The Final Stretch

It's my final Sunday on board and I'm starting to get ready for my disembarkation in Singapore. We left Jebel Ali on 16 April and now we're making the long, straight run to the tip of India where we'll bear east, past Sri Lanka and on to the Straits of Malacca.

Dubai was a short but interesting stop. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to stay ashore overnight but we were able to spend a couple of hours wandering around the old part of the city, visiting the Gold and Spice Souks and taking in some sights. In the late afternoon we four passengers met up in the lobby of a hotel before heading to the Mall of the Emirates. As malls go it's pretty impressive; one of the largest in the world. The main attraction is the somewhat famous Ski Dubai indoor ski slope. Pierre had decided to take advantage of our stop to get in some skiing so the rest of us wandered about the mall. The number and range of stores was impressive but not much that was especially unique or interesting; a mall is pretty much like any other mall and the brands are the same ones that can be found in just about any major city.

Some of the restaurants have large windows that look out onto the ski slope so Clive and I took a break, ordered some appetizers and a couple of non-alcoholic beers and watched.

After that we stopped by a bookstore and then went to meet up with Pierre and Diane and start our trip back to the ship. The taxi stand in front of the mall is right next to the valet parking area and there was an impressive collection of expensive marques on display from large limousines to hyper-fast sports cars.

Our trip back to the ship was mildly eventful when we encountered a some difficulty after we retrieved our passports. There's a bit of a design flaw in that the office where we had to pick up our passports was next to a gate that was barred to automobiles - only trucks were allowed through. After some confused discussions with the driver and the guard it was made clear that our driver would have to enter through another gate and then loop around to pick us up. Once he did that he started driving confidently towards what we thought was our ship until we were surprised when he stopped in front of the US aircraft carrier, Dwight D Eisenhower. There was a bit more confusion between the driver and the guards and to cut a long story reasonably short we spent about another twenty minutes driving around until we found our berth. In the driver's defense the signage within the port is pretty useless especially compared to that of Antwerp. Communication is also a challenge; everyone was speaking English, but it was at best the second language of all the participants.

The next afternoon we cast off and headed out to sea. As we exited the port and while still in the channel we passed the The Palm, the famous building project of reclaimed land laid out to resemble a giant palm tree when seen from the air. From our relatively low vantage point we couldn't see much but there did seem to be some construction going on. I believe this is the second such development, the first one being farther up the coast near the Burj al-Arab hotel. Personally I can't understand the appeal; sure, it might be a nice house, but it seems to be a bit inconvenient to get back and forth to the city and no matter how nice the house is the outside temperature might be 45 degrees C and humid with a dust storm on the horizon. As the Encyclopedia Britannica notes, "[t]he [Persian] gulf has a notoriously unpleasant climate."

On Saturday the 18th the crew had a combined party to celebrate the previous week's Easter holiday and this week's Orthodox Easter holiday. Our Romanian crew members; primarily the two carpenters, the electrician and one of the deck cadets; spent a lot of time in preparing some delicious dishes. They made puff pastries, several salads, some meat dishes, and colored a few dozen eggs. There was also the usual grilled fare and plenty of beer and wine.

The next few days were relaxed as we enjoyed pleasant weather and calm seas. The water temperature reached 30C, about as warm as the air. I occupied my time by editing more of my photos and burning my collection onto some DVDs for the crew and passengers.

Thursday morning found us starting our turn around the northern tip of Sumatra and heading towards the Straits of Malacca. There is a further threat of pirates in the Straits of Malacca so the Captain increased the watch. Unlike the Gulf of Aden the threat is not one of hijacking but rather robbery.

The number of ships in these fairly narrow straits is really impressive; for a while on Friday morning we were traveling almost neck-and-neck with a large Maersk container ship as she slowly passed us.

Our Ship in the Panama Canal

I'm indebted to one of the followers of this blog for this photo. It was a screen capture from the the high-resolution camera at the Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal website:

Unfortunately I can't see any evidence of myself in this shot, but I believe you can just make out two white-shirted figures on the port side of the Bridge Deck. These would be the Captain and First Officer who were out there with the Pilot guiding the ship through the chambers.

At the rear you can clearly see the orange colored Free Fall Boat I wrote about earlier. For reference, my cabin is directly behind the upper portion.

Almost all of the white structures you see on our forward decks have been removed. They were windmill components that were offloaded in Galveston.

Finally, an update!

First of all, a very merry but belated Christmas to one and all! Apologies for the lack of blog posts, but my clever plan hasn't been working exactly as I'd hoped.

Tonight I'm in Ho Chi Minh City. We arrived a few hours ago and will be leaving again in the morning. The schedule has been very hectic and I haven't had the time to update the blog and catch up on email.

This update will be brief, but I will try to provide some additional updates when we reach Hong Kong next week.

I boarded the ship on the 19th in Singapore. We sailed on the morning of the 21st to Laem Chabang in Thailand. While we were there I had the chance to make a trip to Bangkok with the three other passengers - another American and two Germans.

We departed Thailand on the 24th bound for Ho Chi Minh. Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with the officers and crew. It was a lot of fun; the cook outdid himself and laid on an impressive buffet. Everyone had a great deal to eat and there was plenty of beer and karaoke afterwards.

Overall the trip has been great so far. The pace of travel is a bit different than what I'm used to, but I find it very relaxing. The food has been excellent and the peace and quiet lends itself to lots of reading.

The schedule has been changing almost daily; there are a number of reasons for that, but suffice to say that my original itinerary is no longer valid.

Our next stop is going to be Hong Kong. We should arrive on the 30th and sail again on the 1st. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends, but I'm worried it will be too short a visit. I've also been told that we'll be offshore in the anchorage and not tied to the dock, so it might be a bit more difficult to get to town.

For future updates, I recommend using the Rickmers website, www.rickmers.com

If you follow the links to the vessels you can then scroll down the page until you find the Rickmers Jakarta; clicking on that link takes you to the tracking page. The map on the lower lefthand corner will provide you with the most updated information.

Also, one of the other passengers, Dale Stenseth, has his own blog that he updates daily via a satellite link: http://dalestenseth.blogspot.com

I have some photos that I'll try to post next time I have some internet access. My cabin is quite comfortable; small, but nicely appointed.

It's been a fascinating experience so far being able to observe the activities in port and on the water. It's a reminder that so much of what we depend on for our modern life is dependent on a lot of people doing physically demanding jobs.

That's about all I have time for at the moment. Apologies again for being such a miserable correspondent, but I'll do my best to keep you updated and provide a more detailed report in the near future.

If I don't post anything beforehand, Happy New Year!