Beautiful weather and calm seas accompanied us as we made our way north towards the Yangon River estuary and the port of Thiwala, Burma or Myanmar. This lies 16 miles, or 30 kms south of Yangon itself, or Rangoon as it was known in its colonial days. After Thiwala, the river becomes too shallow for the likes of us and besides, there are no berths large enough.
We were scheduling our arrival at the pilot station for 0400. The Navigation officers having to spend most of the night weaving amongst the fishing boats and, in the last 20 miles, rafts of nets, miles long, which stretched across our path.
Our track, the straight line and our course around the nets, rafts and boats.
Our pilot time had been calculated to the minute, for ahead of us, in the river itself, lies shallow water and sandbanks, we needed to be on High Water when we crossed them, no High Water, no pass over it, easy peasy.
The river’s depth and sandbanks are changing continually and the charts are good for reference, however it is the pilots who know where the sand and mud has shifted and consequently the track we should take.
Having embarked our 2 pilots at 0400, on the dot, we set a speed to be off the dock at 0730, more or less slack water, (for the uninitiated, this is when the tide changes and there is little or no current), this would take the current, which reaches up to 6 knots, out of the equation when docking. The flood tide was pushing us along and the pilots, who are ex-Navy officers, were knowledgeable and polite. We struck up a good rapport, always necessary in such circumstances and the passage up-river was, as a result, relaxed and precise.
A section of the river passage. White areas are deeper water, blue are shallow; the solid black is our track, seemingly over shallow areas, however because of shifting, is actually deep enough for transit.
All this was done in darkness, of course; however the sun eventually poked her head out to the east and the shoreline’s sights became visible. It was already in the 80’s F, the high 20’s C and was forecast to go into the 100’s, or around 40 C in the afternoon. The humidity was tangible, even my photos looked as if the lens was fogged up, however it was not the case.
The docking, as predicted was at virtually slack water and we slid into the berth at 0800.
Sun rising over the mud banks
Passing a sleepy village, the morning air thick with wood smoke and humidity
A ‘Floating Pagoda’. Villagers put gifts on it, food and candles; it is pushed into the river and off it floats, to who knows where.
Rice fields cover the entire west bank. It is waiting for April/May to grow and become green.
Early morning fishermen
Passing a ship-breaking yard; they will soon be cars or razor blades.
The muddy river
The current can be seen on the bow of the ship ahead.
A Pakistani frigate docks ahead of us, in the afternoon.
A band to greet them
One has to wonder why they’re wearing life-jackets
Our buses await.
And so, tomorrow, I hope to be able to post some photos of Rangoon/Yangon. Having started my day at 0300, I was too tired to spend a day in the city; tomorrow however is a different story. We have to take a shuttle bus from the gangway to the main gate and then arrange our taxi transport. Around $70 U.S. for a driver, the entire day, not bad at all and I look forward to posting the sights of Yangon.
