Running the gauntlet

I 30/10/2015:  Anchored at 1°17.608'N 103°26.240'E

We have finally left Indonesia behind but not without having to endure no end of red tape, officialdom and expense in order to book Calypso out of the country despite the fact that they've been toting the news that it's now sooooo much easier than it was in the past.  Ha!  If we thought we'd been put through the grind mill before, it doesn't hold a candle to the procedures we experienced this time.  On the positive side, it was all done with a smile and good grace so it's difficult to get too upset.

We went through all this at Nongsa Point Marina on the island of Batam on the southern side of the Singapore Straits which meant that, leaving there, we had that 'grit your teeth' experience of crossing over the lines of traffic which make up the shipping lanes through the Straits.  It's a bit like being a tiny tortoise, attempting to make its way across a busy six-lane highway filled with ginormous monstrosities bearing down on it from all sides only to find that the other side is nothing more than a pool full of crocodiles.  A tad nerve-wracking but we'd done it once before so felt a little more comfortable this time around.   I'll take this opportunity to raise my hat to our dear friend Peter on Troutbridge who made that crossing with us two years ago in his somewhat disabled boat; only one engine working (sort of), no radar, no AIS system and fighting turbulent waters and four knots of currents at various stages.  That took either guts or sheer stupidity.  I'm trusting it was the former, Pete.

Speaking of AIS systems, we now have one, and it works!  Be that as it may, with literally hundreds of vessels plying that freeway, it was impossible to work out who was who.  We'll get a better idea of how it all works going up Malacca Straits which we're just about to do now on our way up to Pangkor in Malaysia.  This new toy of ours has become compulsory in many parts of the world and understandably so.  What peace of mind it offers in so many tricky situations.  For those of you who don't know what it is, AIS stands for Automatic Idenification System and the instrument sends and receives GPS signals giving the receiver information of surrounding vessels e.g. name, country of origin, size, type of vessel, call sign etc.  But most importantly, it also gives position, course over ground, speed and possible collision status.  Simply having the name of the vessel means that one can contact them via VHF radio and solve any potential problematic issues, something that radioing "big ship in the vicinity of.........." never achieved.  Marvellous piece of technology.  There have been many occasions in our years of cruising when it would have saved a few grey hairs.  I have enough already!

This is also how we know the massive size of the many many behemoths that we passed either in the shipping lanes or at anchor.  We came across nearly twenty tankers which were 350 metres long and fifty-eight metres wide with a draft of twenty-one metres. Later, we came across another;  379m long, 68m wide and a draft of 23 metres!  Do you realise how big that is?!  Their draft alone is far deeper than any depth we'd anchor, the deck the size of three and 3/4 rugby fields and the width over five times the length of Calypso!  They are massive and, boy, can they move.  One minute a distant blob; the next, so close they block the sun.  We feel so little.