SeaDog-46

Taiaroa Head &  Royal Albatross colony - 1 of only 2 places in the world where Albatross nest on the mainland.  They mate for life.

Pilot beach is where the harbour pilots set out from by oar & sail in the good old days.

Dunedin - Gaelic for Edinburgh.

Some pics of Railway Station.

It has been reported that after Amsterdam lands its crew in Jakarta the ship will move back to Malaysia for Long term Lay-up.

No pilotage available - your training has to come to the fore. 

There are quite a number of collisions but at least during this time there are few cross strait vessels.

Photo 1  -  T-boned @ Singapore by LPG tanker.

Photo 2  -  T-boned by VLCC.

Amsterdam is just getting into Singapore Straits traffic doing 16.8 knots. 

About 2 nm behind Chinese VLCC Xin Ning Yang bound for Qingdao, China, doing usual VLCC speed of 11.2 knots.

VTIS [Vessel Traffic Information Service] may tell Amsterdam to slow down as there are a few VLCC's in front of them.

Busy day on Amsterdams bridge but they have over double the staff there compared to the usual merchant ship.

More Akaroa.  Note the French influence.

Akaroa when the sun shines.

Road down Banks Peninsular towards Akaroa.

remmit - Any cruise line planning to do polar cruises after 1st January 2022 just shows they are not up to the latest regulations.

Do not book those cruises that I too have seen listed because the cruise will not sail north or south of latitude 60 degrees.

If they did the vessels insurances would be invalid.

A little known tourist attraction at Picton is the preservation of "Edwin Fox" the 2nd oldest merchant sailing ship in the world.

The only surviving ship that transported convicts to Australia & a Shaw Savill emigrant ship to New Zealand.

Built on the Ganges delta of Burmese Teak in 1852 in Ship rig, but later changed to a Barque for Shaw Savill service. 

It was the last of her type - a Moulmein Trader, similar to those built for the East India Company. Sheathed in copper on arrival in UK.  Chartered to the UK government in her early years as a troop & supply ship for Crimean War.

The drydock is right in town & has a small nautical shop.

Lest we forget.

There are at least 10 cruise ships anchored - NOT docked - in Manila Bay off the port.

They are NOT at Subic Bay.

The crews are to do an additional 14 days quarantine on the ships before they will be allowed ashore.

Polar Code - read Antarctic Board - Google

Copper - John you would know the - "present for me" as BAKSHEESH.

Prior to joining a new Shell Australia tanker I was sent for a training voyage to the Dutch Antilles registered ss.Laconica.

A 1975 built steam turbine 306,950 dwt. crude oil tanker loading in Mina Al Amadi, Kuwait.  Nearly missed the ship due to flight problems but she was delayed by fog & still alongside partly loaded.

The next morning we were at another port further south but still in Kuwait.  It was a more isolated buoy mooring & took a few hours to tie up.  A boat came to the ship with 2 local officials. Then the chief Steward came to the bridge & wispered to the captain showing him a list.

The next day we returned to the Mina Al Amadi offshore island terminal.  2 uniformed officials called on the Master & he asked me to join them as he was having trouble speaking to the 2 officials.  The younger senior officer explained to me in excellent English what he wanted to know.  It was about the 2 officials that had visited the day before & taken bottles of spirit off the ship.

Seems their car was stopped with the 2 drunk inside & a load of bottles in the vehicle.  The Captain was happy he & the ship were not in trouble after the explanation.  The Kuwaity officer gave me his card.  Over the next 3 years when loading in Kuwait this officers name came in handy everytime some Kuwait official asked me for Baksheesh.

The Laconica Captain was on his last trip & he tought me a lot on the operation of VLCC's & how the shore will try to force not so good practices on the masters.

Laconica was due for drydock in Singapore after discharge of the 300K tons of crude.

Unfortunatly the only 10 year old ship was scrapped in 1985.  The whole class of 25 ships did not last due to the steam turbine that chewed up 150 ton of fuel oil a day at full speed.

John

Golden Princess has docked in Port Klang, Malaysia for bunkers.

Amsterdam is waiting outside at anchor.

The port of Napier is not very big but can take fairly large cruise ships.

There is a free shuttle to visitor centre in town.  You are not allowed to walk in the port.

It is also a surge port where swells can get into the berths & cause the ships to range along the dock.

If this gets bad ships are ordered out.

Piracy in Malacca / Singapore Straits has been evident for years but if has never been as violent as Somalia or the present hotspot of West Africa.  It is usually just opportunist fishermen who bolt as soon as discovered.

My ship was boarded in an Indonesian port as we anchored about 4am one morning.  She was a marine freight truck owned by a USA company & managed by their own Singapore management company taking supplies to a massive US/Indonesian gold mine.  Flying the Singapore flag & manned mainly by Indonesian crew & Europeen officers.  The she was a dock ship - barge / oil carrier & her cargo consisted of machine parts & stores from US,  250 tons of Ammonium Nitrate with Red Cross parcels on top, provisions/fresh stores & 8,000 tons of diesel oil in bulk. We went from Singapore to Jakarta & discharged at a river port in West Irian.  There was no pilot & the "longshoremen" were local natives that could not speak English & wanted to smoke! 

One trip was enough for me.

Current info on Pirates can be found at  www.icc-ccs.org

Golden Princess is about to berth at the Boustead cruise centre Port Klang.

Left Australia about 2 weeks ago.

2021 is the last summer the large cruise ships will be allowed into any Greenland port.

January 1st 2022 the Polar Code comes into force.

Typhoon season is all year in that part of North Pacific.  They would get ample warning to hi-tail it out of Manila Bay.

One CCL boss has said China maybe the first area to restart cruising.  He was not sure where the cruise would go.

Malacca & Singapore Straits has the longest 263 nm Traffic Separation Scheme [TSS] in the world.  There are no pilots.

It has 2 way traffic with a max depth eastbound of 23 metres.  The nightmare starts at One Fathom Bank due west of Port Klang & 263 nm later ends at Horsborough Lighthouse at eastern end of Singapore Straits.

Large deep draft crude oil tankers - VLCC - have some priority at the Singapore end that gives then some right of way over crossing traffic & they are required to travel no faster than 12 knots. Watches on the better operated ships are often doubled with 2 deck officers doing 6 on/6 off with master taking the hectic section around Singapore where a tanker drawing 21 metres has to pass a rock a certain distance off & still keep in the traffic lanes.  There are regular reporting places & the whole area is under radar control.  Here the Radio Officer was used for comms. with VTIS.

Photo of VLCC Golden Stream, 275,616 dwt, 144149 gt, draft 20.4 metres [66.9ft]. 

Later was 4 months on her bigger fleet sister Golden Fountain 301,665 dwt. & she had a max draft of 22.213m which is too deep for this TSS.

Volendam - Sydney trans Pacific to Vancouver & inside passage.

Photos at Isle of Pines, New Caledonia.

In Malacca Straits south of Amsterdam, is Radiance otS. anchored NW of Port Klang.  She came up from Australia & took bunkers at Singapore & then moved to her present position several days ago.

There are currently eight cruise ships anchored off Manila port - Sun, Sea, Sapphire & Majestic Princesses. Queen Elizabeth, Pacific Dawn & Explorer, & Voyager otS.  All these came up from Australia.

Amsterdam should not have any problem getting bunkers at Singapore - it is the largest bunker port on the world & nearly all merchant ships are still operating.

Sapphire Princess, Majestic Princess & Pacific Dawn have joined the group at anchor off Manila port.

Antarctica has only 1 more season 20/21 available for the larger cheaper cruise ships.

Also the older smaller vessels working down in the high southern latitudes.

The new polar code comes into force on 1st January 2022.  

Mic - she looked & sang Awsome.

At time of photo on Noordam she was 51 years old.

Born in Taree in 1965.