The weather has been more kind to us as we made our way south towards this bustling Chinese city.  Just as well, as this is still our President’s week and a plethora of events, dinners and lunches.  Here in Shanghai, our President disembarks and I complete ‘eating my way’ around China  🙂  

One thing I have learned while in these waters and that is never to presume that a ‘port-side Charlie’, or a vessel which is on a steady bearing and therefore should obey the Collision regulations and give-way to us, will do so. These local ships have little or no idea of what to do and when, as a consequence, on our way south I and the watch-officers had a continual concern and thus took ‘early and substantial’ action to avoid these ‘cowboys’. We had numerous potential incidents which necessitated us doing so.

Added to the vast amount of commercial shipping were the fishing boats, literally hundreds, with their nets marked by buoys, the Yellow Sea is more akin to a minefield.  

As we approached the periphery of the Shanghai approach yesterday (25th) afternoon, we supplemented the Bridge watch, in fact going to our highest level as the amount of shipping traffic, large and small, increased exponentially and we needed additional eyes on radars and lookout to cope with the mass of vessels which were moving  around the entrance to the port.  We tucked in astern of an inward-bound tanker and bulk-carrier ahead of her and, having boarded our 2 pilots, joined a ‘convoy’ of inward-bound ships, ¾ of a mile apart, an endless stream as far as the eye could see, (or, more accurately, as far as the radar could see).  

Outward-bound ships were similarly passing us in much the same manner, passing a mere 150 yards as the channel is narrow.  We had a 9-hour passage ahead of us, all of it under intense navigational conditions and, having boarded our pilots at 6:30 p.m. we could expect to dock around 3 a.m.  Shanghai lies on the Huang Pu river, a tributary of the Yangtze river; its banks are lined with mile-after-mile of docks, shipyards and wharves.  

I have never seen so many warships docked in one area, scores of them, no wonder the Chinese Navy is prevalent in the China sea.  Added to the mix of large commercial ships are the barges and small ‘coastal’ ships, they are everywhere, moving up and down the river.  Despite all this, the passage is reasonably good; the pilots, speaking excellent English and who had obviously been trained in Bridge Resource Management, made pleasant conversation and were very friendly.  

Here is the time-lapse.  I have cut the outer channels, (you don’t need to see 4-hours of pitch black; here is the more interesting sections………

They were fascinated with our ‘joystick’, the computerised system which one can use to manoeuvre. They took photographs and asked endless questions as Thomas docked the ship.  So it was, at 2:50 a.m.we docked in this exciting, vibrant city.

 

I get to bed at 4 a.m. and sleep the sleep of the dead, it has been a long day and night.  

Aah, coffee 🙂 I wake briefly as Karen prepares for her day ashore and then fall back into a deep sleep; a brisk shower, a large shot of caffeine and ready to face another day.  Thankfully, the email is lacking in new business, at least nothing that requires too much concentration.  I  clear my desk and then pop to the Bridge for some daytime photos for you; it’s not too clear, a light smog hangs over the city however i should be grateful, 3 weeks ago the port was closed because it was too thick, some cruise ships had to hang around outside for days, until it cleared.  So, here are some shots of our berth and view……

🙂

 I have (optimistically) titled this post “day 1”, I hope to post another tomorrow, time permitting and I also hope to take my camera ashore this evening.  Karen did so today and, if she managed to take any while she was undoubtedly shopping 😯 , I will post those too. Fingers crossed……..