Ducking and Diving Between Supertankers

The 3 AM Watch: Dodging & Dashing

Matt and I soon settled into a routine—mostly motoring and motor-sailing, as we still hadn't found enough wind to truly sail. I emerged for my first early watch change at 3 AM - Matt handed over the controls; “…the usual, dodging fishing boats hiding amongst the anchored cargo ships. BTW we are about half an hour from our planned crossing point for the shipping lanes…”

The Unseen Hazards of the Lanes

I passed five massive ships across the northbound lane, then swung right to negotiate entry into the southbound lane. Everything was good... or so I thought. There they were - fishing boats, lit up like the stern of a cargo ship, heading north in the southbound lane (so deceptive). In one particular case I had to alter course significantly to avoid another floating, stadium-lit longtail. What baffles me is how the massive ships simply carve through these boats. They can't possibly see them (no AIS, nor visible on radar), and the fishermen's tactic of shining a lone green light at a tanker either confuses the bridge or encourages a mowing-down.

Despite all the different lights and the lack of moonlight, my tiredness was quickly overcome. I was seeing a relentless stream of traffic steaming up and down the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). At least there won't be fishing boats in the shipping lanes. The TSS was only five nautical miles wide, with a 1.5 knot cross-current. After reviewing the radar and AIS, I watched for a gap in the northbound traffic before making a dash for it. It wasn't really a "dash" given the headwind, current, and our boat speed—it would take an hour to cross at a right angle to the lane.

Stress-Free Sunrise

Thankfully, with sunrise, the fishermen headed for home, leaving Matt and me to a steady, stress-free run around Singapore – even though there are hundreds of ships on the go. The cargo ships and super tankers were now a welcome sight; although, initially disconcerting to be passed either side so frequently, at least they held their course precisely and passed with a comfortable gap of several hundred metres. If the wall-to-wall channel 16 chatter was anything to go by, I even believed that every deck watch officer was fully awake and had seen us (hopefully).

Next time, I’ll report on our first sail – the Windy app is promising some wind at last, or I’ll report how our fuel consumption fares…