Helly Hansen

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get,” remarked Richard Mason referring to yet another change in weather as we were sailing out of the Singapore straights.  It was slightly strange the sight of the city almost tricked you into thinking that was the final destination. The bright luminous lights that towered high in the sky from the skyscrapers lit up the night sky and highlighted a smoggy haze that lay over the city. There was a certain excitement in Tigers eyes when he said almost under his breath, “we are getting closer, nearly there.” There was a definite chill that ran up my spine for a second having heard him, realizing how close we were to ‘our home,’ and from how far we had come.

The night settled in and there was more breeze then predicted, which was a welcome change and everyone was upbeat and enjoying the cool air that the evening brought. There are no words to describe the Singapore straights at night. “Grave yard for ships just doesn’t quite cut it,” thought Richard Mason as we took the transom of yet another super tanker. Like a evading a mine field we weaved in and out of huge anchored ships at 14-16k. If you look at the Singapore straights on a map, you will see that its not a wide stretch of water between Singapore and Indonesia but it becomes even a smaller space when you add 60 massive super tankers and park them in the middle. As much as I tried to take photos of all the lights that surrounded us, it doesn’t quite do it justice. “It was not too long ago that these ships were ice burgs in the Southern Ocean, but with the new course brings new challenges,” Richard told the watch on deck, “it’s warmer as well, which is nice!” We now have hooked left and have the decision of either short tacking up the coast near Vietnam or going wide heading east to essentially ‘bang the corner’ or in other words make the heading to Sanya in a single tack.

We shall see, standby,

Andrés