Day 1: Dublin (Ireland) –> Harwich (United Kingdom)

There is no denying that today's plan is a repeat of our route between Dublin and Harwich that we took at Christmas. This route works well for us because it strikes the perfect balance between progress and rest.

An early start to this trip as we leave our apartment at 06:15 for Dublin Port via the 4 km long Dublin Port Tunnel under the city. This ferry now seems to leave earlier than when we booked it a few months ago.

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.

Crossing over to the United Kingdom

We're again taking the Irish Ferries Ulysses to the United Kingdom. This isn't our favourite vessel on this route. Despite its size, the seating isn't very comfortable. If the ship is busy, the club lounge is almost as uncomfortable as the regular seating areas in the public section.

We park on the car deck and climb up the flights of stairs to the club lounge for some breakfast. The car will never look this clean again on this trip!

Thankfully, this ship is much quieter than it was at Christmas, as it's a relatively off-peak time of year for this route. There was virtually nobody in the club lounge and it was much easier to get some hot breakfast.

Fuel

Due to the lower speeds of this trip, we have a less complex fuel strategy than at Christmas. This morning we arrived at our ferry with a full tank of Circle K Miles Plus petrol.  It's the best fuel available in the Republic of Ireland but it's still only 95 octane. 

We'll stop at a Shell V-Power 99 octane station near Harwich to fill up our tank.  This will give us the high-quality fuel we need for the Germany autobahn – the only fast driving we'll do on this trip.

Diving across the United Kingdom

We arrive in the very familiar Holyhead in North Wales, and after a relatively quick disembarkation, we begin our journey east across the United Kingdom.

We are well familiar with this 600km trip across Northern Wales and the English Midlands having done it numerous times at this stage. Compared to our last time, the traffic is much lighter and we make good progress.

It has rained every day this year in England and today was no exception, it rained – sometimes heavily throughout the entire day.

Usually this means lots of accidents and crashes causing traffic delays and dangerous situations – but we didn't witness any across the entire route today.

We kept our car in "wet mode" throughout most of the drive.

Not being constrained by charging infrastructure, we stopped off every few hours – we generally aim for a rest every two hours – to keep fresh and safe.

Hitting absolutely no traffic today, we arrived into Braintree – 50 km from our destination port – with about four hours to spare. We used the time to grab something proper to eat – skipping food on the ferry tonight.

We are surprised the car has remained so clean given the wet road spray conditions today. The folks at Flawless did a good job yesterday.

After food and walking around the outlets – darkness has fallen and we amble our way to the port.

Picking up some 99 octane Shell V-Power fuel for the autobahn in Germany tomorrow. We really wish we could get something more than 95 octane in our home market (Ireland).

Overnight to Netherlands

We arrive at Harwich International Port and enter the queue to board the Stena Britannica.

We're sorry for the lady at the nearby duty-free kiosk who seems to be seeing few customers.

After about a thirty minute wait, we set our Porsche Vehicle Tracking Plus (PVTS+) service to transport mode and park on-board the ferry.

We'll treat ourselves to some nibbles and a drink on board in the Stena+ lounge and then settle into our cozy cabin as we and our 911 Targa sail overnight towards the Dutch coastline.

Tomorrow we have a 1,000 km leg to reach Copenhagen in Denmark as we position ourselves to start to long drive north into the arctic.

Stats

Today we did 586 km over 7:31 hours, with an average speed of 78 km/h, consuming 9.4 litres/100 km.