It's Saturday. Second Officer Benny Salvador - above working on charts - smiles and says, "Have a good weekend!" He pauses and then says, "For us, it's always Monday."
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From twelve miles off, I've been tracking the China Overseas Pacific on radar. Against sea and sky, she seems insignificant. Click on the picture.
Amber is 282.05 metres (925.36 feet) length overall. It take me - for my age, I'm a fair walker and runner - an average 3:08 to stride from stern to bow (allowing for roll, fire hoses and a short set of stairs onto the fo'c's'le). The Pacific - here off our port wing - is bigger than Amber.
The ships may be large ...
... but are vulnerable. Not long ago, a container ship about Amber's size - the MSC Napoli - ran into difficulties on the south coast of England. Her crew had to abandon ship.
Typhoon Nalgae is hitting the Philippines and will pass into the South China Sea, our route after Singapore. There are warnings of Force 12-13. I didn't know there's anything above 12.
