Phil's stressful ponderings!

As our loyal followers will know, we had entered the 1934 Railton in the Classic Safari Challenge which runs from 9 October to early November in southern Africa.

Two weeks before the Railton was due to be shipped, it started to overheat which turned out to be a cracked block.   So, the engine is off to the third engine builder for a complete rebuild using a spare block we had stored.

The upshot of this is that the poor old Puce Goose is pressed into service again.

Regular readers will be aware that we have had a lot of trouble in other rallies with rear springs, having to undertake repairs and spring rebuilds on rest days or at the end of a hard days rallying.   With time short, we spoke to Chris and Marlene from Morgan Cars Australia and they offered us a set of later model Roadster rear springs which were surplus to their requirements.    Anticipating having to modify them to fit, we were astounded when they bolted straight in, even the axle mounting pin being in a suitable position.  Those springs raised the rear ride height by around 50mm – something which will be very useful in Africa    

On the day that I drove back from our factory to home from where we were taking the car to the shippers in a couple of days time, I smelled a burning odour and returned to the workshop.  There I discovered that the ignition switch / lock had disintegrated and caused the starter motor to turn continuously whilst I was driving.  Result was destroyed starter motor ( now full of powdered innards ) and the need for another switch.   Again, Morgan Cars Australia came to the rescue.  We now have a new ignition switch fitted along with a spare starter which we had on the shelf.

Many thanks to Chris and Marlene from Morgan Cars Australia.

The Goose was taken out to the container yard and lashed down in a container for transport to the docks.

We intended to collect the car in Durban around 29 September and spend a relaxed week driving down to Cape Town for the start of the rally.

We chose a shipping schedule with a 33 day transit time which would have easily met the required dates in Durban, arriving on or about 19 September.   However, the shippers had changed their itinerary without advising our agent and along with severe port congestion and wild weather in Durban, the expected arrival date for the ship was 4 October, some two weeks later than we anticipated. Too late for clearance and driving to Cape Town for the rally.   

Eventually after considerable effort on my part harassing everyone concerned, the ship was to now call at Coega, the port for Port Elizabeth instead of going to Durban where the expected berthing date was getting further away with every passing day.  No one at the shipping line had any idea as to the actual situation.  The next email received by us however stated that the shipping line HQ in Geneva had vetoed a change of port

On the eve of our departure to Africa, I telephoned the Mediterranean Shipping line HQ in Geneva and eventually spoke to someone who was involved in the transit of our ship.  I pointed out the situation very bluntly and reminded them of their broken commitments.  They asked for an email which I then sent, again containing extracts from the multitude of emails received from them all, containing incorrect or misleading information.  That person rang me back at home an hour later and said that they were indeed now looking to redirect the ship to Port Elizabeth

Arriving in Johannesburg the next night we found an email containing our agents confirmation that they had redirected the ship as indicated with a view to it docking on 3 October – just enough time to get it cleared and for us to dash down to Cape Town

The next five days resulted in more changing of dates and uncertainty

As I sit writing this on Tuesday afternoon, the intended berthing is now 2.00 am Thursday 5 October.  We hope to have the car unloaded and customs cleared by late Monday or Tuesday next week.  Too late to meet the rally start but soon enough for a cross country 2-3 day dash to catch the rally in Namibia..

Not everyone can claim to have had a mega tonne container ship diverted at their own request.