AS CARELIA. SHIP’S LOG (3)
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| Helmsman in action, Malaysian pilot ( white shirt ) calls heading changes entering Port Tanjung Pelepas. |
6th Nov 2011
Posn (0730hrs): At anchor off Singapore. Overcast and humid.
Staggered back on board at about 2000hrs last night after spending some time with the two Incas at the International Seamen’s Centre at Port Tanjung Pelepas. A very smart place run by a most efficient and amusing Danish chap called Karsten. Several beers ( Carlsberg of course ) were consumed amid much jolly banter. I think we then set sail at about midnight and suppose we must have anchored early morning off Singapore having not gone very far. We are due to wait until 2200hrs tonight before moving to dock. Tedious. Surrounded by, after a rough count, 60 other vessels also waiting their turn to off-load, presumably. A sort of marine static ‘holding pattern’. One of the vast new Maersk container ships passed by. To give you a comparison, our little AS Carelia is 227m long with a beam of 30m and carries a max of 2824 containers. The Tanzania is 294m long, beam 32.2m and can carry 4800 containers. This Maersk vessel, Emma, is 420m long, beam 46m and carries a max of 14800 containers. It would not fit down the Panama canal, or any other canal for that matter.
Left: The Maersk Emma, with Inca 1 posing. While we were in the Seaman's Centre in Tanjung Pelepas we were told that Mr Maersk McKinney-Moller, age 98, was alive and well and still working part time at the Maersk HQ in Copenhagen. Hasn't he done well?
We were anchored all day here ( about 10 miles out of Singapore.
Right: This is the ship's radar display ( set on 6nm scale ) heading through the Singapore Strait. Our ship is the white 'concentric circles' marked towards the right side with a projected track 265º. All the yellow blips are ships. They seem to dodge one another somehow, with minimal radio instructions from ashore.
The mess dining room. Someone has been at the Bulgarian 'red wine' by the look of it. They built a small bar here, but it is not used!
7th Nov 2011
We finally docked at Singapore at midnight. I was in bed and rudely awakened at 0130hrs to be told that the immigration official was waiting to stamp my passport in the ship's office! Couldn't he wait until a more sociable hour? No! The ship's officers are somewhat in awe of these officials; I suppose if they do anything to upset the port authorities life could be made very awkward for them, so they grovel. I went back to bed and, after breakfast and saying good-bye to whoever was around ( Cap'n Popeye was asleep ), went ashore. Long walk, no dock bus around, to the main road and taxi to town.
The crew of these ships have it rough nowadays. In the old days, as with airlines, crews used to have a few days if not a week to relax in port and were free to enjoy their stop-overs. Nowadays they are lucky even to be able to get ashore at all. The Carelia is due to leave Singapore at 1500hrs today, sailing back to Auckland. None of the ship's company will have time to go ashore. The ship's officers do this backwards and forwards routine for up to six months at a time before getting a leave period. There is a world shortage of well qualified ships' officers, and I'm not really surprised!
Right: A distant view of Singapore city.
Left: 'Take-off' from Port Tanjung Pelepas. One tug pulls at the front, the other pushes at the back ( sorry, I mean bow and stern ). Similar in reverse on 'landing' except they use the bow propeller to move the front end.
So, another few seas crossed....I'm getting the hang of this seafaring business but still haven't seen a one-legged crewman with a parrot on his shoulder, or a ship's steward I can call 'Jim laaad' for that matter.
Not sure how I will be spending the next 10 days before the ship leaves from Tanjung Pelepas....but have no fear, you will read about it here if you are in the slightest interested. I am just off to get a 'briefing' and some local advice from an ex-army chum up in Seletar. TTFN.
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