FI Flyer

Thanks to Eric at Bumperplugs, I now know which vessel my car is on. She is the "Marina Ace" which left Emden, Germany on April 16 which is the same date that I got my On Vessel notification. She is due in Baltimore on May 5.



I can -- and will -- track her position at the marinetraffic.com website.

The easiest way is to put "Marina Ace" (using the quotes) into Google and then click on the link to the marinetraffic.com site for the vessel. That brings up a page for the Marina Ace and a link to Current Vessel Track. Click it and you get a chart with the current position of the ship and its track from Emden.

As I write this, the Marina Ace is still in German waters outside the North Sea barrier islands. She is making something between 10 and 15 knots which seems fast to a sail boat sailor but only adds up to about 250 knots per day. And its a big ocean.

Still, it is great to be able to track my car's progress across the Atlantic.

FI Flyer

With a lot of magnification and no less imagination, I have convinced myself that the cars to the right of the ship are Porsches.

Oh yes, and according to some of the online documentation, the Marina Ace did not leave on the 16th. It seems that she left today, April 20th.

StickShift964

dude, want me to take you for a spin so you can ease the anxiety?

Alfaguy2

I just checked i now and its just north of Holland. It says its destination is Davisville which I assume is the port on Rhode Island that many other European car manufacturers use. ETA April 29th ?

I can't afford a new 911 but I did buy a new Alfa Romeo GT in 2005 and wanted to track its progress from Italy too and to be advised when it was arriving at my dealer (I wanted to see it unloaded from the truck). Typically I was told nothing and the first I heard about it was a week after it arrived at the dealer.

The Alfa Romeo GT is a neat car - but not available in the USA.

FI Flyer

Where did you find the reference to Davisville and the April 29th ETA?

Eric - Plug Guy

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shi...MMSI=356067000

Fin Fever

you should find somebody with a boat, and go out to sea to greet her
then you can escort her in to port. I am sure this is a very difficult time, but soon you will have your P-car.

FI Flyer

The ship with my car will be very close to me in New York as it sails south from Rhode Island to Baltimore. Alas, it will not stop.

StickShift964

RI is closer, and easier to bring it down here from, why would they drop them all in MD?

FI Flyer

Porsche processes its East Coast imports in Baltimore. The stop in RI is to drop off cars by other manufacturers that are on the same ship.

(As I write this, the Marina Ace is exiting the English Channel, headed south of the Isles of Scilly and into the North Atlantic. She seems to be making roughly 16 knots although her speed has varied.)

FI Flyer

I need more help. (Sorry.)

I have been tracking the progress of the Marina Ace from Emden, through the English Channel, under Ireland and into the Atlantic. This morning she more-or-less vanished. No disaster; she is simply reported as out of range.

So my question is: How do I track the ship across the Atlantic?

StickShift964

nobody was tracking christopher columbus, and he made it to the americas, right?

FI Flyer

If they had been, they might have been troubled by the fact that he thought he was on another continent! As might he.

Fin Fever

It's all in how AIS works. Pretty interesting actually. Each vessel in turn will briefly transmit it's identifier and position and then flip back to listening mode to recieve the data from other vessels. This is all transmitted via VHF which is a limited line of site radio signal. Usually VHF cannot be recieved much beyond about 20 miles. The data will leapfrog from vessel to vessel, until it ultimately reaches a recieving station which sends this info to the website. Here is a link with a more detailed description.

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/enav/ais/how_ais_works.htm

FI Flyer

Interesting if (for a poor non-engineer) difficult.

But is there a way to see where the ship is -- or was, recently?