Good morning, rainy Singapore. A few miles north of the equator some of the Filipinos are wearing sweaters. Actually, that may be because of the ship's air conditioning.
On the thirty-fourth day of my voyage (Amber's permanent voyage), we dock at the Keppel Terminal, convenient to the city centre.
We have travelled 11,667.3 nautical miles or 13,426.4 miles or 21,607.7 kilometres from Newark. And twelve time zones.
The drizzle stops and, nearly five weeks since first stepping onto Amber's gangway, my boots are back on ground.
I haven't been in Singapore for twenty years. There are people ...
... and cars ...
... and flowers ...
... and all sorts of sights.
It's easy to understand why sailors, given a rare chance to go ashore, sometimes go wild. That said, in the two or three hours a few of the crew have, they mostly try to phone family. Elmer visits his sister ('Her children have grown so much!') and the captain meets up with an old schoolfriend.
I say goodbye to Denis who's disembarking, buy The Straits Times (headline: 'Govt to rein in vehicle growth from next year') and some Metamucil. In a little restaurant, I have smoked salmon salad and gelato for dessert. That's my going wild.
Not much time because, hours after arriving, Amber must move into the harbour; on our second day in Singapore, her bottom will be scraped. Amber was launched three years ago and has accumulated enough growth - barnacles and seaweed - to appreciably slow her. Cleaning will cut fuel costs two to three percent, no small saving.
A specialized vessel arrives and a team of divers heads under the ship.
On their boat's stern, you can see a scrubber.
Next to the chain (attached to a 9420 kg anchor) is our nice, clean bulbous bow.
Looking at the world's second busiest port from the anchorage, two things catch my eye: inevitably a ship, but also a building.
The ship looks more traditional than most, the lines a hint of the past. I'm surprised to see her home port is Jeddah.
The building is definitely not traditional. Google ‘Marina Bay Sands’. You’ll come up with the complex, which, unfortunately doesn’t seem to have very good pictures of the extraordinary ‘SkyPark’ at the top. However, Google Images gives an idea.
________________________________________________
In 1963, Cecil Roberts arrived in Singapore by sea:
“The harbour is a singular sight, with the flags of some twenty nations flying on the merchant ships and the liners. There is a conglomeration of Chinese junks, sampans and Malay fishing vessels. The quays are like a vast bazaar with their shipments of rattans, teak, rice, Sarawak oil, tin, rubber and quinine.” (The Grand Cruise)
No junks and sampans now and the American President Lines Sokhna with its eagle is owned by a German firm, managed by a Singapore company and flies the Liberian flag. At the end of 2009, of the twenty major container ship operators, not one was from the States.
Singapore's quays still are a vast bazaar - of steel boxes, not an Aladdin's cave of crates, bundles, pallets and barrels. No longer, to quote another author, is there “the smell of spices and tea pleasantly saluting your nostrils.” (Vagabond Voyaging Larry Nixon 1938)
The skyline says Asia's day has come as have shipping methods standardized to the nth degree. Not quaintly picturesque, but efficient.
