In this episode of Sailing A B Sea (Ep.003) join us for our business class flights Australia to Europe as we go on our epic 18,600km trip from Brisbane in Au...

Closed Captions (CC):
Hi we're having so much fun exploring in

and around Javea, but before we show you

that we want to show you how we got from

Australia to Spain.

In this episode of Sailing ABC we get to

experience what it's like to fly

business class on our 35 hour 18,600

kilometer journey from Brisbane in

Australia to Javea in Spain on Etihad

Airways. After our emotional farewell to

our son Luke, Aannsha and I headed for

the Etihad check-in. It was a short delay

before the check-in opened which allowed

us to regain our composure. Then it was

through to see what it's like to travel

business class with all the bells and

whistles! Once inside the lounge we

relaxed into some comfy chairs, poured

ourselves a couple of drinks from the

self-serve bar and plugged our phones in

for a recharge. Our plane for this leg of

the journey was a Boeing 787-9 with 28

flatbed Pearl business seats and 271

standard Coral economy class seats. Okay,

so this is the next leg of the adventure! It's a bit exciting! We're just about to get on the plane.

Yeah, just got priority check-in which is nice. Priority boarding. And we're sitting in the

business section - Air New Zealand - it's really nice. Yeah so it's all good. As business

class ticket holders, you get priority

boarding and I have to admit I had a

huge grin on my face as we entered the

airplane and turned left instead of

right. The business class seats offer a

six foot one inch full flatbed, direct

aisle access from every seat, a 15 inch

LCD screen, noise cancelling headsets,

in-seat power sockets, in-seat massage

luxury comforters and pillows and I can

tell you all of that comfort makes a

huge difference as to how you physically

feel when you get off the plane at the

other end. Is it expensive? Yes. Would I do

it all the time? Yes, if I had the money.

The first leg of our journey had a

flight time of 14 hours and 20 minutes

and we landed in Abu Dhabi in the United

Arab Emirates six minutes ahead of

schedule at 6.39 a.m. So just done a

14-hour flight. It was great!. Landed in Abu Dhabi,

on time. It's pretty dark outside it's

just that's just after 6:00 in the

morning, so we're about to find the lounge and

settle in for about an hour and a half,

maybe two hours I think.

Yeah and then take the next step which

is only eight hours flight. All right. See you soon!

Our stopover in Abu Dhabi was a short two hours and 25 minutes, and after clearing in there

was just enough time to hook into the

free Wi-Fi, eat, drink, shower, and go

through security to board our next plane

which would whisk us off to Charles de

Gaulle Airport in Paris. At 8:20 a.m. we

were welcomed aboard the Etihad Boeing

777-300ER by the ever smiling crew.

Business seats on this aircraft are

split into two sections. Forward of the

door there are eight seats in a one to

one configuration and I was in seat 6c

which was luckily a window seat.

Once again my jacket was taken and hung

up; champagne and hot towels were offered; and we settled in ready for departure at

9:05 a.m.

Right on schedule we landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport

in Paris which was shrouded in thick fog

created by the five degrees Celsius

temperature.The plane taxied a long way

and paused before crossing live runways,

taxied some more, crossed over a two-lane road via a bridge and then taxied some

more. It was the longest airplane taxi I

have ever had.

All done with visibility down to just

five meters in some places. I'm not a

nervous flier but in the back of my mind

was the memory of the deadliest accident

in aviation history in which 583 Souls

perished when two 747 aircraft collided

in fog at Tenerife North Airport in 1977. Once

through security we boarded a bus for a

six-minute drive to our departure

terminal somewhere in the fog-shrouded

confines of the airport. We arrived at

the departure terminal and went through

passport control and entered the fray of

humanity that I haven't encountered for

twenty years. In Australia places never

really get crowded. It's just too big of

a country with very few people. But we

weren't in Kansas anymore Toto, we were

in one of the busiest airports in all of

Europe where people barged past, refused to move to let you through and only the

strong and determined win. Luckily our

gate was only a short distance and as we

got there priority boarding had just

opened up so it was with great relief

that we showed our boarding passes, walked down the passage aboarding bridge.

Final aeroplane plane. It's

this is teensy weensy Air France one that's

gonna take us two hours to get to

Valencia from Paris. Hopefully it's a bit warmer down there!

This plane for the final leg of our journey was on an air Europa Boeing 737-800 and it was

disappointing. There was no turning left

as we entered, unless you were the pilot.

Their idea of business class was to

place a small drinks table in the middle

seat of three. We did get offered

champagne though and when the French guy

in the seat behind me asked the smiling

lady if he could have some too, he was

politely told that it was only served

to business class customers and he'd

have to wait until the flight was airborne and trolley service was available. I had

a little chuckle to myself. " Bonjour. Are you still feeling fresh? Yeah, I am actually!"

No swollen ankles! I'm sure it's cause I was lying down, not sitting up!

I'm not looking forward to the hour and a

half drive when we get to the other end!

Just when it gets to dusk, that's when

the kangaroos come out and hop across

the road that cause car accidents!

I'm gonna stop there!

The flight time was only 1 hour and 40

minutes so I decided to get some

shut-eye. We still had a 90 minute drive ahead of

us once we landed in Spain and I wanted

my wits about me. It turned out to be a

good decision.

It was dusk as we exited the plane at

Valencia Airport in Spain, found nobody

manning passport control and only one

very bored looking official sitting at

the Something to Declare customs point.

Unfortunately two of our bags got left

behind in Paris but the nice lady at

lost luggage arranged for them to be

delivered to us in Javea the following

day. Clutching our lost luggage ticket

Aannsha and I exited the airport into a

now dark night and boarded the shuttle

bus that would take us to the car rental

place. 15 minutes later with our luggage

loaded into the car we set off for

Javea. We didn't have our Sat-nav - it was

still in Paris and we had no data on our

smartphones, so taking the bull by the

horns, I figured that if I stuck to main

roads there would eventually be a

signpost which would either say AP-7 to

Barcelona or AP-7 to Alicante.. So we just

drove, Aannsha looking out for road signs

and me looking out for Spanish drivers

rushing to get home from work. At one

point we both looked at each other and

Aannsha asked if I was okay. "How you

feeling?" Okay I guess,

but this is it - it's all part of the

adventure. We're on the adventure! I know

we're missing two suitcases, we don't

know where we are or where we're going.

But we're getting there. We'll get somewhere eventually. And eventually we did. After we'd been

driving for 20 minutes, Aannsha

excitedly announced "There it is! There's

the sign for AP-7 Alicante!" So with some

relief we entered the motorway and

headed south.. Driving on the motorway was a breeze after the Valencia traffic and

one hour and thirty minutes later we

took the turnoff for Javea. There's a sign ...

So Javea is to the right Baz. Yeah. Yeah. Oh Yeah.

Gawd that was hidden! Well hidden that wasn't it! See how far away it was? It didn't say. Okay.

So right here. Right yeah, yeah. Here. Wow it sneaks up. Yeah oh, oh it says look: Javier 8

We had a rough idea of where my

brother Phil's place was. We'd seen it on

Google Earth in Google Maps and we also

had the address stored on our phones. My

plan was to find Javea port and work

backwards from there, What we hadn't

counted on was that Javea is a maze of

one-way streets.

I don't know that we're gonna be able to

get out of here bud

Where're we going... No it's no entry! How'd you get out of here then? Don't know. Maybe go down the other one.

Can you go there and reverse it in this little lane?

Ooh, what about down here? Oh this looks okay. Don't know if it goes anywhere, but yeah.

It's going somewhere.

These must be like the original old roads do you think? They're very small aren't they? Yeah.

Ok we can't go that way... No entry that way ... so I'd turn right here. Right here? Stop? Stop. Ooh look. Wow. Ooh look, isn't it pretty?

Scary 'coz we don't know where we are. Okay we can only go right here. Okay well let's

go right then. I reckon we should go

right. Eventually I stopped at a late

opening big supermarket and once again,

using my rapidly returning Spanish

language skills I emerged with a mud map. Baz is going to ask directions en Espanol. Espanol! Okay good luck.

Are we close? Are we close? No it's open. No, are we close? Oh we're very close yeah. It took two managers to

figure out the way but it's just around the corner. Phil's place was just a three minute drive and

once we got there we realized that we'd

actually driven past it twice in the

dark. Okay so let's get the key before we

get the bags out. Yeah let's. Let me get my handbag.

And erm, we'll get that sorted out and we'll come and get the bags. All right.

The keys to the apartment are kept locked away in a coded locked box near to the front door

and I eagerly put in the code. It didn't

unlock. I swirled the numbers around a

few times and tried the code again.

Nothing. By now I was having visions of

Aannsha and I spending the night sleeping in the car as the temperature slowly

descended to the predicted lower four

degrees Celsius. I called my brother Phil

in the UK and was greeted by his message service. I they later found out he

wasn't feeling too well that day and had

turned off his phone and gone to bed

early. ... and it's not unlocking so if you

get this message can you give me a call

back on this number. One last chance was to phone my other brother in the UK.

Thankfully Steve answered after a couple

of rings and was as perplexed as I was

that the code didn't work. He said he'd

make some inquiries and call me straight

back. I hoped he wasn't relying on a

phone call to Phil to get it sorted.

Eventually Steve came back with a new

code which to my great relief was

correct and we had the keys. Thank God! ... All right bro. Yep I'll call you, well I'll email you or I'll call you

tomorrow. Yep, got the keys. Okay, see ya. So here we are eighteen thousand six hundred kilometers

and thirty five hours later at 8:30 p.m.

local time, surrounded by our bags and

getting our priorities right by doing

nothing else but opening a bottle of red

wine and toasting ourselves on a job

well done

Cheers! We made it! We did, well done! Let's go get the bags then go and get that red wine and get it open!

Sounds like a plan! Yeah!