Goodbye Singapore, hello Indonesia/Malaysia. We awoke from a sound sleep this morning to the smokey, sweet smell of wood smoke. We are sailing NW in a narrow stretch of water in the Straits of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia and apparently every year for about three months, the farmers in Indonesia burn their fields to clear them of unwanted vegetation. The smoke leaves a haze on the water for literally hundreds of miles, it was there early this morning and is still there at three in the afternoon. The ship has travelled at least 140 miles and we have not seen the sun yet.
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The couple in the next cabin to us returned from a land tour of China yesterday, as did about 120 others. It is an exhausting four days but if you want to see a bit of China and doubt that you will be by here again, it's the thing to do. On the flight back to Singapore they had some kafuffle on the flight about a medical emergency. It turns out that that was just after the time that the missing plane disappeared somewhere in the general area of Vietnam that they were flying in. The gent expressed concern at the time that they were going to be diverted and miss the ship and have a somewhat exciting time catching up with it as the ship has to keep on schedule and the cost of transporting those 100 people would be less than the financial cost of getting off schedule.There was a medical emergency on the plane and he was wondering if it was a 'cover' for the missing plane concern. Who knows?
Pull out a map sometime and take a look at where we are because it is a very intense part of the world. As and aside do you know that Indonesia has over 300,000,000 people in an area that looks to be about three to four times the size of Vancouver Island?
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Flotsam and Jetsam…While out on deck this morning we are appalled by the amount of debris floating by us. Every few yards there would be something floating and also some ugly stuff drifting just below the surface: bottles, bags, styrofoam in all sizes and shapes, fishing floats, sticks, ropes, tarps, etc. There was obviously some river or current situation involved in it but there was one word for it and it was revolting. We were well off shore, maybe by 20 or 30 miles, Malaysia to the north and Indonesia to the south.
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The ship's movie showing in the Big Screen the first day and then in the cabin TVs the second day was 'Captain Phillips', the story of the container ship boarded and captured by pirates off of Africa. I thought that is was a rather strange choice inasmuch as we are the area where high-seas pirating is prevalent, however for some reason no passenger ships have been involved to date.
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Nautical terms found in every-day usage.
Skyscraper: A small triangular sail set above the skysail in order to maximize effect in a light wind.
Pics:
- It seems the right thing to do to wave at a ship pulling out of port. This Chinese Gambling Ship does a three day circuit in the area.
- Some wonderful Singapore architecture to behold.
- Some philosopher down the hall from us posts relevant sayings for our amusement.
- My wall map and the progress to Ceylon, [Sri Lanka] and then to Cape Town. We move about an inch a day when underway, so it is three days sail from the end of the red line to Ceylon.
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