0001 The adventure begins........

On Thursday 13th March 2104, the adventure really started.  Most of the hard work and preparation to Troopie had been completed over the past 12 months, and today the car had to be delivered to Brisbane port for loading on the ship to take her to Seattle.  And, as always seems to happen, even after all this planning, it wasn't going to happen without some sort of drama to spice everything up !!

Ships don't always run to tight schedules, because of weather or other delays en route.  But some time ago I had been advised that the vessel that would be taking Troopie to Seattle wold probably load on the 13th March, not before.  So Janet and I set off down to Yackandandah down in Victoria for the wedding of Jonathon and Kate, son and soon-to-be daughter in law of our very good friends, Jos and Tony. We set off early so

I could get a US visa while I was in Melbourne, and then pick up John and Di Skidmore (our English friends) who had also flown out for the wedding, and had been on holiday in New Zealand for 2 weeks since we saw them at our daughter Sarah and Benn's home in Thailand in February when we had enjoyed the tiger and elephant adventures with them.  Anyway, no sooner were we in Victoria than I get a call from the shipping agent saying that cut off for delivering Troopie to the Brisbane docks was 2 pm on the 12th March - And I wasn't due to fly back into Brisbane after the wedding

until the evening of the 12th March !!  So, big panic, and I eventually asked the agent if he could get a special dispensation from the shipping company for me to deliver Troopie to the docks at the crack of dawn on the 13th March - Pleeeeeeeease ?    After a nervous wait the answer came through - Dispensation granted, so I could relax !! The alternative would have meant rescheduling flights (not cheap !!) and also missing a visit to Sydney on the 11th March when the Sydney Lotus Club had asked me to talk about my 2012 Alaska trip at their monthly meeting, which I was really looking forward to as I have lots of friends in the club down there.

Anyway, long story short, the wedding in Yackandandah was wonderful, and we had a wonderful week down there with some very good friends, and made some new ones, one of which lives in Santiago, Chile, so a useful connection !!   After a couple of days recovering in Yack, Janet and I returned to her brother Pete's place in Melbourne before I flew out to Sydney the next day, Janet flew back to the Gold Coast to pick up Trooper from his stay at Rod & Ellie our neighbour's house, and the Skidmore's flew out to spend one more (recovery ?) week in Thailand before flying back to UK to host Jonathan and Kate on their honeymoon !!

The talk at the Lotus Club in Sydney went really well, and it was great catching up with lots of very good friends there before I flew home the next morning.  Luckily I had packed Troopie up completely before we flew down south for the wedding, so all I had to do was a few minor things so I was ready to leave for Brisbane docks at 5 am the next morning.  Most important of these was to

buy a new and never-filled gas bottle for the cooker because the shipping company had also decided that sending an empty gas bottle wasn't good enough - It had to be gas free !! So a bit of a panic running around looking for a bottle the correct size, but eventually all sorted !

So before 7 am the next morning, I was at the docks, and Troopie was stickered up for the journey and then driven away onto the docks, for loading on the ship the next morning.  Funnily, the dock was the same one I had delivered my little Lotus Elise to almost exactly 2 years ago, so if anyone reading this thinks the photo looks familiar, they are correct !! Then my sailing buddy Jamie came to pick me up and take me home, and the countdown f the last 30 days in Australia started.  I will fly out to Seattle on the 14th April, and Troopie is scheduled to arrive there on the 15th.  With Easter due this year on the 18th / 19th / 20th April, I am hoping to get her released to me before the break, so fingers crossed.

In the meantime I am trying to do many of the things around the house that need to be done before I leave, as well as now trying to get a lot of the paperwork like routes and insurance and international driver's licences sorted out.

Surprisingly, out of the blue, my ex work boss over in Perth has called me up this week (22nd March) and asked if I could do some work for him up in Papua New Guinea !!  I have said yes, but told him I HAVE to leave here to the US on the 14th April.  So on that basis, I have accepted as it is an opportunity to put a few extra dollars into the bank before I head off on my trip !  So next week it is back to the jungles and head hunters of PNG.   Isn't life an adventure ?  Something always pops up just when you least expect it !

If anyone wants to see where Troopie is on the water, you can check on this tracking site  http://sagaweb.2wglobal.com/AppSchedules/vesselSearch.do   then type in the name of the Vessel "Titania", hit Search, then click on the voyage (FF410, the middle one), and you can then either see a list of the ports, or if you click "Map", see where she has got to. 

Next stop Seattle. 

Few more pics here :-   https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0001TheAdventureBegins?authkey=Gv1sRgCLui_r6wzovQwAE#