Category Archives: Asia

Welcome to Singapore

Posted on by
10

Singapore is located at the southern tip of mainland Malaysia, between the Johor and Singapore Straits. It is made up of a main island surrounded by 63 much smaller islands. The total square footage of all the islands combined is only 700 square kilometers.

During the colonial era, the Dutch, Portuguese and English were all vying for Asian trading ports. The English set up a few ports in the general area, including one in Malaysia, China (Hong Kong) and Sumatra (Indonesia). Sir Stamford Raffles, a British lieutenant governor, believed Continue reading →

Scary Singapore Shipping

Posted on by
6

For the timing of our entry to Singapore to work out ideally, we needed to cross the main shipping lane at sunrise. It was going to take all day to get to Singapore Harbor, and we wanted to enter the harbor in the day.

Sea conditions had improved slightly by dawn, but conditions were still really miserable. Thanks to slow speeds from adverse wind and currents, we were still miles and miles from the shipping lane. Singapore is a small island just south of the coast of Malaysia. The continental land mass blocks a lot of the wind, so as we got closer and closer to our destination, the waves gradually got smaller, which we were grateful for.

The shipping lane keep traffic separated as it funnels into the port. We could see ships in the lanes ahead hours before we actually reached them. From the distance, it looked like a road on the water, with a consistent flow of huge ships going back and forth in an orderly fashion. The ships were Continue reading →

Days 2-3 from Karimata, Days 11-12 to Singapore

Posted on by
1

Today we hit another huge milestone. We crossed the equator at 11:46 am and are now back in the northern hemisphere. Last time we crossed the equator we skipped the silly ceremonies and celebrated with champagne. This time there was no celebration at all. It was just too rough and we weren’t feeling festive. We simply counted down and then went back to what we were doing once the big moment had passed. Some shellbacks we are.

Sea conditions are Continue reading →

Eric Grab, Pseudo MD for Karimata

Posted on by
4

Lat 1`40.7S Long 108.54.2E
We both got a fitful 10 hours of sleep and felt much better in the morning. We decided not to leave until 1600, giving us a full 24 hours of rest before setting off again.

In the late morning a fishing boat came by. Due to the language barrier, it took us a while to realize that someone was hurt and they wanted our help. One of the younger men, named Weren (sp) spoke English the best and became the interpreter. We decided that Eric should go to shore with the first aid kit and Christi should stay at the boat monitoring the radio. Eric hopped in their boat and they headed toward the structures we could see from Kosmos.

imgp2284-small.JPG

The small village had a lovely beach. There is a dock, and just as the fishermen yesterday told us, the water is much calmer in front of the village. Upon arriving to shore, Eric was taken to a hut where a man had a big gaping wound on the left side of his forehead. They had already Continue reading →

Arriving in Karimata, Indonesia

Posted on by
2

Our good attitude about the “miserable” sea conditions didn’t last long. We were still very aware that it could be worse, but the fact of the matter is it is hard to maintain a good attitude when you are in such misery. Human nature. Sea conditions were identical as reported when we left. The good news is neither of us got sea sick, although Continue reading →