On the Ferry to Holland

The Tartan Eagles have made it the first 151 miles from Glasgow to Newcastle and are now on the Norwegian Princess bound for Amsterdam!! The drive south was easy enough, however getting Maxi onto the ferry was not quite as simple as we had expected!

Whilst we waited in line to drive onto the ferry, petrol from our tank had left quite the noticable puddle underneath the car. So much so infact that a nice Scottish man from the car next to us came to warn us. We thanked him for his concern but said we realised and it was fine. On buying the car we had been warned that the tank may leak a little if filled more than half way but we had decided to buy a whole tank at Gretna anyway in order to judge how many miles we could expect to get from a tank. The petrol gauge was a bit dodgy on the drive down and we were willing to put up with some leakage in return for having enough fuel to get us where we needed to go.

Bad idea…we’re number one in line to board and we’re pulled over by one of the officials who is concerned that we are leaking quite a bit of petrol and that this could be a danger to the ferry. The captain was called and he said we couldn’t board unless our tank was empty…
Departure time is T minus 15 minutes and we’ve got more than three quarters of a tank. How the hell are we going to get rid of it!?

Numerous phone calls were made…we needed a hose, we needed a bucket for petrol, we needed help…our hearts were beating fast, our palms were sweating. Time was ticking away and as the final trucks loaded onto the boat the prospect of us waking up in the city of red lights and giggles was becoming less likely.

As we waited, desperately searching for an answer, a hippy dutch couple pulled up in their truck to ask if we needed a hose. From the back of their truck, which looked like a hardware store/junk shop, they pulled out a bright orange hose and a water jug. The guy stuck the hose into our tank and sucked on it like it was something he did everyday. As petrol began leaking into the jug, we thanked the helpful couple whilst the guy returned to his truck in search of a beer to destroy the taste of petrol.

T minus 5 minutes and the petrol has stopped flowing. John has a suck to get it started again and it works…we’re all hoping that a wee taste of petrol isn’t too dangerous:-/ Let’s be honest, can it really be worse than a Gregg’s sausage roll?

We were told again that the captain would only allow us to board if the tank was empty and that they would send someone out to help push us on board. We probably had almost half a tank left but the dripping has stopped and we had about 8 litres of petrol to show that we were doing what they had asked.

As the crew were convinced we had an empty tank a man came over on a forklift, attached us with a tow rope, and led us onto the ship.

We handed over the jug of petrol we had removed for them to put in a safe area and headed upstairs to our little sea facing cabin.

A Guinness to mask the taste of petrol and a glass of vino to relax…Laura, John and Maxi are heading for the continent!