Crossing the Ship-Saturated Singapore Strait - Raffles Marina, Singapore
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 19 Nov 2010 14:26
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01:20.618N 103:38.068E
We've heard that the Singapore Strait is the busiest seaway in
the world. We believe it. The AIS (Automatic Information System)
software we use conveys to our electronic chart a ship's name, position,
destination, course, heading, speed, and most importantly, how close it
will come to our position. Even while anchored next to Kepalajerih
Island and technically still in Indonesia, AIS was showing us plenty
of ships on our chart - all traveling in the east- or west-bound
strait traffic lanes at speeds up to 20 knots or entering/exiting the
various Singapore ports, or sitting at anchor. Back in January of
2008, as we approached the Panama Canal just before daybreak, I remember Don
waking me up early so I could help him navigate through the 50 or so ships
that were anchored or entering/exiting the canal at the time.
Ha! 50 ships. A cake walk.
On the morning of October 19th, as we motored the short
distance north toward the east-bound lane of Singapore Strait traffic, about 200
ships popped up on our chart. Two hundred. It's
possible there were more, but I didn't have time to count them and
keep the captain in the cockpit thoroughly informed of potential
collisions all at the same time. Below is a picture of our chart as
we approached the ship-saturated strait:
 The blue triangles are ships. The end of the blue lines
extending out from the blue triangles indicate where the ships will be
in 10 minutes time. The orange rectangles contain the names of the
ships. Our boat is the blue triangle with the green circle in it,
positioned just to the left of center and sitting near the northern tip of
Kepalajerih Island toward the bottom of the chart. The island of
Singapore is completely hidden by all the ships (and yes, Singapore is an
island as well as a city and a country, for those of you like me, I'm
embarrassed to admit, that didn't know until a few months ago that Singapore is
more than just a city).
We set off north toward the straight at 7am with Storyteller a
little ahead of us and Priscilla behind. As we approached the east-bound
lane of traffic, we decided to wait until the four ships heading our way passed
us by before attempting to cross. But then we saw Storyteller out in
front, full steam ahead, crossing the channel, and in true competitive boat
fashion decided we should do the same (never mind that their trawler engine is
about 60,000 times more powerful than our measly 75 hp job). Off we went
as I positioned myself in front of the computer and Don remained at the
helm. The conversation went something like this:
Don: How are we doing?
Anne: The freighter that will come closest
to us is 800 feet long, traveling at 20 knots and will come
within 0.06 miles in 10 minutes.
Don: Ok.
Anne: Isn't that a little close?
- pause -
Don: I changed our course to port a little bit, how does
it look now?
Anne: 0.10 miles in 8 minutes.
Don: How about now?
Anne: 0.15 miles in 6 minutes.
- five minutes pass -
Anne: How does it look?
Don: Close.
Anne: How close?
Don: Not as close as it did when it was pointed at us a
few minutes ago.
Anne pops up in the companionway to see the side of a very
large Scandinavian freighter chugging east as Harmonie continues north across
the channel.
- Shew - one down, 199 to go... -
Don: What's next?
Anne: A tanker, 400 feet long, traveling at 10
knots will get as close as 0.16 miles in 6 minutes.
And so it went for the intense four hours it took us to
cross the east- and west-bound lanes of traffic, steer through dozens of
anchored ships, and dodge a steady stream of tugboats towing barges, ships
entering and exiting the various Singapore ports and pilot boats
zipping local pilots to and fro in the fray. Not to mention the two
or three Singapore air force jets that felt the need to circle the tiny island
nation every half-hour or so presumably looking for bad guys like
us.
 Ships anchored in the hazy Singapore Strait.
All good stories have a happy ending, so let's just say that
all nerves frayed during our frenzied ride across the
strait were immediately soothed upon our arrival at the
famed Raffles Marina on the west coast of Singapore. We had planned to
cross the Singapore Strait and go directly to Danga Bay on the Malaysian side of
Johor Strait (the very narrow strait that separates Singapore and the tip
of Malaysia) until we learned that the brand new Danga Bay Marina did not
yet have power available on the dock. At least at anchor, the occasional
breeze will blow through the bow hatch and float through the rest of the
boat. In a marina in this climate, all bets are off, and true sweltering
will reign unless the air conditioning is on. In the end, the lure of an
air conditioned boat connected to shore power took us to
Raffles. We never looked back.
 Raffles Marina. Not too bad. For $35/day, we not
only got a very nice slip with reliable power, but the pool, gym, bowling alley,
showers and laundry room were also at our disposal. We stayed the
full 14 days our provisional Singapore visas allowed - AC running full
blast the entire time. Aaaaahhhhhhh.
More on our stay in Singapore and the arrival of our guests
later.
Anne
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