Quick question: how long would it take a ship to sail from Busan to NYC’s sixth boro? How long, Yokohama to here? A flight might be around 24 hours. Answer follows specifically for these two ships.
Maersk Sirac arrived here Saturday during that wild weather.
Bruce A. McAllister was one of the escort vessels.
R stands for Ray Car Carriers, and if you’ve been paying attention to world events, you know that another vessel of that fleet is anchored these days in a place it has not chosen to anchor in. You get it? That will also give you a clue to answer the question about voyage length.
Rowan M. McAllister assists from port bow side of Serenity Ace, a half hour later.
Here’s more about Ray. If you have time to listen to this 14-minute video by Dr. Sal Mercogliano, you’ll begin to appreciate the complexity of contemporary shipping and the global supply chain.
To answer the questions at the top, Maersk Sirac arrived here after 27 days from Busan. Serenity Ace took a month and 22 days from Yokohama. That’s a long time, but given issues in the Red Sea and in the Panama Canal, I’m guessing Serenity may have come around Cape of Good hope. Maybe someone can confirm that.
For a time, voyage lengths may be increasing, a fact not visible while watching ships come and go through the Narrows.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
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January 17, 2024 at 3:18 pm
Anonymous
When I worked as a vessel agent for Hapag Lloyd they had a pair of ships on the 3-stop Asia/3-stop US schedule and on their usual departure from Hong Kong it was 34-50 days door to door. The food orders, fuel orders, spares and crew changes for those 4 ships were all sorts of trouble and they’d start about ~200 miles from the Balboa entrance.
January 18, 2024 at 9:31 am
Anonymous
The distance steamed 14, 500 miles via the Cape, Singapore to NY, in approx. 44 days, speed would be approx. 13.7 mph, which is reasonable for this route.
January 18, 2024 at 11:07 am
tugster
More context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH93uJ3EBzU