Suddenly after not seeing a ship for days we are amongst tens of ships streaming to and from Singapore in the busiest shipping lane in the world. It was a warm breezy morning, ideal for taking the binoculars up on deck and watching the myriad ships passing by of all shapes and sizes but the majority carrying piles of containers.
Once we had picked up the pilot, we sailed for nearly an hour through long lines of vessels at anchor off Singapore harbour, either waiting for their turn to berth or simply awaiting a cargo. Clearly the world recession has not yet recovered sufficiently to fill the vast tonnage of ships already available and yet the size of the largest container ships keeps going up with the latest taking over 16,000, 40ton containers!! What is more disturbing is the speed at which these vast ships travel. I have spent many an hour watching as they pass us as if we are in the slow lane!
Even as we slowed to take on the pilot one of these leviathans had to do a sharp ‘left-hand-down-a-bit’ to avoid taking us in the stern!! Was the Captain giving hand signals I wonder!
Safely through this flotilla of vessels we sailed majestically into the harbour with the wonderful skyline and berthed at the huge new cruise shown in the photo .
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