Canary Islands – Isle of Man – Isle of Wight – Malta – Majorca – Sardinia – Sicily.
Islands present their own challenges, particularly given that the regular services are unlikely to be able to accommodate oversize cargo. In one instance, to the Channel Islands, unless we could make use of the regular ferry, the only option was a charter vessel. With careful research, using a particular special trailer, provided we shipped on the spring tide, we came to the conclusion that the link span would be just level enough in order to effect discharge from the regular ferry – saving an enormous amount of money.
To the Isle of Wight, the transfer of Britten-Norman fuselages from Belgium – to the main airport on Majorca, the radome (nose cone) for a Boeing 737 – to Taormina, Sicily, a tunnelling machine weighing in excess of 85tons – to Malta an urgent, stand by, generator – from Sardinia, redundant petro-chem plant – the list goes on and on.
Although we have listed seven major islands, Cyprus should not be forgotten – in this instance, military support equipment, fruit juice processing machinery etc.
Moving down the spectrum, amongst others, there are the innumerable Scottish Islands, not forgetting the Greek Islands. In the first instance (Scottish), originating in Spain, there were the replacement fire tenders for the various local airports. In the second instance (Greece), the millionaires motor yacht to Corfu.
As we said, the list goes on and on – each one a challenge in its own right.
