- By Feray Yuksekbas Kavas, Sales Executive, MTS Logistics

What if I told you that there is a great option to travel other than flying, for those of you who hate waiting in line at crowded airports, or those who are tired of paying for extra luggage fees?  Maybe “Freighter Travel” is something for you?

Or maybe you care so much about your precious cargo, that you want to travel with your containers? Sit next to them on the voyage, sing to them when the waters are rough? I am just kidding of course, but Freighter Travel is no joke.  1% of the worlds steamship lines offer cargo and passenger voyages.

When I first heard about this phenomenon I imagined what a unique experience it must be. You will be on a cargo vessel in the middle of the ocean with very small number of the passengers along with you, hanging out with the ship crew and not to mention tons of cargos or thousands of containers on board. Anyhow I found this a very different way to travel and did a little research on it. Here are couple good reasons for why you may want to try this one-of-a-kind traveling experience:

First of all cargo ships may cover less touristic parts of the world compared to cruise ships, so you may get a chance to see more unique and untouched places.

Here is another good reason to be a Freighter Traveler. When you are passenger on a cargo ship you usually get to dine with the Captain or the officers; it sounds cool right? I mean on the airplanes forget about dining, you do not even get to see the pilot. You just hear his announcements time to time from the cockpit. Also if you consider yourself an environmentalist, choosing the cargo vessels is the greenest form of traveling.

The reason being that shipping is the greenest form of cargo transport and you will be considered a tiny part of the container ship’s cargo. Even though you are traveling on a container ship you do not have to sleep in a container…
 Accommodation is generally comfy in the passenger cabins, that are assigned each passenger. All cabins have windows, but don’t get your hopes up for a great view; sometimes the view can be blocked by the containers placed on deck.

Here the best reasons of all, in my opinion: You can bring AS MUCH LUGGAGE AS YOU CAN FIT INTO YOUR CABIN, so for people moving to another country or who like to travel with their entire wardrobe, this might save you a lot on shipping your things by air.

Now that your thinking Freight Traveling sounds kinda cool, you must be wondering how it works? Basically, you are paying a cargo vessel to transport you along with whatever they are carrying across the sea. You can sail from the US and Europe to China, Japan, and India in a container ship. Imagine having your own ship for yourself (+ five to twelve other passengers)  instead of the 5,000 you would have to share a similar size cruise ship with.

Today’s passenger freighters mostly are German or French owned containerships, with international officers and crew onboard, offering accommodations for 4 to 12 passengers. They take maximum 12 passengers on board the vessel because ships are required to hire a doctor if more than 12 passengers are present. When on board the vessel you will be given a small cabin and you will have access to crew facilities, such as the lounge, a mess hall and common areas on the ship. You will be served three meals a day and bed linens and towels will be changed once or twice a week. The fare is paid daily and surprisingly it may not be the cheapest option to travel.

It seems very comparable to cruising however there is the downside: incredibly long transit time. Only people who can afford the time spent on these long trips, can enjoy a different and memorable travel experience. As these are cargo vessels they call more then a of couple ports for loading or unloading cargo, that may can take from 12 to 36 hours. You will need to have all visas for these stops in your passport to be allowed to travel. So prepare well!

Feray Yuksekbas Kavas is a Sales Executive at MTS Logistics Inc. Feray graduated from Istanbul University with a BA.

I was walking along the seawall at the US Naval Academy last night when I saw the slightly lit shape of a huge sailboat moving silently and easily amongst a flotilla of yachts anchored in Annapolis Harbor.  They didn’t appear to be boats left over from the Annapolis Sailboat Show the week before, their decks were cluttered with gear and didn’t have the shiny look of a new boat.  Annapolis is a popular Fall stopover point for sailors from the Northeast who aim to sail their boats south to the Caribbean for the winter, or to points beyond.

Back in 1998, my parents had been anchored off that very seawall before heading south for Norfolk and the start of the Caribbean 1500, a rather laid back ocean race from the Chesapeake Bay to the Virgin Islands.   The trip south in 1998 however, was by no means laid back.  The remnants of Hurricane Mitch blew across the fleet, and at least one boat was lost.  During the storm, my parents and crew hove-to for the night and made it to the Islands with no issues.  10 years, 50,000 miles, and countless adventures later, Calypso eventually returned to her home waters on east coast of the United States.

Although more than twice as long, and with a more modern design, this dark hull sliding through the water in Annapolis was similar in many ways to Calypso.   From a quarter-mile away it was clear she was built for one purpose, to explore the far corners of our planet via the high seas.

She reminded me of the Seamaster, a boat once sailed by New Zealand explorer and famed ocean yacht racer Sir Peter Blake.  In 2001, while sailing up the Amazon River on an environmental expedition, he was attacked and murdered by robbers.  Peter Blake had been a hero of mine since I was kid.  For someone who had never gone faster than 8 knots on a sailboat, watching him and his crew in the 1989 Whitbread Round-the-World Race blaze through  the Southern Ocean on the 90-foot Steinlager II was nothing short of incredible.

This morning, through my apartment window facing Back Creek, two huge masts came into view and quickly spun around.  This huge, aluminum hulled beast that I had seen last night was stopping by the fuel dock a block away from my door.  Megayachts and shiny raceboats were a pretty familiar sight, and the wow factor has worn off over the years, but this boat was definitely unique.  It had a mostly plumb bow, a bare aluminum hull, and deck hardware that looked like it came off a tugboat.  This boat was built to go places, and I knew I had to go down there to see what the story was behind this yacht with the words PANGAEA painted on her bow.

As I walked up to PANGAEA, I met a number of young adults who spoke heavily accented English and were busy refueling and filling the yacht’s water tanks.  Apparently there was an air bubble somewhere in their fuel system that was turning this rather simple routine into an all-day affair of filling up and emptying out jerry cans.

Unbeknownst to me, the skipper of PANGAEA was directing operations from her beam and he was the first person I met.

“Who is Mike Horn?” I asked him.

The name was in huge letters on the both masts and I figured there had to be a connection…

“That’s me,” he responded.

I had no idea who I had just met, but I soon found out that I was talking to one of the most accomplished explorers on our planet.

Over the course of his life, Mike has racked up more adventures than any 1000 people that I know.  He is the Dos Equis guy, if you had to pick a real-life version.

Mary Buckheit, a former writer for ESPN, who is now Mike Horn’s Communications and Media Relations Director, was there this morning to give me the scoop on this rugged looking, South African-accented, individual whom I had just met.  In an article she wrote for ESPN earlier this year, she described Mike:

Mike Horn horn after solo-traversing the Arctic Ocean via the North Pole. He arrived at a village called Kugaaruk, (otherwise known as Pelly Bay), a small Inuit village situated on the west coast of Simpson Peninsula on the mainland of Canada. Mike progressed at an average of about 15kms a day, battling against temperatures ranging somewhere between -40°C and -60°C

He once walked out the front door of a camp on the equator, and 18 months later, after the circumvolution of the globe at latitude zero on foot, bicycle, canoe and sail, he entered through the back door.

He speaks fluent Afrikaans, English, Spanish, German, French, Russian and Dutch … in a mellifluous Cape Town accent.

When he was 28, he had a huge party to give away his house, his car and all of his belongings before up and moving to a foreign country — sight unseen — on a standby ticket.

His blood smells like cologne.

He walked across Siberia for one and a half years. Alone.

His hands feel like rich, brown suede.

A tow truck once hauled away his illegally parked U-Haul from a Dunkin Donuts. He saw it being yanked from the car park and tore after it on foot. He caught up, scaled the truck’s cab, threw open the door and — amid an extempore scuffle — accidentally broke the driver’s arm. An ambulance and cruisers arrived. Cops seized Horn immediately and threw him against the wall. After only a few minutes of questioning, the sheriff felt inclined to release Horn (and his vehicle) ungrudgingly and citation-free. The squad then provided a police escort through the city to Horn’s awaiting plane for an on-time departure.

Hearing this story, and looking at the boat before me, I knew that I had definitely made the right call by coming down to the fuel dock.  I was crossing paths with a very unique person.  An individual filled with stories only those who live on the bleeding edge of life can truly understand or appreciate.

He should be dead.  I mean, anyone who begins stories with, “when I was walking through the Congo on my way to Somalia” is either lying to you, or the story is just never told because they disappeared along the way, never to be seen again.   The days of exploration are over, this kind of shit just doesn’t happen anymore.

Fortunately for the teenagers on board PANGAEA, there are still real life adventures to be had, and Mike Horn is still alive to lead them.  In fact, PANGAEA had just arrived in Annapolis after completing a traverse of the Northwest Passage from the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, and is on her way to Florida to explore the Everglades before an expedition next year far up the Amazon River.

On board PANGAEA, Mike is leading the Young Explorers Program (YEP), an ongoing sailing expedition around the world that exposes teenagers to real-life, harsh environment adventures, while at the same time giving them a personal view and the ability to act on important environmental issues around our planet.   Since 2008, Mike has taken the Young Explorers on nine expeditions which included notable stops in Monaco, the Arctic and Nunavut Canada, New Zealand, Antarctica, Mongolia, South Africa and Borneo.

Sounds cool right?

Guess what else… it’s completely free for all participants.

This is no vacation however…

If chosen to participate in this program, youngsters can expect long days filled with watch standing, cooking, cleaning, navigating, and learning how to maintain this traveling classroom at sea.  The theme of the YEP is to promote exploration, learning, and to provide teens with the tools necessary for follow-on action.  While part of this program, projects are undertaken within the areas of Ecology and Conservation, Water and Sanitation, or Social Community involvement.

After tens of thousands of ocean miles, very little has been able to slow this boat down, or Mike Horn for that matter.  Fortunately for me however, a pesky air bubble was all it took to keep them in Annapolis for a few extra hours.

PANGAEA has three more expeditions ahead of her before the end of 2012 including stops in the Florida Everglades, the Gulf of Mexico, Patagonia, Brazil, and back to East Africa. Interested 15-20-year-olds may still apply via Mike’s website at www.mikehorn.com.

This weeks photo was taken by gCaptain Staff from a roof top in downtown San Francisco, California. It is of a Container Ship operated by Yang Ming passing through San Francisco Bay.

Oasis of the Seas set a new record of carrying over 6,000 passengers. She is owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International.

“The ship was completed and turned over to Royal Caribbean on 28 October 2009. Two days later, she departed Finland for the United States. While exiting the Baltic Sea, the vessel passed underneath the Great Belt Fixed Link in Denmark on 1 November 2009. The bridge has a clearance of 65 m (213 ft) above the water; Oasis normally has an air draft of 72 m (236 ft). The passage under the bridge was possible due to retraction of the tele scoping funnels, and an additional 30 cm (12 in) was gained by the squat effect whereby vessels travelling at speed in a shallow channel will be drawn deeper into the water. Approaching the bridge at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), the ship passed under it with less than 2 feet (60 cm) of clearance.” wikipedia.org

Oasis Of The Seas – Sea Trials Video

Before Oasis of the Seas welcomes guests she will undergo two sea trials to prove herself on open waters. See how well she fared on her first sea trial and what the results mean for Royal Caribbean and their guests.

Official Video of the Oasis Of The Seas from Royal Caribbean.

OASIS OF THE SEAS – BIGGEST CRUISE SHIP IN THE WORLD – ROYAL CARIBBEAN OFFICIAL VIDEO REVIEW

Hawaii Superferry said Monday that it will cease operations in light of a state Supreme Court ruling that it was unfairly allowed to bypass an environmental review.  The Superferry has been under fire from critics who argue its use could harm whales and damage marine life.

In 2005, the State declared the Superferry exempt from such a review, but it was later ruled that an environmental study was needed before the vessel could operate.  Later in 2007, a special law was passed stating that the Superferry could run while an environmental assessment was drafted.  It was this special law, called Act 2, that on Monday was argued unconstitutional and sent the case back to Circuit Court, forcing the Superferry to cease operations.

Hawaii Superferry offered the following statement on their website:

Obviously we are hugely disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision that Act 2 is unconstitutional. We have operated on a regular, reliable and responsible basis for the past 11 months. During this time over 250,000 people have booked travel on Alakai and it has provided new economic opportunities for Hawaii’s businesses.

While the appeal is not yet final because a judgment on appeal has not been entered, we want to proceed prudently and have decided to cease operations for the present.

Our first priority is to take care of our customers, both those who have recently traveled and need to return to either Oahu or Maui and those who have future bookings. We will make one additional round trip to get vehicles back to their homes this Thursday.

More on this at AP

Last week we brought you information on marine license insurance and in our continuing quest to look at non-traditional protection available to mariners we bring you Global Rescue – Maritime!

Mariners work in conditions that make getting immediate medical treatment extremely difficult. Most mariners and shipping companies do not have the assets to quickly and smoothly move injured or ill mariners off the ship and to qualified medical facilities much less to a hospital of their choice. When they do, Aeromedical transports can cost well over $100,000US and are rarely covered by insurance.

Even when a shipping company has a track record of evacuating injured mariners they rarely offer the level of service a good third party company can provide. For example:  Will your company send you to a hospital in the nearest country or get you home fast? Will they provide a qualified medivac team at the closest point of land? Will the patient and their family’s concerns remain top priority?  With Global Rescue the answer is YES!  They also are discrete, important if you worry about your company’s reaction to a medical concern.

Global Rescue tells us:

Through its ability to provide real-time medical consulting anywhere in the world from its specialists at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Global Rescue is able to relay critical medical support to sick or injured mariners while they are thousands of miles from a hospital or out of the range of a medivac aircraft. Since most ocean-going vessels do not possess medically trained and equipped crews, Global Rescue provides ship captains the confidence and peace of mind needed to be sure injured sailors will be well cared for until rescue teams can reach the vessel.

In addition to its medical consultation services, the Boston-based crisis response company has a network of medically equipped, fixed and rotary-wing aircraft on every continent, thousands of vetted hospitals worldwide who can provide treatment in any patient’s language, and a selection of Centers of Excellence around the globe that offer medical care on par with that available in the United States. Its deployable paramedics routinely respond to emergencies in the most remote reaches of the planet.

When a shipmate is injured off an unfamiliar coast, Global Rescue will give you the confidence to stabilize him on board and the knowledge that first-rate medical providers are deployed to the closest point of land. Family members will be comforted in the knowledge that Global Rescue will keep them informed and expedite his return to a hospital of their choice.

While many of us think insurance is an unneccessary expense, it’s important to note that like a firefighting or personal survival training… when ship hits the fan it too late to start preparing.

If your ship travels to unusual places or you simply want a cost effective back up to your company’s medical plan visit their maritime website or call them at +1.800.381.9754. Be sure to mention you are a mariner or shipping company as this is a specialty service they provide to seafarers at no additional cost.

Also be sure to download their Mission Summaries pdf for some truly amazing stories of rescue.

Adding to Dubai’s portfolio of lucrative development projects, Dubai Maritime City looks be yet another world first.  Mark Burns from Property-Dubai.tv explains:

Described as the world’s first purpose built maritime centre, Dubai Maritime City is a state of the art development zone, designed to act as a regional hub for the maritime business in Dubai. A genuinely mixed use development, Dubai Maritime City will also offer a range of luxury residential and commercial opportunities ensuring that the area becomes a focal point for the near 5,000 regional maritime companies working in Dubai. As well as the residential, industrial and commercial areas, the development will also include a large maritime research academy, designed to offer the companies in the regional access to the very latest developments and technology within the marine industry.

As with many of the free zone development areas in Dubai, Maritime City is designed to create a regional hub of sector specific companies. Within the development, there will be a focus on six major sectors within the maritime industry: marine services, marine management, product marketing, marine research and education, recreation and ship design and manufacturing. The only facility of its kind in the world, Dubai Maritime City seems set to become a global ‘centre of excellence’ for the maritime industry.

Check out this animated video that describes all Dubai Maritime City has to offer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Upon completion in 2012, Dubai Maritime City will be the world’s largest maritime development.  It will sit on a 2.27 square-kilometer man-made peninsula, consisting of over 30 million cubic meters of dredged sand and over 2.5 million cubic meters of rock, strategically located between Dubai’s Port Rashid terminal and Dubai Drydock.

For more information, check out the Dubai Maritime City official website HERE

Also, check out some more of Dubai’s record breaking buildings and amazing architectural projects HERE

NewYorkology tells us of the first / last ever meeting of its three grand ships;

Cunard’s one-time-only royal rendezvous of its three queens — the QE2, QM2 and recently christened Queen Victoria — will be celebrated at 7 p.m. on January 13 with a harbor fireworks show as the three grand cruise liners meet near the Statue of Liberty.

The QE2 and Queen Victoria will arrive in tandem (likely pre-sunrise) from Southampton, England. During the day, the QE2 will be docked at Manhattan’s Pier 92 and the Queen Victoria nearby at Pier 88. The Queen Mary 2 will arrive separately (also early morning,) and dock in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

All three have bridge cams (Queen Victoria, QM2 and QE2) and Cruise Critic Ben Lyons is blogging the voyage.

UPDATE:

Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press

The New York Times has reported on the festivities. They write:

In the annals of maritime history, the Queens’ sailing was momentous. It was the first time in the 168-year history of the Cunard Line, the owner of the liners, that it had three ships named after British queens in the same port at the same time. The company arranged the ships’ schedules so that they departed from New York City ports simultaneously.

The Queens’ meeting, witnessed by thousands on shore and on board, will also be their last, company officials said.

“They are not programmed to meet in any other port,” Cunard’s president, Carol Marlow, said during an afternoon news conference at Pier 88 in Manhattan, with the docked Queen Victoria visible in background. “This is a spine-tingling time.”

The Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard’s longest-serving ship, left Manhattan for its 26th and final around-the-world journey — a farewell tour that will usher in its retirement in November, when the liner will become a floating hotel in Dubai. The Queen Victoria, which came into service last month, embarked on its maiden world cruise. And the Queen Mary 2, the largest trans-Atlantic liner ever built, weighing about 151,400 gross tons, sailed to the Caribbean from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

Click HERE to continue reading.

The stats are in and 2007 was a bad year for lost baggage. We hope that you take crucial items like your license with you in a carry-on bag but what about you’re knife? Travel Better has a solution:

So I was wondering if you know if it’s possible to get a temporary PO box or a similar thing in order to mail your shampoo, cologne and other liquids to yourself at your destination city ahead of time to make sure you know it’s there before you even step on the plane. Are there such services?

Why yes!

You’ve got a few options, actually, and as long as you’re packing well and not mailing things that violate postal service regulations, then this could be a great way to avoid checked luggage, avoid the theatrics of the TSA war on moisture, and avoid having to buy stuff at your destination, all in one swoop!

There are essentially three options:

1. Your hotel
   Where you stayin’? Call the hotel, ask if they hold mail for guests, and what the restrictions are. In all likelihood, this will be the most convenient and most reliable way for you to receive packages. Tip: Be sure you include “hotel guest” after your name when you address the package.
2. Post office
   The magic words: “Poste restante,” or “general delivery.” Poste restante is an old fashioned mail-pickup service that most countries’ postal services still provide. Mail is addressed to a person, but in lieu of an address for delivery, the mail is sent to a post office branch, where you pick it up.
3. American Express
   American Express cardmembers and travelers’ check holders can have mail sent to an American Express Travel Services office anywhere in the world. Call them before sending them mail, and ask if they receive and hold Amex client mail. Not every office will do it.

For more details on these options CLICK HERE. Also check out some of their other tips:

• The airline changed its schedule, what are my rights?
• What kind of point-earning credit card is best?
• Which airfare comparison site is the best?
• Rating the hotel metasearches
• How to lounge in airports
• Tips on finding discounted first class fares.
• I don’t care where I go, it just has to be cheap
• Where to find cheap last-minute or emergency tickets

(Photo by massdistraction)

Our friends over at Telstar Logistics has a related post of interest:

Small Comfort: The Sky-High Cost of Airline Travel in 1954