Day 1: Dublin (Ireland) → Harwich (United Kingdom)
An early start to this trip as we leave our apartment at 06:30 for Dublin Port via the 4km long Dublin Port Tunnelunder the city. The roads are quiet at this time on a Saturday morning and we are in the check-in queue 15 minutes later.
The first two days of this road-trip are all about getting to Norway as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is our third trip and each time we’ve taken a different route – with our first being massively influenced by COVID restrictions at the time.
This time, we were convinced we’d picked the quickest and most direct route possible from Ireland – but we recently found another option that would get us to Norway nearly a day earlier. Still this route should be quite efficient.
This morning we take the first of two Stena Line ferries – firstly to Holyhead in Wales and then across the United Kingdom to pick-up the overnight Harwich ferry to the Netherlands.
While waiting in the queue, we remember to set Porsche Vehicle Tracking Tracking (PVTS+) to transport mode, with the aid of a comprehensive collection of pre-set Apple Reminders during our planning phase.
We board after about an hours wait – the ship is running about thirty minutes behind schedule .
There are dozens of power connectors hanging from pillars along the vehicle deck – that are used to plug refrigerated cargo trailers into – that would be perfect to connect our Juice Booster EVSE into – but we don’t dare!
After a smooth four hour crossing – we pull alongside the Irish Ferries Ulysses ferry at Holyhead in Wales. The day is uncharacteristically dry and bright – what a great start to our road-trip!
Traffic is light and we don’t take too long to get off Anglesea island – a usual traffic jam spot for us – as we push east wards towards our next ferry.
We stop off at IONITY Stafford for the first charge of the trip. The station is quiet – which is fortunate as two of the six charging pedestals are showing an “out of order” message on their screen.
While we are confident in the charger fix our car recently had – it was still a reassuring sight to see a flawless charge with the car taking in a healthy 258 kW of energy.
We pull in to M6 services area for some food.
Soon after crossing the M6 Toll bridge the weather turns wet – and soon torrential – which while forecast – was still a challenge to drive through as darkness fell.
We had to queue for a charge at IONITY Cambridge – not helped by again another charging pedestal out of order. Queuing at these stations is always a bit fraught as there is no where in the layout to obviously do so.
Water and electricity mix okay, right?
After a further two hours drive through the rain storm – we arrive at the port of Harwich and join the queue – behind a classic Saab Turbo spewing all sorts of pollution into our lungs – for our overnight ferry to the Hook of Holland near Rotterdam.
This ferry is also delayed by approximately two hours.
The Stena team work hard to make up for lost time and about an hour later than scheduled we board the ferry.
Find our cabin.
And just as importantly find a drink to celebrate a successful and safe start to our road-trip.
The days charging stats
| Location | Start SOC % | End SOC % | kWh added | Cost | Duration | Ambient Temp | Battery Temp | Charger Type | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IONITY Stafford | 27% | 85% | 55.50 | €19.48 | 22 mins | 11 | 36 | DC 350 kW | IONITY |
| IONITY Cambridge | 24% | 81% | 54.38 | €19.09 | 26 mins | 9 | 34 | DC 350 kW | IONITY |
Today we did 585 km over 11:03 hours, with an average speed of 61 km/h, consuming 24.4 kWh/100km.
