March 17, 2022
Volume 52 - No. 11
Preface: That crazy pandemic has messed up both business and recreational travel plans for most of the world.
Our world traveler, Cecil Scaglione, offers some travel plans you may wish to consider once the wanderlust in you kicks back in and transport by air, sea and land, once again becomes practical. Time to start planning? Have a good read and decide for yourself. But . . . be flexible. Read on. The Paper - 760.747.7119
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By Cecil Scaglione
Flexibility: that’s the key ingredient to freighter cruising.
Weather had sealed our 51,000-ton roll on-roll off freighter, the Grimaldi Line’s Grande Ellade, in port overnight. We were behind schedule and uncertain where our next stop would be. We were never sure of when and how long any stop would be during our 10,000-mile round-
trip voyage out of southern England’s bustling port of Southampton. When we boarded the eight-story vessel about the size of a city block to begin our five-week journey, we learned that our initial stop, Rome, was cancelled. We were told the next morning that our first landfall would be Valencia, on Spain’s Costa Blanca. That drove home the primary rule of our freighter trip: Be flexible.
Freighter Cruising Continued on Page 2
We spent anywhere from four to 24 hours in the 16 cities and towns we slipped into. Temperatures varied from just over 100 degrees in the Mediterranean to below freezing in the North Sea. Our first test came on our second day out.
The ship and its cargo of some 4,500 vehicles, a couple of dozen officers and crewmen, and eight passengers bounced around the edge of an Atlantic tempest as we skirted the Bay of Biscay. “We hit