I'm waiting for the last details from my voyage consultant about my Atlantic departure, slow words on a slow boat. But I am still a patient journeyman. My preferred plan for transit to Philadelphia--best friends, road trip--has fallen through owing to the delay, but I have brothers--a big brother/good son--with a train option from Pittsburgh. Cars, trains, freighters, patience, flexibility, friends, brothers will eventually get you to Poland.
Curious, though, in the email silence with my consultant, I signed onto a global ship position monitoring website. (You can actually do this online. What can't you do online?) On Fleetmon.com, I found my cargo vessel en route to Philadelphia from Virginia Beach. Flagged to the Marshall Islands, the Rickmers Shanghai is 192m x 28m, about two football fields long of seagoing industrial aesthetic, and, I learn, is carrying "dangerous goods." "Dangerous goods" strikes me as something of an oxymoron, but at the same time, aren't all goods dangerous, except in moderation?
