, if a bit of a hike from where we hoped to be, but had a lovely time, first a coffee, then a beer and then lunch. My daughter would thoroughly approve of this type of sightseeing.

**slightly lost it when there some mention of washing the boat before our trip to Split - air quite blue 

Split

The Palace of Diocletian

Did I mention that it is 39 degrees here? 

Difference between a ship and a boat

Sunday 12 July

One explanation for the difference between a ship and a boat is that:

you can put a boat on a ship but you cannot put a ship on a boat.

I decided to Google the difference and then to stick with the one I have just given although quite liked this one too:

when a ship sinks you get in a boat, when a boat sinks you get in the water.

              

We have spent the last three weeks at home enjoying the garden and the English summer and catching up with family and friends and avidly watching the course of the ship which is supposed to be taking Sequel back to the Netherlands.

To start with we were following the wrong boat! But only because the shipping agents had told us the wrong name and now we are getting very close to a shipping date we are (almost) sure we are tracking the right one.  For anyone remotely interested the website is www.vesselfinder.com and the name of the ship is Atlantic IMO number 9573634 - today the Atlantic is on its way from Lavrion in Greece to Istanbul. The itinerary of the ship is ironically to then sail to Corfu and finally, by Saturday 18 July, to Split. We are a little perplexed as to why it was not suggested to us that we could take Sequel to either Laviron or Corfu and slightly annoyed that we have taken her all the way to Split.  At the same time we are pleased that we did get to Croatia on Sequel and that we have visited Dubrovnik, Korcula and we still plan to visit Split and Trogir.  

We go back to Split, therefore, on Thursday 16 and plan to return Sequel to the water until we are instructed what to do next.  We have an email that says we can take her alongside the Atlantic on Saturday with a view to possibly loading her some time that day or possibly on the morning of Monday 20 July.  Some things still remain a bit of a mystery such as at what stage do we get off Sequel and what on to? It is making me feel anxious but Bruce appears to be very relaxed.  I am a little suspicious as to how relaxed he is when he sighs loudly in the middle of showering and tells me he is thinking about Croatia!? 

Atlantic

Hope to be able to take more photos of Sequel sitting on the Atlantic later on this week!