We are in the Gulf of Thailand, heading towards Sihanoukville, Cambodia, where we arrive tomorrow morning. Since I last wrote we sailed from Da Nang, (we could see the dock and harbour this time) and set courses for Phu My. This is the large-ship port for Saigon, or Ho Chi Min city as it is known.
You remember in my last post, I mentioned the cargo ships in Da Nang and one in particular was discharging sub-sea cable? It actually was being loaded onto a barge, one with pipe-laying facilities and this was moored alongside us. While we were preparing for the departure from Da Nang we, on the Bridge, watched the antics of the men working to prepare the cable for the ‘laying’ operation and it brought forth some hilarious comments from us. We adhere to Safe Working Practices, obviously the Vietnamese, (at least in this case), don’t. The riggers were wearing flip-flops (or none at all) and they cared not one jot for fire risk. Not only did they have a huge barbecue burning in an oil drum on the aft deck, the sparks from welding were flying everywhere around the deck, near cans of fuel and 1 man had the task of making sure the cable (and deck) remained fire-free-with a small scoop and a bucket of water 🙂
The cable in the reel
Atop the arch, bare feet and all, no harness for 2 of them
Hey Ho, off we go
Never mind where the sparks fly
No worries, we have a fireman 🙂
From Da Nang, we paralleled the Vietnamese coast, the fishing boats out in the hundreds once more, it’s a wonder there are any fish left in the South China Sea, (or maybe there aren’t)? We make for the estuary of the Sai Gon (sic) river, ships anchored everywhere as make our way towards the pilot boarding ground. Amongst the mass of lights, we make out the lights of the boat and at 4 a.m. he boards. I don’t why we bother picking them up actually, he said little except ‘coffee’ and left the 18-mile channel transit to us, occasionally talking into the VHF, (in Vietnamese), he could have been ordering breakfast for all we knew 😕
A small-scale overview of our route (green) down the Vietnamese coast
Our track, (green) as we approached the estuary. Weaving and dodging the fishing fleets. The small black squares are positions of oil rigs
The up-river passage
and our dock
We fight the tidal current all the way up-river, it’s running up to 2½ knots and still is as we make the approach to the dock; a container berth. It took a few minutes to get the ‘feel’ of the current’s effect and how much power to apply to counteract it and get to the dock, joystick (but of course) and we’re alongside.
I am a bachelor as I write, K1 and K2 are in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, on an overland tour and return tomorrow, (no doubt laden). Saigon was about 40 miles, (65k) from our berth and as a consequence did not go ashore. I’m afraid that you’ll have to put up with some dull photos of the ‘attractive’ berth 🙂
Looking ahead, a bulk carrier is working cargo
On our starboard, (right) side, the container park, nice eh?
In the distance, some hills!
Looking up-river
….and down-river
Finally, the Deck officers during our planning (for the next voyage) meeting. They were embarrassed when I took it 🙂
Once again, I loved the maps and description of your approach. Thanks for being so diligent!
Nice to see some familiar faces on the bridge!
I was thinking that since you are on your own with no shopping bags to carry about, maybe this is the time to get those “rope room” photos??
Your Deck Officers look quite young…
Talking about all the fishing, I can see why we see so much frozen in our stores and it is stamped
china. Maybe it will run dry even farm raised and we will have more from our own country.