So the motto for freighter travel is “Be Flexible” and I have already learned what that means.
Last Friday, shortly after I arrived in Sioux City, I received a call from Joycene at Freighter World Cruises. She was calling to inform me that the cargo ship I had booked for my transatlantic passage had broken down and was canceling all it’s North American stops. This was a bit of a shock. I had expected a day or two of delay due to loading problems or customs concerns, but not a full cancellation. She told me there might be some options available but due to the short notice she couldn’t promise me anything. There was also nothing further she could find out until Monday as the German offices for the shipping company were closed for the weekend.
Over the past few days I’ve been scouring the Internet looking for any other ship passage that could get me to Europe in a similar time frame to what I had anticipated. Last minute booking for transatlantic passage? Not advisable.
I found a cruse ship that would take me in half the time for the same price (effectively double the price) but it wouldn’t be leaving from New York until August 31st. I found a couple other freighter booking companies, but they seemed to operate the same lines that Freighter World does, and Freighter World has the best reputation from all the sources I’ve been able to review. I started considering changing the path of my trip by heading back to the West coast and going the transpacific route, but this would have created significant issues with all the Visas I would need to gather before my departure.
Finally I was starting to come to grips with the possibility that i might have to fly to get to Europe before the whole place turned into a rainy snowy mess.
About 20 minutes ago I received another call from Joycene and she had some good news and some options. There were two lines that had cabins available and one of those was run by the same company that had the money from my last ticket. Feeling that sticking with the same company and not having refunds, checks, and multiple Germany – United States FedEx deliveries was the way to go, I decided to stick with them. I’ll still be leaving from Savannah, but now on August 12th instead of July 21st., and arriving in Antwerp instead of Valencia. It’s a 10 day cruise instead of a 12 day so I’ll make up a little time there. The question is… will I still be able to make it to La Tomatina in Spain?
This sets my departure back by nearly 22 days. Luckily I’m at my parents house in Iowa figuring all this out instead of on a pier in Savannah, Van-less, and having to figure out where to sleep. But this is the game, this is exactly what I signed up for and I knew it going in. Specific expectations will get you in trouble on the road, you must “be flexible”.