The name of the ship carrying the RX-8s is the Pacific Leader. It is owned by NYK Lines (www.nyk.com). She is enroute on a reverse course. That means that you lucky son of b*(&^s in So Cal are getting your cars first! The ship normally comes to the Port of Tacoma first, then goes to Port Hueneme. However, the route has been reversed for this voyage. The schedule on the Port of Tacoma site has not been updated to reflect this change. The ship is scheduled to arrive at Port Heuneme on 6/17 and depart for Tacoma at 0900 on 6/18. The Port of Tacoma is expecting the ship late on the 20th, but certainly on 6/21. I spoke to a number of people this morning, as you can tell. These multiple sources all said the same thing, so I am confident in the info. I also spoke to the folks putting in the port installed options. They said that the RX-8 was a priority and they would start working on them as soon as they arrived. She also confirmed the 21st as the arrival date. One lady that I spoke to asked me what color I ordered, then said "so, did you get the red and black interior?" I took this as a good sign! At least they know more about the car then many dealers!

 

Covert Op of the Year Award goes to:

3Rotor

GJ!

 

3Rotor needs to work for the CIA/FBI..his info is better and quicker
than the Iraq WMD info....

 

Excellent work Brad!! so how much sugar did you have to use? i noticed you said "she" a couple of times

 

Great Info. That is some of the best news I have heard in a while.
You really deserve an award for this.

 

Fantastic work. Can you now turn your talents to Canada and see when our ship comes in?
Thanks.

 

3Rotor can you task a Keyhole spy satellite to snap a few pics during its voyage with the NSA? :D

Most freighters have e-mail/net access. Maybe someone can contact the steamship line and have a crew member upload digipics of the cargo hold.
:D Ok, that's pushing it.

 

Oh, and sorry Vancouver. Word is Canadian 8's are crated and being either air-dropped or LAPED(Low-Altitude Parachute Extraction System) in. :D

 

That explains why we will get our cars first.

Of course, you want to make sure the shocks don't need replacing - depends on the skill of the airdrop team.

 

So 3Rotor, if the ship is coming into Tacoma on the 20th/21st (Friday night/Saturday), when will it be unloaded? Will the port installers start work on the weekend? How long before the first trucks start rolling out?

By the way, I think its great what you've been able to discover so far. I might have to take a drive over to Tacoma that weekend, and perhaps get my first actual sighting!

-ss

 

but the keyhole sat is not? i'll see if my bro still has some air force contacts and see what we can do

 

3 Rotor......this may have already been answered but......My port is in New Jersey......what do you know about the route for that location?.....does the ship unload in the west coast then truck to the east ......or does a ship make the Panama Canal trip?

 

I was watching them unload the K-Line ship "Diamond Highway" this weekend. They don't spend a lot of time standing around. From what I understand, the off-load crews work in 8 hour shifts and they just change out shifts as they need to. According to one of the Port Patrolman, they can unload 1200 cars a shift if they really work at it. The Pacific Leader has three sets of cargo on it. The ship was contracted by Mazda, Mitsubishi, and someone else (I was loosing my concentration after he said Mazda and started Mitsu....I didn't hear much after that). The port installers definitely weren't working on Sunday, so I am guessing they won't actually start working on the cars until Monday the 23rd. I don't think anything would really hold them up - unless Mazda has some "Master distribution plan." Someone in So Cal could conceivably see their car on the 21st if it didn't need any work done to it. What I don't know however, is if there is some sort of customs process.

 

I don't have any special connections. I simply went down to the port and introduced myself to a variety of people and told them why I was there and what I was looking for. So I am not trying to be selfish, but I really don't know anything about the East Coast Ships. However, I believe that most of the East Coast cars will go to Ports in the East by boat. I am this this because on one of the threads where ibfubar2000 is looking up VINs, there are other POEs (Port of Entry) listed - One in Florida? and one in NJ. This is speculation, but I would imagine they would go through the canal and stop in Florida and then onto NJ. A starting point would be to check out the NYK line site and see if you can make some contacts there. That is who owns the Pacific Leader. Perhaps the other cars are on a NYK vessel, as well.

 

18 days to cross the ocean?

 

Does anyone know the city or port that the ship departs from in Japan?

 

The Pacific Leader left from Nagoya, Japan. The transit time is 12 days. That tells me that the ship didn't leave on the 30th or 31st of May, but on the 4th or 5th June. About the time that all of our transit status changed to "On Water." I can't find the Car Carrier vessels on the sight, but the passenger boats take 11 to 12 days from Nagoya to Seattle.

 

My car's coming into Port Jersey, also. I've also been debating whether or not East Coast cars will be shipped via ship to the West Coast, then by rail eastward. But then ibfubar's gracious information confirmed in my mind that our cars are being shipped here by ship. I liked the theory that the first ship was headed to the East Coast, and the second was for the West Coast. Looking at NYK's shipping schedules, it takes 24-25 days to get to JAX and 26-28 days to get to Jersey. So I figure that our cars will come into port about 11-15 days after the ship arrives in SoCal.

 

Are all port options installed in the California port or at our inland ports? Hopefully in California since they will have more experience with the larger numbers there.

 

Also, I see where the East Coast ship would stop in Hawaii. This is from the map on NYK's website. I was told this about 3 weeks ago from my dealer. Things are starting to make some sense.

 

It takes 9-10 days, no more to make it from Japan to the west coast. Something is fishy about 17 days, maybe they are including the time in th e port for customs? Hmmmm....

D-san

 

man these ships r too damn slow. they need to put some NAWS on that ****:D

 

Looks like the shipping time from Nagoya to Jacksonville is at minimum 19 days to a maximum of 25 days.

 

my salesman is a freakin tard! he said the rx-8 hasnt even started production

 

cut that zero and get with a hero...

(I'm sorry to post, but Efini 8 is killing me... he must be so pissed because this his 5th different post saying the exact thing about his dealer. Dude cut your loses or do something, you're about to blow a gasket.)