Yesterday we left a little after noon. Sea conditions were phenomenal, with winds ranging from 0 to 5 knots with flat seas, and conditions have pretty much stayed the same as of this writing at 2300 (11:00 pm). Speeds have also been good, averaging 6 ½ knots at 1600 RPM. Christi wasn’t feeling super good yesterday morning, and as the day wore on, she could no longer deny that she had picked up Eric’s cold. Christi is very thankful for the smooth seas, because she is feeling miserable and doesn’t think she could take a miserable ride while feeling miserable.
We went back out to the shipping lane and hugged the edge of it, as we had done on our way in. The farther north we got, the more the lane narrowed. There is a shallow shoal with a sunken ship on it near Port Klang, which further narrows the lane. Eric decided that it was probably better to leave the shipping lane near that area to avoid a congestion of big ships near the shoal. It was already dark. There was no moon out, and like most nights, it was mostly cloudy with few stars peeking through the clouds.
Only a few minutes outside the lane, something that looked like a wall suddenly appeared on our radar directly in front of us. Eric also noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He threw Kosmos in reverse. Christi went outside to have a look. Yup, we had just stuck our nose into a fishing net. The “wall” on radar was the string of tiny buoys holding up the net. Since they were so little, it is a miracle they showed up at all, and no wonder that when they did appear on the screen, it wasn’t until we were literally on top of them.
There was a very small light low on the water several dozen yards away from where we were. This must be the marker for the net. Once we knew what we were looking for, we realized the area was literally a minefield of fishing nets. We opted to go back to the shipping lane, deciding that big, very visible tankers were less worrisome than trying to navigate around almost invisible fishing nets.
The shipping lane ended around 2000 (10:00 pm). From there, the ships fan out in all directions and fishermen are free to put their nets anywhere. The fishermen tend to put their nets out in clusters, so from time to time we have had to navigate around a few minefields of nets, as well as a few tiny traditional fishing boats similar to the ones we saw in Indonesia. And, just like in Indonesia, the fishing boats like to come up very close to us for a look, so as we steer away from them, they just move closer.
Today we have seen a lot of trash floating in the water. In Indonesia, we saw fishing net buoys made out of anything that floats, such as plastic soda containers and pieces of foam. And in Indonesia, half the time the nets don’t have any kind of marker. Anytime we see a few pieces of trash in the same vicinity, we worry it may be attached to a net and proceed cautiously. There are also a few moorings randomly scattered about, which we think is odd.
We usually split watch time evenly, but so far Eric has done the majority of watch time. The cold medicine Christi is taking makes her sleepy, and without it she is so congested that she can’t breathe. Eric has chivalrously let her sleep, just taking couple short naps in the night. He really couldn’t sleep too well, anyway, worrying about cargo ships and nets, and listening to Christi constantly sneeze and loudly blow her nose.
Eric tried some frozen pork dumplings, which are different from what we think of when someone says “dumpling”. It is small pieces of pork marinated in a sweet soy sauce wrapped in a bread roll. The filling was good, but the texture of the bread was weird. The Bread doesn’t do well in the microwave in general, so maybe they would be better baked?