Day One Saturday (and a bit of Friday) Flat Batteries and traffic jams.

Well we all met up on the ferry port for what we thought was a 18:00 sailing, but we were the last vehicles on the ferry and it was sailing out of port just after half past four. Because of the rush getting onto the ferry the famous red books ended up locked on the vehicle safely in the hold.

The red books are a set of folders one per vehicle that holds all the vital information and documents that you need on the convoy. Things like the running order, and CB handles of the convoy as well as contact details for the whole convoy (Including dates of birth, no one can lie about their age on convoy), the route that we hope to take and the letters of invitation from the countries that we are taking aid to, the manifest and customs papers are also included. Basically everything that you need is contained in these books.

First thing to do on the boat is to find your cabins dump your overnight bags and then it’s the all-important first convoy meeting. This is where the convoy leaders go through everything in the red book and how convoy will run, but unfortunately the red books were still in the vehicle so Steve (one half of the Convoy Leadership and Monster Socks) had to try and explain as best he could, he did a fine job.

It was our first opportunity to chat with our four Irish colleagues who again rely on the vehicles being supplied by Eircom and An Post, who also release the drivers from their duties as well. All this is done with a great deal of support and help from CWU Ireland. It is only the second year that CWU Ireland has sent vehicles on CWUHA convoy so all the drivers are convoy virgins. You can rest assure that if the aid is anything like the aid that they brought in their first year it will be greatly appreciated.

The convoy leaders wanted to get a flyer today and put some serious miles under our belts while we were on good roads (all that went to pot straight away and the day continued to frustrate us) The day got off to a bad start with our vehicle the boppers having a flat battery, we got the ferry crew to try and help us and they came out with a battery pack to start the vehicle with. After much debate over whether to use 24vols or 12volts (we told them 24) they connected the cable to 24v and we tried to start the vehicle. No success, so the crew decided to switch the pack to the 12v setting, connected it to the battery and with a shower of sparks and yelps of surprise blew up the charger. We eventually push started the vehicle with a fork lift truck pushing it and Ray behind the wheel.

We just got going and had built up a head of steam when we hit our first traffic jam of the day, this was caused by the Dutch shutting an entire section of the motorway between a couple of junctions (Yes the entire motorway, on a Saturday, during the day). They also neglected to put up any diversion signs to tell us how far the motorway was closed for and how we would get back to it, but never fear we have the trusty Sat Nav to help us through such things. Unfortunately the Sat Nav just kept telling us to turn around and John Cleese started to get very angry (That’s the voice on the Sat Nav). Eventually Mr Cleese started sulking with us for not taking any notice of him and forgot to tell us where to turn off the motorway we were on to get back onto route. This sparked the debate of human evolution over technology as the convoy leaders thought they should be turning off but because the Sat Nav was telling them not to they didn’t turn off at the junction. Then 10 seconds after the junction Mr Cleese smugly informed the convoy leaders that they should have come off at that junction (1 – Nil to technology). The Sat Nav was switched off and put on the naughty step for the next couple of hours.

We eventually got back on track and ploughed on to Germany and proceeded to hit another traffic jam, they like the Dutch had decided to close a motorway that we were routed to use (How inconsiderate of them, surely they knew of the important aid we were carrying). This time good old fashioned paper maps were used to find us an alternative route and we came through this leg of the journey with flying colours (human evolution pulls one back to level the scored at 1-1)

Eventually we approached Koblenz slightly off our intended route, slightly behind time but the convoy was still in good spirits none the less, the banter is lively over the radios and the Irish are having the Crack. The Sat Nav scored a late winner for technology (Technology win 2 – 1) by locating a couple of nice hotels for us to stay in for the night.

It’s been a long day (the reason why this blog is a bit late) with many trials and tribulations but nothing deters convoy.

And finally today is a very special day for one of our convoy drivers, it’s Ricki’s (one half of the Simpsons) wedding anniversary, but not just any wedding anniversary, it’s actually her first wedding anniversary. That’s commitment to the cause above and beyond the call of duty, spending your first wedding anniversary away with 19 other men and sharing a room with someone that’s not your husband. Congratulations and cheers to Ricki and her husband for being so understanding.

Keep on reading and see ya later

Paul (one half of the big boppers)